Sideways440

Why How To Train Your Dragon Has The Best Opening Ever

It's finally here!

After so many requests for this video, I finally got around to watching the third film.
I actually had the first two films sitting on my shelf for a good year, and with the third one having just come out blu-ray, I figured now was the time.

It was tons of fun going through these films.  I'm 100% sure that this video isn't a comprehensive analysis of EVERY musical idea that Powell put in the score, I might have to revisit this film series in the future....

Why How To Train Your Dragon Has The Best Opening Ever

This is the early access post for "Why How To Train Your Dragon Has The Best Opening Ever."  You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Well I think we've all known that this was a long time coming.

I absolutely love this film series, and as a giant John Powell fan it was a win/win situation.

As it stands the video doesn't have as many musical examples as I'd like, but after last month's copyright fiasco I err...

September Request Post

Alright, if you have something you've wanted to see me talk about in a video, here's your chance to throw it my way.


Also, just in case you've been requesting a certain topic for a couple months now and haven't seen it in a video, I wanna let you all know what topics I've been actively researching to see if I can include them in future videos:

Literally anything Sondheim

Wendy Carlos

Avatar the Last Airbender

Lost

Game of Thrones

How to Listen to Music Incorrectly and find Superman in the Avengers

So I feel like I say this all the time.

But to date, this video has given me the most trouble with the copyright bot, and I'm not holding my breath on being able to keep that monitization status for very long.

I think it has something to do with a lot of people re-uploading pirated copies of this exact scene for weeks in-between the theatrical release and the home release.
I'm not entirely sure if it's the subject matter of the video or the bot being overly sensitive, but I've ...

How to Listen to Music Incorrectly and find Superman in the Avengers

EDIT: So this video's getting hammered by copyright, I think it's a leftover from when they were trying to stop people from uploading pirated scenes before the home release.  Either way, I've had to mute a lot of the audio and video in this video to get by so if the screen goes black or if there's silence that's why.  I'm currently working on a solution, but for the mean time you all will still have access to whatever I can get by the bot.


This is the early access post fo...

August Request Post

So considering how Endgame just came out on digital, and I'll have access to the Blu-ray in another week or two, I have a feeling I know where this month's requests are gonna go.

But either way, this is your opportunity for me to cover something you're interested in, that I haven't covered in a video yet.

Do your worst!

The Problem With Tarazan

Alright, I'll be the first one to say this, but I wanted to try something different with this video.

I'm not quite sure you could call this a "hot take" but I wanted to be a little more assertive in trying to get the message across, because I knew that criticizing one of the Disney classics was going to get a lot of push-back.

This is honestly one of those videos that never really gets finished, it's just one you have to release to the wild once you've run out of time.
I'm sure...

The Problem WithTarzan

This is the early access post got "The Problem With Tarzan." You should not be charged for the post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

The *one* time I look at the comments section and it's filled with people who are upset about something that I disagree with...soooooooo here we are.

But honestly, I really liked making this video, I think it serves as a really good follow up to my last one, lots of similar points, but from a different perspective, and wi...

July Request Post

I think I have a good idea of what people are wanting to hear me talk about based on all the comments and replies from the last video.
LOTS of people want me to talk about their favorite musical, and some are talking about Endgame because it's coming out on Blu-Ray at the end of the month.

Either way, you know what to do

Do your worst!


Also, P.S. I keep seeing people asking me the same question month after month, and I haven't been able to address it. &nb...

What Makes Disney Music Sound Nostalgic

So, uhh, beyond a 2 hour nap at some point I haven't really slept in about 36 hours.

I was really happy working on this video, I've always been a Disney fan.
But I knew from the get-go that I was going to have to deal with the copyright bot.

So I've been spending all night and like, all today retweaking certain parts of the video to try and get it past the bot.

I haven't checked my email, but I'm relatively certain that even with all the effort, that it either already has...

What Makes Disney Music Sound Nostalgic

This is the early access post for "What Makes Disney Music Sound Nostalgic."  You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Well ho-ly crap, this video was a ton of work, if for nothing else than just collecting all the footage.

As you can imagine, I'm pretty concerned about the copyright-bot flagging it, so I'm kinda expecting to have to deal with some bureaucratic shenanigans.

I might have to get creative as to how I'm act...

June Request Post

Go ahead and respond to this post with whatever you might wanna see me talk about it an upcoming video.

Do your worst!

The Musical Secrets of Silent Film

Would it be too meta if I just left this part blank and let you guys talk about the video?

Or would that be more of a 4'33" joke?

Either way, this video was super fun to make, because I got to sit around and watch a bunch of movies I'd never heard of before.

But for real though, this is a topic that I'm probably going to come back to at some point, just because there's SO much information thanks to the internet now.

Tons of people are talking, it's gonna be ...

The Musical Secrets of Silent Film

This is the early access post for "The Musical Secrets of Silent Film."  You should not be charged for this, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I've been waiting for an excuse to talk about this for a LOOOONG time.

I think the name is really what turns people away, they think "oh, silent films, no music" and they disregard the effect that they had on the scoring world at large.

It really is an untapped gold mine of information.

If you...

May Request Post

This is the May request post

This is your opportunity to request a certain topic for a video, or ask a question that you might want to see me address in a future video.

So respond to this post with all of your video requests/questions and be sure to include your deepest, darkest secrets.

Thanks!

How Trailer Music Tricks You

Are we in movie month?  Cuz it feels like we're in movie month.

Endgame, Game of Thrones, that new Godzilla movie, I really liked Hellboy, Shazam! was awesome, and now there's a new Star Wars trailer.

It's a lot to digest, but after doing some googling, the world of trailer music can quickly become a MASSIVE rabbit hole.  I actually ended up cutting things out of this video just because I didn't want it to go for too long.

If you have a favorite trailer, I'd st...

How Trailer Music Tricks You

This is the early access post for "How Trailer Music Tricks You."  You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

This has to be the definition of a rabbit hole, holy crap! (pun, definitely intended).
I always had some kind of sneaking suspicion of production and library music, but I didn't know that it had spread as far as it did, or had such a massive impact on the soundtrack landscape!
Since doing the research for this...

April Request Post

Alright, let'em rip

And by that I mean send me questions/requests that you might wanna see me talk about in an upcoming video
Or, ya know, don't, I'm not your boss I can't make you do anything

But for real though, if you wanna ask me a question but don't feel comfortable asking it in a public form like this, you can send me a DM on patreon and I can get it from there if you want, just a thought.

The Sound of the Spider-Verse

Well hot damn if I didn't love this movie.

Like, for real, I know I don't really ever shut up about superheros and stuff.

But this was such a kickass film.

I think the team behind it did a phenomenal job, and I'm pretty sure that over the weeks I'm going to find more and more things that I inevitably missed in this bundle of raw TLC.

Speaking of which, if any of you find more things about this film that I didn't mention, please, by all means, comment it below, or if yo...

The Sound of the Spider-Verse

This is the early access post for "A Journey into the Spiderverse."  You should not be charged for this, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

So fair warning, I'm expecting this video to give me a fair amount of trouble with the YouTube copyright bot, I might have to get creative with how I upload it/make it public.

Which is a real shame, because I absolutely loved this film.  With the wash of superhero films and the formulaic Marvel movies coming...

March Request Post

You know what to do, send me all your deep dark desires for a YouTube video.

Also, I wanna mention something, so when I first brought up the idea for requests I mentioned that if anyone had a question that wouldn't make it into its own video, that I might just respond to their question directly.  Now I know I haven't gotten around to it yet, because some of those questions might still make sense within the context of other videos, but I'm getting around to shooting out my first ro...

West Side Story: An Unappreciated Masterpiece

It finally happened!  We're now in the world of musicals!

But really though, this was a lot of fun to go through.
Unlike a lot of my videos, there was actually a ton of information already out there on this work, probably due to Bernstein's popularity.
But because there was so much already out there, I actually haven't covered everything in just one video (that means we can maybe come back to it if enough people want me to).

Nevertheless, I really liked coming back to...

West Side Story: An Unappreciated Masterpiece

This is the early access post for "West Side Story: An Unappreciated Masterpiece."  You should not be charged for this, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

So in earnest, I'm really happy that I started getting messages and requests for musicals, because for the longest time I had heard that there was something about this musical that academics loved.

Like, for example, my composition professor had it on the mandatory listening list that he handed out...

February Request Post

Well, I don't know about you all, but I'm having a ton of fun looking at your requests and figuring out how to put them into videos.

I wanna try to figure out how to get together some kind of public poll where you can add ideas that others can vote on, or maybe I have my patrons' ideas be the poll that non-patrons vote on?  I'm still not sure.

Either way, I think this is working out great for the both of us.
So send me your requests, and don't worry about whether or not ...

How to Find the Magic in Music

Well this one was tons of fun to make.
It isn't everyday that you get to join YouTube drama with music therapy, and debunking popular myths.

I had a ton of fun making it, although I fear that my recommended page is going to be really "relaxed" and "chilled" for the next few weeks, eh, worth it.

Also, I feel like this was a really great demonstration of the new request system we're trying.  I always saw these videos floating around in the background of YouTube, but if Eric ...

How to Find the Magic in Music

This is the early access post for "How to Find the Magic in Music"
You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I'd like to send an extra thank you to Eric and Mairi for the request.  I had seen those dog and cat videos around before, but I never figured that anyone would be interested in them!

This is easily one of the more enjoyable videos to make.  It was a lot of fun going through the pseudo-science music wo...

January Request Post

Alright, it's that time of the month

December had some really great suggestions (I'm keeping track of them) and I'd like to see what you'd like to see moving forward.

Also, I'm still not 100% on how to curate this process.  I feel like at some point it's going to be easier to take all of your ideas and put them in a poll.

But let's wait to see how these first few months unfold, then we'll go from there.

Also, since December had Christmas and people were requesting...