Best Original Song

For the films of 2013
ITALIANO
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by ITALIANO »

rolotomasi99 wrote:the preppy gays, the sporty gays, the hipster gays, the moneyed gays.[/b]

Which group do you belong to..?

The song is so bad I couldn't even hear it till the end. But I guess it could easily win.
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Re: Best Original Song

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Mister Tee wrote:Once the Bad Song was purged, this ended up a halfway credible slate -- certainly by the standards of this benighted branch.

"Happy" is indeed super-infectious, but I'd offer a few cautions: 1) The version in the movie doesn't showcase it as well as what's on YouTube -- like "I Just Called to Say I Love You" or "Mrs. Robinson", what plays in the film is but a snippet of the hit version. So, you're counting on voters -- some of whom are still struggling with the whole computer thing -- to stray from their DVD players to get the full effect. 2) I once trusted the fact that I kept hearing a song every time I went to a bar around Oscar season to justify picking "Somewhere Out There" to top "Take My Breath Away". It didn't.

I'd also cite "Are they watching the movie for any other reason?" as a point in favor of "The Moon Song". Long, long ago, Michael Jackson had a top-three hit with "Ben", and it seemed right into Oscar night like the favorite. But a lot more Academy folk, because of 8 nominations including supporting actress, had seen The Poseidon Adventure, and "The Morning After" came from seemingly nowhere to snatch the best song prize. We're assuming that enough Academy voters are watching her to merit its possibly winning best original screenplay; might not some of those voters mark it down for best song, as well? (And, of course, it'd be an additional chance for Spike Jonze to win)

I've heard some people touting "Ordinary Love", because, you know, it's U2, and they notably lost to Eminem 12 years ago. But I don't see any scenario as favorable to them as I do to all the others.

Yeah, "Let It Go" is probably still the winner, though I can't understand it -- for me, it's another slice of "The Song That Sounds Like This". But 400 million dollars probably won't be wrong. Though the best song category, at least in the early years of the millennium, has shown a tendency to surprise, and maybe this'll be another such instance.
It's worth remembering that Eminem's victory came for another song that was played on the radio a lot and actually came second in Pazz N Jop's poll.
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by rolotomasi99 »

Mister Tee wrote:Yeah, "Let It Go" is probably still the winner, though I can't understand it -- for me, it's another slice of "The Song That Sounds Like This". But 400 million dollars probably won't be wrong. Though the best song category, at least in the early years of the millennium, has shown a tendency to surprise, and maybe this'll be another such instance.
A couple weeks ago I went with my cousin to a gay bar in D.C. We had no idea that it was Musicals Monday, with televisions all around the bar playing a variety of show-tunes. They played the hits from the big gay divas (with mostly the older guys singing along) as well as some Disney tunes (with mostly the younger guys singing along). However, when this music video started up...

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

...every fucking queen in the place started singing. Somehow they knew every fucking word and were putting full emotion into it. I mean everyone was singing -- the preppy gays, the sporty gays, the hipster gays, the moneyed gays. They sang their hearts out at the top of their lungs. My cousin and I had not seen the movie and we were absolutely flabbergasted at how this song from a children's movie had become the one tune every single guy of all ages would sing together that night.

The song is definitely fun and has those power-ballad moments that propelled "Defying Gravity" from Wicked to be the biggest show-tune hit in decades. I think it also helps that Idina Menzel sang both songs. She is the only woman from Broadway to come close to matching the gay star-status of Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone.

TL;DR -- Not only is "Let It Go" winning the Oscar, but I bet Idina receives a standing ovation.
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by mlrg »

ksrymy wrote:Mark my words: This Thursday, "Happy" takes #1 on the charts and becomes the first #1 hit to win an Oscar since "Lose Yourself."

Funny enough, U2 will have lost both times.
U2 has been promoting their song very hard. They've just performed it live at the Jimmy fallon show
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Re: Best Original Song

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Eric wrote: History's probably not going to look kindly on this one going to the Disney ballad.
Amen.

If 12 Year a Slave can't win Best Picture, I'd be more than satisfied if this joyous music beat out a song that spotlights everything that's wrong with today's show-tunes. I'm prepared to be doubly disappointed this year.
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Re: Best Original Song

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Mark my words: This Thursday, "Happy" takes #1 on the charts and becomes the first #1 hit to win an Oscar since "Lose Yourself."

Funny enough, U2 will have lost both times.
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by Mister Tee »

Once the Bad Song was purged, this ended up a halfway credible slate -- certainly by the standards of this benighted branch.

"Happy" is indeed super-infectious, but I'd offer a few cautions: 1) The version in the movie doesn't showcase it as well as what's on YouTube -- like "I Just Called to Say I Love You" or "Mrs. Robinson", what plays in the film is but a snippet of the hit version. So, you're counting on voters -- some of whom are still struggling with the whole computer thing -- to stray from their DVD players to get the full effect. 2) I once trusted the fact that I kept hearing a song every time I went to a bar around Oscar season to justify picking "Somewhere Out There" to top "Take My Breath Away". It didn't.

I'd also cite "Are they watching the movie for any other reason?" as a point in favor of "The Moon Song". Long, long ago, Michael Jackson had a top-three hit with "Ben", and it seemed right into Oscar night like the favorite. But a lot more Academy folk, because of 8 nominations including supporting actress, had seen The Poseidon Adventure, and "The Morning After" came from seemingly nowhere to snatch the best song prize. We're assuming that enough Academy voters are watching her to merit its possibly winning best original screenplay; might not some of those voters mark it down for best song, as well? (And, of course, it'd be an additional chance for Spike Jonze to win)

I've heard some people touting "Ordinary Love", because, you know, it's U2, and they notably lost to Eminem 12 years ago. But I don't see any scenario as favorable to them as I do to all the others.

Yeah, "Let It Go" is probably still the winner, though I can't understand it -- for me, it's another slice of "The Song That Sounds Like This". But 400 million dollars probably won't be wrong. Though the best song category, at least in the early years of the millennium, has shown a tendency to surprise, and maybe this'll be another such instance.
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by Eric »

OK, so I'm not saying "Let It Go" isn't going to win, but damn if this "Happy" song hasn't shown remarkable legs. If everyone hadn't already called this contest done months ago, I think the fact that this song is somehow peaking half a year after the movie it accompanied left theaters (oh and, coincidentally, the moment Oscar voters have ballots in hand) would make it a genuine sleeper juggernaut.

http://www.bigissue.com/features/3498/h ... the-nation

"Hey Ya!" is a great point of comparison. The demographics this tune's covering are amazingly vast. History's probably not going to look kindly on this one going to the Disney ballad.
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by rolotomasi99 »

Sabin wrote:5. "Alone Yet Not Alone"
Ye. Gods.
Even worse than the song are the clips from the film that accompany the music video. This movie so clearly fucking sucks. I can't wait to see the Oscar audience sit slack-jawed at an awful Christian song sung before them by a quadriplegic woman. I love watching the machine break down. I love watching moments of random chaos inserted into something controlled. I have a feeling that this is going to be a good one.
I was really looking forward to this moment as well, but alas we will never know how wonderfully awful it would have been.
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by Sabin »

A lineup that appears stronger than it actually is. Bono, Pharrell, Karen O, and a broadway-style Disney showstopper. Why am I struggling to find one I legitimately like then?

1. "Happy"
Wait, no, I'm not. If I'm being honest, there's only one song I like beyond reason. Is "Happy" the most ambitious song of the lineup? Nope, but it succeeds entirely in being an infectious piece of work that totally changes my mood for the better every time I hear it. Basically, it succeeds in being a song.

2. "The Moon Song"
This is sweet. It also occupies the part of Her that I like the least, an endless swath of montage in an otherwise beautiful film. Still, it evokes a sweetness that is inexorably tied to a film a love. I'd be more than happy to see it win.

3. "Ordinary Love"
This song succeeds in being every U2 song I've ever heard. If Bono must win an Oscar, I'm glad it's for a better song than "The Hands that Built America", but it's rather anonymous[ly Bono].

4. "Let It Go"
I have yet to see Frozen. I enjoyed Tangled and Wreck-It-Ralph and I do appreciate this new wave of Disney animation embracing a manic energy, but I just haven't brought myself to sit through what must be a truly annoying snow man Pit Pat. Separated from whatever this character goes through, "Let It Go" is dreadful. Perhaps I'll like it more in context.

5. "Alone Yet Not Alone"
Ye. Gods.
Even worse than the song are the clips from the film that accompany the music video. This movie so clearly fucking sucks. I can't wait to see the Oscar audience sit slack-jawed at an awful Christian song sung before them by a quadriplegic woman. I love watching the machine break down. I love watching moments of random chaos inserted into something controlled. I have a feeling that this is going to be a good one.
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Re: Best Original Song

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"Let It Go" is an upbeat "My Heart Will Go On". Bits of it even sound alike. How can it miss?
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by danfrank »

I typically don't pay much attention to this category because of their tendency to nominate Disney dreck. This year, while there are no great songs, there are three that aren't bad. My picks, in order of preference:

1) Happy, by Pharrell Williams. I'm picking this one because the video (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM) makes me, well, happy. It would also be fun to see the fashionable Mr. Williams onstage accepting an Oscar.

2) Ordinary Love, by U2. A perfectly nice pop song, though a bit too derivative of Sting's "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free."

3) The Moon Song, by Karen O. I wanted to root for this one because I like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and because it's from Her, but the song, while not bad, is just too precious for my taste.

4) Let it Go, from Frozen. Disney dreck. This is the favorite? Really?

5) Alone Yet Not Alone, from some movie, apparently. Even worse than Disney Dreck. The only possible explanation for this nomination of a syrupy "Praise" song is that there must be a sizable born-again contingent among the music branch.
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by ksrymy »

Everyone on the internet holds Idina Menzel as a goddess because of Wicked, but her vowel pronunciation is terrible (especially during the big note at the end of 'Let It Go'). It's blatant fanboy-ism. It's not even the best song in the film (that would be For the First Time in Forever), and Kristen Bell actually does a better job than Menzel does. My synesthetic, music professor wife could tell you all this much more eloquently and convincingly.

My preference of the nominees is as follows:

1. Ordinary Love by U2, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
2. Happy by Pharrell, Despicable Me 2
3. The Moon Song by Karen O., Her
4. Let It Go by Idina Menzel/Demi Lovato, Frozen
5. Alone Yet Not Alone by Joni Eareckson Tada, Alone Yet Not Alone

I'm glad to see current alternative artists like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Karen O.) and Arcade Fire (William Butler and Owen Pallett) get recognized by the old boys club that is AMPAS - is the music branch getting younger?

For me, this just proves how great U2 is. Say what you will about Bono, but U2 are the greatest of the post-'70s musicians, and I'm confident that title will last for quite some time. And Ordinary Love is a well-put together song reminiscent of their early-2000s triumphs like Walk On, Elevation, and even some of their '90s work like Electrical Storm. I sincerely want these guys to win before they're dead.

I'm glad to see the Academy embrace Pharrell who has had a spectacular comeback year here in the States. During his absence after Snoop Dogg's Drop It Like It's Hot, he's been hanging out in the UK doing stellar, unrecognized-by-the-US work. All of a sudden, he comes back as the featured artist on two of the year's biggest hits (Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines and Daft Punk's Get Lucky (even getting Chic's Nile Rodgers to do the disco guitar on the track)), produces a Grammy Album of the Year nominee (Kendrick Lamar's good kid, M.A.A.D. city), and gets the main song from one of the year's biggest animated hits. I realize that this may be gibberish to you all. To put it in perspective, he's like Kevin Spacey - he was big for a while (two Oscars/multiple hits), disappeared into England to produce theatre/music , and came back to a ton of critical acclaim for House of Cards/pretty much everything he's done.

And then there's Alone Yet Not Alone. It's a great Christian song, but there are so many other more-worthy nominees this year.

From all the songs this year, I'd have submitted the following on my ballot:

The Moon Song by Karen O., Her
Ordinary Love by U2, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Happy by Pharrell Williams, Despicable Me 2
So You Know What It's Like by Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12
Together by The xx, The Great Gatsby
Last edited by ksrymy on Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Original Song

Post by flipp525 »

We were calling "Alone Yet Not Alone" the new "Sorry I'm Not Sorry."
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