What’s ridiculous about the bond franchise is that after 5 decades there’s still a
clearly defined bond sound.
24 films, countless rip offs and parodies - it either sounds like bond or it doesn’t.
So what makes Bond sound like Bond?
What makes James Bond really interesting as a franchise is its patterns.
Because it’s a film series that’s been running for decades without a super strong
overarching narrative we can see its themes and variations.
It frequently repeats itself.
No fewer than TEN bond films end with bond about to have sex on a boat
["If you're havin' a good time, let the captain know and I'll have him steam around in circles"]
...and sometimes being interrupted.
["Bond, what do you think you're doing?"]
["Keeping the British end up, sir"]
But it also constantly reinvents itself
[“This never happened to the other fella”]
It's a film series about
[“resurrection”]
Its music is absolutely no different.
["Let me show you something"]
At the heart of the James Bond musical sound is a very simple idea.
It’s not this [brass fanfare].
It’s not even this [guitar rhythm].
It’s just these three chords - where one note rises and falls in semi-tones.
This rising and falling is more than anything else the Bond musical sound - not just for
the scores, but for the songs, too.
It’s actually referenced and developed in FIFTEEN of the Bond title songs.
It’s like a literal musical through line for 007 from the 60s to today.
Some songs completely deviate from this model, of course, but every so often, Bond’s music
needs to return to this rising and falling motif - especially for moments where Bond’s
essential Bond-ness needs to be restated.
Take the first three songs of the Daniel Craig era, for example.
This was the ‘reboot’ era, where more than EVER, the 007 franchise tried to capture
the original, core essence of the character and his world.
What all three songs do is quite interesting.
They’re all based around this rising and falling idea - the musical heart of Bond -
but they do it subtly.
Instead of this [keyboard]
we get different chords that allow the same idea to be played
It gains in movement what it loses in suspense.
It's no longer a spy creeping around, it's an anthem
But the fundamental idea is still there
Watch this
This is the key to how you write Bond music - you gesture towards the musical heart of
007, but you do it a little creatively.
[‘Resurrection’].
Each of these tunes are contemporary
in their own way, but by using the 007 harmony they sound fundamentally part of the James
Bond universe, even if we don’t consciously notice why or how.
And for whoever writes the song for the next bond film - and the next, and the next - the
choice will be as it always has been.
You can try and do something new, or you can work within and maybe change the pattern a
little.
This is why Bond is so perfectly of its time and timeless simultaneously
You follow the theme
you make variations…
and later, you return again.