A Films emotive expression and internal essence refection is profoundly influenced by the layers woven within its sound track, this binds a part of our memory's of journey the films experience took us on but also part of our internal primal selves builds an association bridge aspects of this ,, I can hear a 3 second clip of Avatars soundtrack and visually associate the scene it was connected to and the emotions it brought to the surface at the time, Avatars sound and music scape has woven into it a number of unique layers that touch the spirit , in my study's and interactions after the film one runs into the role that music plays in indigenous cultures and there ceremony's had how the films music reflects the Na'vi peoples cultural identity but I feel it "also" contains a recognition of earths own first peoples musical spiritual expressions , things like "Vocable" expression we do not commonly see in western music, primal instruments like drums and flute "The Na'vi world of sound" the research and importance ofEthnomusicology plays a vital core role here, how this kind music pulls us to a place of internal common internal roots is helps to enable this internal recognition of the Voice we all share deep inside ..

I think the point of this video mostly was to explain how they actually made new music for a brand new culture and it was basically dumbed down over and over so it could be more easily consumed by western audiences.

I watched a little of this video, but stopped. I'm so burnt out on people hating on "Avatar", and I'm not just saying that because I'm a fan of it. It's been ten years since it came out, and the next one isn't even out yet. It feel they're beating a dead horse. Sure, it has legit flaws, but I think I this point it became the go to movie to hate on for the decade because it was so huge. Kind of like the Star Wars prequel movies, before Disney made the new movies. At this point, I wish people will move on.

I personally thought this video was really fair in its critique of Avatar and its music.

Hmm. I read the essay of the ethnomusicologst mentioned before I watched the video, and I feel like I learned more from that essay. The video is more of an editorial piece. I can see the guy's main point, and certainly it would be really neat to hear the soundtrack that James Horner and Wanda Bryant wanted to make (which will probably never happen, sadly). Nonetheless, I still enjoy the soundtrack that was ultimately produced and still listen to it from time to time.

The thing is, he keeps mentioning how Avatar is a ripoff of Pocahontas, Dances With Wolves, Ferngully, and The Lorax, when the scriptment for Avatar was written before any of those movies were even released.

Second, he craps on having westernized what would have been alien-sounding music with ethnic ties, but does so with this overarching idea that: "Avatar would have been successful anyway if it had done anything different in its score". This kind of notion comes from people who have no understanding of what the entertainment industry entails, or how marketing works on the populace.

James Cameron himself has stated that he did what he did in Avatar on purpose, from the generic storyline, to the westernized music, to the casting, to the acting, to the lines in the film: to reach and connect with as wide an audience as feasibly possible.

Apparently now, after having achieved that, his storylines for the sequels are more complex, taking more risks.

EDIT: Plus, this channel also has a video called "Why the Soundtrack to Shrek is Actually Genius". So as far as the credibility of this guy's taste goes...

I did watch that Shrek video. I agree with him. "Shrek" does have pretty great music. The songs written for the movies. Not the pop songs, but those are pretty good, too.

The Shrek soundtrack is pretty fire, not gonna lie.

Eh. To each their own, then.

i listened to the Avatar OST while posting up a storm on some sports sites the other day. normally i'm all riled up from trolls there, but i was calm while listening to it.

I can understand Avatar being a technological achievement first, story coming in second. Considering JC's intentions Avatar is really just a set up for the sequels, so for that I can understand it's short comings.

To be fair, people that dislike the film because they wanted more out of it, as opposed to people hating on the film and not actually being interested in anything about it are different things. So in a way some of the criticism is pretty good if the audiences demand more out of Avatar, IMO.