One Category at a Time: Original Song

Oh, where to begin with this category. Last year it looked like the music branch had maybe taken a step towards not embarrassing themselves on a yearly basis, having recently overhauled their voting system to yield five respectable (if not unanimously exceptional) nominees. Well, that streak was short-lived, as this year saw the suspicious nomination of the ultra-obscure Alone Yet Not Alone for music branch executive committee member Bruce Broughton, who apparently sent out emails soliciting votes. The Academy went and humiliated Mr. Broughton even further by revoking the nomination, but then decided not to replace it with another song, which is so sad and unfair for that sixth place song, whatever it may have been.

It's all a moot point anyhow. It's not as if Alone Yet Not Alone's disqualification has suddenly cleared the path for anything else to win, although the situation raises some questions about the where to draw the line on campaigning that merit discussion and possibly review. But now that the dust has settled, let's look at the four that remain:

Sunday Top Ten - Soundtracks by non-film composers

Although it can be proven that there are exceptions to the rule, a commonly accepted generality about the Academy is that its music branch is a highly insular clique, showing a persistent preference to established mainstays and often avoiding artists who don't work explicitly in the realms of film and television. But despite the fact that the music branch shies away from such composers, many filmmakers have welcomed their refreshing outsider take on movie music, especially so in the last decade. I thought I'd give a shout out to some of the finest film scores (yes, I'm including song scores as well) from musicians whose notoriety primarily stems from outside the relatively narrow niche of film scorers.

(Interesting side note: The Golden Globes are much more receptive to outsider musicians than AMPAS, having bestowed nine nominations upon the following ten scores compared to the Academy's two.)