Why can you tell if a movie is good just by the intro music?

Are we talking in a strict budget sense here, or do you sincerely believe that you can judge the story and the cinematography of a movie by listening to a song?

Otherwise, the answer seems obvious. You think good movies equals big budget, and those movies can afford better soundtracks.

You know I have not thought of it in that way before however I had been contiplating something simalar at work not long ago. I work for a fancy 333 guest room hotel in a Western Canadian city. It is a nice place to work and we have had the pleasure to accomidate many celebrities and notable people. Everyone from the President of the United States and recently Lady Gaga. 

Occasionally when I am walking the hallways of the hotel I hear certain pieces of music. I do not know much about classical music but I believe you would call these classical scores. Things like the sound track to Star Wars is what I am referring too. When I hear certain pieces I think to myself this would make a great movie sound track and if there was a movie with that as the sound track I would watch it. I distinctly recall one day hearing one song that reminded me of an old classic black and white film. It was such a great piece of music that I wanted to go home from work and watch a great old movie.

There is a good chance that if the intro and intro music is bad the movie will be too.

@ Heavenfall. I am not talking about budget. I have seen plenty of great low budget films with great sound tracks. My country makes many. In fact I prefer some of them over the big name Hollywood blockbusters.

If you want to watch a great but sad short film with nice sound watch this film. If your idea of good movies is the Hollywood action films you probably will not enjoy this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh7sQ4hPnyk

Interesting thoughts.....

Yes i suppose both budget and talent would play significant parts in movies with good intro music.

But what i am most curious about are movies with crap intro music? It just doesn't make any sense to me at all that i can so easily and instantly tell the intro music is crap, and yet somone someware making that movie, decided that is the intro music they want? Did they not have more than one person in the music selection process, and did they even listen to it before releasing the movie? And if they did listen to it, then how, how can they not notice how shit it is? really, this is at the heart of my frustration in trying to understand this issue?

Edit: I do suppose this answers it's own question to some degree..... given the poor judgment that led to the shit intro music, then this very same poor judgment will also be responsible for the shit movie that follows, hence this is why you can always tell a shit movie by the intro music!!!

If you think of "a movie" as the grand sum of all its parts, then if the music is bad, the movie will be perceived as bad. I have seen plenty of movies with good stories and cinematography, but bad music (star trek). I have also seen plenty of bad stories with good music (avatar).

The heart of the movie is controlled by one person. That person likes certain 'ways'. And so it shall be from the very beginning, to the very end.  Yeah baby.

I disagree; while some movies are bad all the way through, often enough the start of the film is decent, and it teeters off into craps-ville about half way through when it becomes clear the writer and director didn't have a good enough grasp on the tone of the film, it's characters or emotional flow of the film to engage an audience for the duration.

Dare Devil, for example, had a decent enough opening and then became fucking horrible about thirty or so minutes in.  The Director's Cut is actually amazingly better - in case anyone wants to watch it - however the music in Dare Devil is pretty damn good, even in the theatrical release.

I can tell a film is going to be utter garbage crap after the first 10 minutes; they have that long to engage me, and make me want to watch the rest of the film.  Quantom of Solace, for example, failed to make me interested in it's high speed car chase opening scene though it's terrible cinematography and camera work; it only go worse from there, and I knew it sucked before the first ten minutes.

After that 10 minute opening, they have to maintain that level of interest throughout.  Some films don't, like the aforementioned Dare Devil, can't and instead of being garbage like Quantom of Solace, they're just disappointing.  Some films maintain it all the way through, like Avatar, where even though the story isn't amazing, you want to see what's coming next.  Other films maintain it so well, that you wish the film didn't end - these are the great ones.  The ones that end, and the moment it's over you want to watch it again are the classics; Terminator 2, Fight Club, etc.

"If you think of "a movie" as the grand sum of all its parts, then if the music is bad, the movie will be perceived as bad. I have seen plenty of movies with good stories and cinematography, but bad music (star trek). I have also seen plenty of bad stories with good music (avatar)."

Perhaps but I do not remember the music of Start Trek but I do remember liking the movie. As far as avatar is concerned I thought everything about that was crap. I did not even watch it to the end. I endured it for about a half and hour.

My memory on specific movies is terrible but I think what i am talking about here is the really crappy movies, such as Superman4, the kind of movies that when they are new release in the video store, only 1 copy is put on the shelf!! Whereas movies such as star trek, Avatar or Quantum of Solace are still generally entertaining to a vast number of people.

Star Trek's introductory song or music is the best I've heard in the sci/fi genre. It became a blue print for the rest. 

But, we all have our own taste. Personally, I liked nothing of Avatar. Except for the "aliens appearance".

And I haven't heard an old black and white classic I haven't loved. Just maybe, some more than others.

Opening music scores don't do much for me...the content of the movie does! I like old b & w classics when they were required to ACTUALLY act and foreign films. Nope, reading subtitles isn't a problem as long as it's a good story either. Some of the best movies I've seen had an "okay" opening score but If I'd left the theater or turned it off due to the intro...I'd have missed out on something good.

I would never give up on a film because of the intro music, but i do think to myself "oh god, why did they use that intro music?" and immediately my heart sinks with disappointment and although i do hold out hope the movie is still good, that just never seems to happen. I suppose the intro music is supposed to set the tone of the movie, therefore if the intro music is boring.... well yea!

Another interesting thing back when i was regularly hiring weekly video's .... I came to realize that any film that had won any European film festival was sure to be shit without fail!  I would actually be looking on the back of the video to see if it had, and i would then put it back on the shelf if yes. Weird eh?

As for the only 1 copy of new release rule, that usually never fails to deliver a shit movie either in most cases. The only exception i can remember is a movie called 'Amistad'. This movie was so powerful it blew my socks off! and i was definitely not expecting that, after all, i had never heard a peep about this movie in the media, it just appeared all by itself in the Video store one day, just 1 copy only. I really cannot understand to this day how such a movie could basically go unnoticed by the world??

Basing subjective opinions on subjective opinions? Hmmmm...

The Op is blind...hence the pre-occupation with audio.

Am I the only one to realize? ....;p

A rather disconnected remark, but however here is an interesting article for you;

by Madeline Goldstein

Blindness is the complete lack of form and light perception.  Most people believe that we see with our eyes.  The fact is, however, that it is our brain that “perceives” what we think we see.  These famous blind people have changed and shaped the world in many areas such as music, politics, science, art and sport because they refused to allow their lack of external light perception to quench or stifle their inner light. The world has been illuminated by their courage and talent.  

• Helen Keller - (June 27, 1880-June 1, 1968) Helen Keller was an American author, activist and lecturer who was the first deaf/blind person to graduate from college. She was a tireless advocate for people with disabilities and numerous other causes.
• Stevie Wonder – (Born May 13, 1950)  Stevie Wonder is an American singer-songwriter-record producer and multi-instrumentalist. A list of famous blind people wouldn't be complete without this composer's name. Wonder penned such hits as "Ebony and Ivory" that aided the civil rights cause in a non-violent way.
• Ray Charles - (September 23, 1930-June 10, 2004) Ray Charles was an American pianist and musician whose gritty and soulful voice shaped the sound of rhythm and blues.
• Claude Monet - (November 14, 1840-December 5, 1926) Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting. By 1907, he had become quite famous, but began having serious problems with his eyesight and started to go blind.  Even though his eyes continued to get worse, he never stopped painting.  At the end of his life, when he was almost completely blind, he painted one of his most famous murals of water lilies.
• Andrea Bocelli - (Born 22 September 1958) Andrea Bocelli became blind at the age of 12 years old following a football accident. He was a multi-instrumentalist and has sung with other great operatic singers such as Pavarotti.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt - (January 30, 1882 -April 12, 1945) Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States of America. Roosevelt had several disabilities including vision impairment.  He was one of the most popular presidents in history.
• Thomas Gore - (December 10, 1870-March 16, 1949) Thomas Gore was a Democratic politician. He became blind as a child, but never gave up his dream of becoming a senator. In 1907, he was one of the first two senators from the new state of Oklahoma. He was re-elected twice more. He was famous as a member of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
• Harriet Tubman - (1820/21-March 1913) Harriet Tubman was a slave throughout her youth who escaped to Canada but returned to the U.S. where she helped bring hundreds of black slaves to safety in what was called the Underground Railroad.  She received a cruel head wound which led to severe vision impairment and seizures.  This did not stop her from fighting for the freedom of her people.
• Louis Braille - (January 4, 1809-January 6, 1852) Louis Braille accidentally stabbed himself in the eye, becoming blind from this injury.  He was the inventor and designer of Braille writing which enables blind people to read from a series of organized bumps.
• Marla Runyan - (Born January 4, 1969) Marla Runyan is a marathon runner who is legally blind. She is the three-time national champion in the women's 5.000 meter run. Runyan was the first legally blind athlete to compete in the Olympics Games.  She placed eighth in the 1,500-meter in the 2000 Sydney Olympics making it the highest finish by an American woman in that event. In 2002 she finished as the top American at the 2002 New York City Marathon to post the second-fastest debut time ever by an American woman.

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Disaboom

I've seen some really pathetic footage trying to hide in plain sight beside rocking sound tracks so I must disagree with the OP. I feel like murdering someone when I see a great song apprpriated in this manner. It's like the director (or whoever) is trying to trick people into thinking the movie is not crap. If it didn't work on so many people I'd be less angry

Your not actually 'disagreeing' with me by the way, what your talking about is an issue on a different end of the spectrum for which i have no specific disagreement.

OK....to answer the Op directly....

You can't.

Jafo is Deaf, hence the preoccupation with not being able to tell a good movie by the intro music

Am i the only one to realize?.....

Agreed

Edit: Apologies Jafo....  but at least this post gave me a good laugh!! Thanks.

you can't tell how good a film is, since thats not even possible after watching the thing. critics may think they're gods gift to the world, but the fact is, every movie affects different people differently and there will always people be disliking or liking one.

but you might be able to determine if its a film YOU'd like. yet probably not just by listening to the music, but watching the intro itself with the music. the intro is part of the movie like everything else, and if it's done in a way that suits you, the same can maybe be applied to the rest of the film.

Anyway, even a few seconds of a movie can often be very telling. When I still had a television I used to zap around alot and watch lots of tv shows. after a while I could recognize my favourite shows in an instant, without even seeing the actors or any other reference points. like matrix has its green pumped up, most shows/movies have a few subtle telltale signs (camera positioning, edited in background noise, music by the same componist, etc) by which they can be identified, from which the coloring/saturation like in matrix is only one of the most obvious, others we don't even consciously detect.

I think i understand now what i have not made clear about my point....  I do not sit and know if each and every movie i watch is good or bad just by hearing the intro music - most movies it is inconclusive. But of the few brilliant movies and crap movies that i see, it is always so easy to identify them just by the intro music. There is something 'instinctive' or 'intuitive' about how i am able to tell a movie is crap from the intro music. And as i said earlier, it is curious to me that if i can tell it is crap just from the intro music, then how come the producers of that crap movie could not see this for themselves? As discussed earlier, possibly a combination of budget pressure and lack of talent?

What you mention about zipping around on the TV reminded me of something i used to do when i was younger.... I used to get a long play video tape (before computers/Internet popularity) and record Rage or Video Hits. Then i would zip through the tape later on and listen to the first second or so of each song before fast forwarding to the next song. I only need to hear about 2 seconds of each song to know it is crap 99% of the time, but not 'crap' actually, yes plenty were crap, but also i was skipping all the ok songs as well.... because what i was looking for were 'good' songs! Once i have found good songs on the tape i will put them on cassette for identification and then buy the album/single. I do similar thing on computer - i just download tons of music then zip through it, and see if anything is good. Typically, if i download 100 songs, i will be lucky to keep 3 of them!

My friends have told me i am quite fussy with music, infact If Earth was about to be destroyed and i was escaping on a spaceship and i was asked to choose all the best music from our planets entire history and fit on just one disk (mp3, not wave) as the only record of music to survive... i would say, "no problem at all, i will be back in five seconds, here you go, and look, there is space left over to fit some games!!

con·tra·dic·tion

[kon-truh-dik-shuhn]

–noun

I am always so amused to instantly know a movie is either good or bad

I do not sit and know if each and every movie i watch is good or bad just by hearing the intro music

most movies it is inconclusive

 it is always so easy to identify them just by the intro music