I was listening to COCOON THE RETURN (James Horner, 1987) and was wondering why the hell 80's scores sound so GREAT in my ears. I mean greater than any other score from the 90's or 2000's. 80's scores like COCOON, STAR TREK II, E.T., BTTF, STAR WARS, POLTERGEIST, GREMLINS, SUPERGIRL, THE BOY WHO COULD FLY, they all sound so wondrous. I think it's a unique sound in the whole history of music.

1st solution : it's personal and music from my early years in this world sounds better because I was musically educated with this music during all my childhood. But why old punk-rock music from the 80's doesn't give any similar feelings to me ?

2nd solution : the post star-wars period gave rise to a new golden age of film music in the 80's. Movies were inspired, composers were inspired. Magic everywhere.

What's your opinion about all that ?

I always wondered about that myself. Maybe one very important reason why 80's scores are so good, and i totally agree with you, is the Star Wars phenomenon. Even though there was still the growing use of synth music (see terminator, beverly hills cop, et all or jerry's experimentation with the medium) the thematic symphonic music was really on the run which provided the films with much more personality than today. In these our days we are moving backwards, to wall paper music that lacks of identity and a good theme has become rare.

Another important reason might be the nature of the films. Movies from the decade are usually very dark or had a dark nature. Not in a negative way but more in a romantic way. A source of inspiration?

Yeah I understand what you mean by "dark in a romantic way" and I agree. 80's were tough years for the world and this toughness can be found in the movies of that time.

Actually I don't. Now we still have plenty of good movies, but they will never be the same like in the 80's. I'd say the movies reached a peak in the 80's and the early 90's. Perhaps I'm just being nostalgic and within 10 years I think different about the movies now.