Watching The Babies Grow Up

Our Composers Rise To All Challenges

When CSS Music first opened its doors in 1982, the primary musical genre that put us on the map was corporate-industrial. Of course this included different moods, orchestrations and tempi from this school of music. We also offered occasional humorous, World, specialty, novelty, etc. tracks that gave the library some variety.

Some of our composers have been writing for CSS Music nearly 30 years. Their music has always been engaging and served our library well. But as the saying goes, “Things change.” As the 1980’s faded away and Alternative, Grunge, Hip Hop and Electronica (to name a few) came onto the music scene, these new genres of music created new musical challenges for composers.

Factor in the demands of learning how to effectively use new MIDI machinery along with learning computer-based programming plus mastering (pun intended) home recording/engineering, and the composer’s world was suddenly upside down.

Luckily, our guys and gals are pretty sharp people and they adapted to the changes with ease. Before long, CSS Music offered a whole new sound thanks to the advent of very realistic-sounding samples and more powerful computers. And the composers continued to turn out well-crafted music that embraced the new musical styles of the 90’s.

But alas, along came the 2000’s with a plethora of new music styles that meant new challenges. Where live players were still being used throughout the 90’s, music software engineers were now creating “modeled” instruments that were virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. We again tested our composer’s mettle. Could they once again step up to the plate and tackle the increasingly popular variety of Indie music styles? Could they trick the ear into believing they were hearing a real instrument? How about dealing with the evolution of film music? Not to mention the craft of learning to properly write music cues?

You make that call. We’re pretty darn proud of the job we’ve done acclimating to the ever changing music scene and the new music genres you guys request. And hats off to the CSS Music composers, who for an average of 20+ years, have stayed up with the times and continue to provide excellent music!