mood setters
Los Angeles-based DJ Señor Amor and his partner
set out to bring a more diverse slate of music styles
to U.S. cinemas – starting with a holiday classical
mix to get things going.
by Alma Freeman
Atop the Standard Hotel
building in downtown Los Angeles, local DJ Señor Amor pulls records from
his bulging collection behind him. He seamlessly changes
the music from funky reggae to a slow, twangy country cover
of “Honky Tonk Women.” While adjusting the
dizzying array of knobs, switches and buttons on his DJ
stand (the mechanical spread as foreign to most as the
inside of a pilot’s cockpit), no one seems aware
that the actual change ever took place. The crowd continues
to sip cocktails and soak up the evening breeze that sweeps
through the rooftop bar, while the music gracefully continues
to transform and recreate the atmosphere.
a true angeleno
Having grown up in Southern California, Amor feels fortunate
to have been exposed to a vast array of cultures and musical
styles. He claims he was a music fan before he could walk,
listening to his parents’ albums, soaking up the
likes of Frank Sinatra and Tom Jones. His first childhood
memory was his first solo album purchase – Kiss’ 1975
album, “Kiss Alive.” (The initial allure he
admits was mostly visual, with all four band members dressed
in metallic-looking leather armor, with painted faces that
suggested a cross between cats, demons and aliens – depending
on your perspective.) Searching for a musical outlet, Amor
began taking drum lessons when he was 10, but playfully
adds he became too frustrated with his lack of “instant
rock-star status” and soon thereafter gave up. But
he never gave up music, and his love for it has only grown
stronger.
| “For
the price of a movie ticket, you get music forever.” |
While attending Beverly Hills High School,
Amor made his music programming debut when he landed
a gig as the high
school DJ. As he scoured thrift shops and Salvation Army
stores, rummaging through various tchotchkes in search
of albums, his record collection continued to grow – he
now owns nearly 15,000 albums, and sometimes still shops
for rare finds at thrift stores. While attending college
at Loyola Marymount University, he performed one hour
a week on the college radio station, KXLU, which still
airs
as the Molotov Cocktail Hour. After graduation, he began
his ascent as a music programmer, providing services
at weddings, clubs, movie premieres and high-profile
parties
for celebrities such as Jim Carrey and Courteney Cox.
cinema music
An avid moviegoer himself, Amor believes that with the
right selections, music can become an integral part of
making the entire moviegoing experience complete.
Amor and his partner, musical director Daniel
Zagor, have collaborated to form Phonomusic, a Los Angeles-based
company
designed to make royalty-free albums available to cinema
owners.
The company’s first album is the Holiday Spectacular
2003 CD, featuring such seasonal favorites as “Dance
of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” “We Wish You a Merry
Christmas” and “Angels We Have Heard On High,” all
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. “For
the price of a movie ticket, you get music forever,” notes
Amor. Once a cinema owner purchases a CD, that exhibitor
can play it in their facility without ever paying any licensing
or royalty fees.
As most exhibitors know, any and all music
played within a public space is subject to copyright issues.
If a theatre
owner pipes a Britney Spears CD or a “top 40” radio
station into a lobby or an auditorium, for example, performing
rights entities like ASCAP and BMI will want to collect
fees for the use of the songs being played.
Phonomusic works to clear all of its music
for any and all performance royalties before making selections
available.
creating a balance
Amor explains that with music, you can’t necessarily
cater to every single person (he remembers tricky times
working at wedding receptions where there were 8-year-olds
dancing with 80-year-olds) but he does believe that by
offering a wider variety of music, the chances of pleasing
more people are far greater. Ultimately, Phonomusic hopes
to offer such a wide variety of music that cinema owners
can begin catering to particular audience demographics.
Although the company has access to
all kinds of music, composers and record labels, feedback
from cinema owners
is important so that the company can learn which types
of music works at different cinema locations.
“It’s a balance, helping to preserve the moviegoing
experience, a unique and deliberate experience, and at
the same time having music that isn’t going to
be a turn-off,” Amor says. He believes that certain
types of music played before certain types of films can
actually become a distracting nuisance. Audiences might
not for example necessarily crave Bach before “Freddy
Vs. Jason” or “The Rundown.”
A classically trained musician, Zagor
has been involved in everything from arranging, conducting,
mixing, and
everything else that needs a “musical ear,” he says. He
maintains that one of his most active roles in the company
is selecting the highest quality material available, while
making sure no artistic concessions have been made for
the recording.
“High quality music seems to
always enrich everybody’s
life,” Zagor says. “We want to turn
the movie theatres into an environment for the
audience to be exposed
to top quality music, probably without them even
noticing it, like the perfect soundtrack for a
film.” 
