Bruce Faulconer Score: The Good & Bad

Another amazing Bruce song that is iconic throughout the fandom. To me every time I hear it, I always see Imperfect Cell blasting Piccolo right through his chest:

There's a Youtube channel which I'm not sure if you are familiar with guys, it's called coycoy88 and that guy uploads unreleased soundtracks and different versions of them. This is one of my favourite tracks -

Love Falconer's score. Easily the best soundtrack for DBZ, IMO.

Plus all these scores listed but one of the greatest themes isn't here so that all the peasants may BASK IN HIS ROYAL SAIYAN GLORY?! Shame on all of you!

Some other favorites of mine ( because, why not?) 









And this gem from The Legacy of Goku II: 

I just can't fathom why people like Faulconer's score.

It's some synth/rock music that should have stayed in the 90's, a soundtrack that transforms Dragon Ball Z, a show that transcends time, in something old, dated, and in really bad taste.

I know nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but just compare this 2 scenes.





To this




Faulcouner is subtle as a family of elephants in a small antique store. He takes a moment that was supposed to be intimate, sad yet powerful and turns in some "badass" sinthy moment. And that sums ups quite nicely what is wrong with him, he lacks subtlety, lacks taste and lacks respect for the original work, all in favour of "badass" moments.

This scene in specific shows that, is pretty clear that a bird flying in the background is not supposed to be met with such low effort music, yet he can't help himself but put that thing there anyways. There is a reason why only americans like the Faulconer score, they grew up with it, I get it, but that does not makes it good. I love power rangers but the show is bad, is awful even, but I can't help to love it even knowing it is bad, and that's all I ask really, to admit the Japanese score is vastly superior in every way, it works in harmony with the show and is not struggling for young kids attention, and respects the style of the show. It is there to remember that Goku is not a badass, neither is Gohan, it is there to show that every fight, every foe they encounter brings them great pain and even with so many bad things, awful deaths, they can still overcome the challenge and win.

We see that a lot in the original score, playful music is replaced with a more dramatic music when the situation needs it, in a subtle way, keeping a theme around the show. In faulconer is either 5 year old Dora The Adventurer music or edgy disturbed noise in the background. I can digest the dub, but the music, impossible. There is a reason he fell in obscurity, that is because he is bad at making music. I can spend a whole day listening to the Japanese original music, Faulcouner I outgrew when I stopped listening Disturbed, that sums up.



PS: Gohan SSj2 original music did not aired in Brazil when I first watched it, I honestly do not remember that music, could be wrong tho. But everytime I listen to this song I get this chill down the spine, it is such a powerful song for a powerful moment. Faulconer is just lazy, boring and unoriginal.




My last comparison.

Faulconer




Japanese.



Do I even need to say anything? First the music that seems out of Beverly hills cop, then he just SMASHES some Metal in there, from nothing, no build up, just mashes the two together.
A moment of controlled rage being unleashed, of vengeance for the death of his best friend, instantly ruined for the sake of "Badass" for the wow factor, it sounds Fan-made really. Like fan-made by me from 2005 made. It is just sad seeing a show that has a great original soundtrack reduced to this. The namek soundtrack, tho catchy and really good, gets repeated a lot, but even then it's miles away better than this. 

I seen enough shows/movies/animes/series/etc. to recognize good music and good taste from bad and poorly done choices, and this is one of them. It adds nothing, in fact it detracts from the show and what the moments mean. Sorry, for me Faulconer is just bad for Dragon Ball and a blight in the show's legacy, you can listen to it in the Gym tho.

Hush you.  The Disturbed X DBZ connection was the bees knees ( In 2001, anyways)



On-topic: Don't worry about feeling that way as this thread is meant to encourage either appreciation of said soundtrack, or healthy (major emphasis on that word) criticism or discussion of said topic.  

I found some clips where the Faulconer soundtrack is integrated in pretty nicely. Here's one!

 

I like how the set pieces set the mood of the scene here - something I think is missing in Super from time to time.  

I do not think it's bad, but I much prefer the original Japanese soundtrack. It just has more variety. Yeah, sure, it has depressing moments, but they happen in the right situations, then on other situations you have this:



This is basically Cell's theme remix. But the only thing remixed are the drums (which do not exist in the original).

Or this other one when Gohan transforms:


Bardock's theme:


In comparison, Bruce's music just seems like ill fitting place-holders, no offense. I really like his Cell's theme (and many scores appearing on Buu saga too) but even then it has nothing on the original.