To say this magazine had a profound influence on the direction my life was headed can not be understated.
It was packed (ok, an exaggeration but for me it seemed packed) with composer interviews, soundtrack reviews, news, concert information, and interesting tidbits that a die-hard film music aficionado like myself could appreciate. I would read it cover-to-cover standing right there by the mailbox. I vividly remember counting down the days until my next issue. For a film music newbie like myself, it was a bountiful treasure trove of information delivered to my mailbox every month(-ish). My first issue arrived in October and I was a steadfast subscriber until its last printed issue in 2005. I was first introduced to Film Score Monthly in late 1993. During these early years it was self-published in black-and-white and consisted of anywhere between 10-20 pages. In June 1992, Kendall renamed it Film Score Monthlyand his subscription numbers began to grow. Originally titled The Soundtrack Club, it evolved from a simple computer-printed sheet of paper into something that at least resembled a printed magazine. It started off as sort of an information swap dedicated to the art and craft of scoring for films and television. …and then I discovered Film Score Monthly.įilm Score Monthly was founded by an Amherst College student named Lukas Kendall in June 1990. Here I was just having discovered my life’s passion, yet there was nothing out there that could satiate my hunger. It was exhilarating nurturing my mania, but also extremely frustrating. I cut out articles wherever I found them (which were few and far between). I remember collecting and gathering bits of information where I could and storing it in notebooks. Just finding out what other films John Williams scored throughout his career was an archeological task even Indiana Jones would’ve had difficulty achieving. No YouTube packed with hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes scoring footage or composer interviews. There were no books, no magazines or publications. It was as if somebody dropped me off on a deserted island, said “Have fun,” and paddled away. This of course predates the internet so there were no online resources, no social networking, no IMDB, no forums in which you could share your passion with others and attempt to gratify your unquenchable thirst for new material. For any newbie expressing interest in this niche-within-a-niche subject, it was a lonely proposition. That summer, my aspiring interest in film music was instantly reconstructed into a raving maniacal passion which continues snowballing to this day. July of 1993 was an intensely transformative period in my life. I’m not a fan of lengthy expositional backstories however, if you’ll indulge me, I find it necessary this time around in order to properly extol the virtues of what I’m about to report.