After another successful weekend, it's clear that Straight Outta Compton is a hit. Besides the iconic music of NWA, there was also a tremendous score by Joe Trapanese, and in this terrific SoundWorks Collection video from Michael Coleman, Jon Burlingame talks to him about the project and how he went about composing the score and creating a theme for the film:

And here's the trailer if you missed it:

One of the biggest challenges for him was trying to find a voice for the characters outside of rap. Since these guys are larger than life, and their music is clearly recognizable and shapes who they are to a great extent, his goal was to find their voice when they were vulnerable and didn't have an audience. That's likely a challenge for any biopic about a singer or musical group. So much of these iconic figures are shaped by their music and the perception we have of them through their music — but very often there is a whole lot going on behind the scenes.

Some of the best advice in this video is in relation to scoring in general. Essentially he says that the answers are in the picture — you can't shoehorn something onto the images on screen, the film is going to tell you what works and what doesn't.

Source: SoundWorks Collection

Straight Outta Comptonmusicscoresoundworkscollection
Sound & Music