What did you guys actually think of the heavy metal music in the DBZ movies in the 2000s?

[thaman91]

That's been one of my biggest sticking points with the replacement soundtracks. I'll argue until the cows come home that the Faulconer Productions soundtrack style was already outdated by the time it was in use in the show. Using "real band" vocal rock songs only serves to directly pinpoint the timing of the replacement music, and that's going to age even faster.

To go with how you opened your own post: say what you will about the "dated-ness" of the Kikuchi music, but at least it is when it's from, knows when it's from and what specific style it's trying to be!

Not only do the rock songs date faster, but they also weren't actually created for the purpose of complementing Dragon Ball. They make the movies all seem like AMVs. Whereas Faulconer at least fit with the dub dialogue, the rock songs don't even seem to do that. I can enjoy DBZ with Faulconer as its own thing, separate from the original true experience of the show. But I can't ever enjoy the movies with those rock songs.

And I agree that, despite the subjective dated-ness of Kikuchi's music, it is the show and is representative of the time & context that it was created in. Although I prefer Faulconer, I do so with the acknowledgement that I'm essentially watching a different show with a different tone, different characterizations, and different dialogue. That's why I decided to get into Kai: to get a more accurate Dragon Ball experience.

[ABED]

I was into Nu Metal too during the 2000's too because I was really into it in middle school up to the end of High School. I still don't like having these type of music in DBZ because it feels like that they are Americanizing it by adding popular rock bands. I know the Street Fighter II animated movie did the same thing, but I feel like that work for that film than DBZ Movie 4, 5, 8 and 10 in my opinion.

Agreed, and I think part of it is that the world of Street Fighter is more or less our world. Dragon Ball is a quirky mixture of genres that takes place in a very different world than our's.

[Hellspawn28]

What freaks me out is when people say that was their first exposure to rock music. Blah blah blah, I'm old, holy cow, yadda yadda yadda.

I find it hard to believe for someone not to be exposure to rock music before these dubs even existed. I remember hearing and listing to rock music since I was a kid in the 90's. I remember Rob Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine and Marylin Manson was huge back in 1996-2000. I also remember Nirvana was still popular on the radio even after 1994. If these people are apart of my age group (Born in 1989 - 1992), they must have not listen to much music growing up or only listen to pop music like Backstreet Boys and Nsync (Even as a kid, I never like those bands that much).

[sintzu]

It's as if someone spray painted the Mona Lisa.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

What an improvement.

[SaiyanGod117]

It was an improvement over the orginal audio.

[Lord Beerus]

It was an improvement over the orginal audio.

Everyone has an opinion but... wow. I sure would love an explanation as to why you think this.

[Boo Machine]

Except for GT's funimation music, I've liked pretty much any music going into Dragonball. So the same goes for the over the top rock music. I get that it may not fit. But it's never really ruined my enjoyment. But that may be because the Over the top rock music was how I first saw those movies.

[voltlunok]

I think that the music chosen was a terrible idea, it didn't fit the movies in tone, it didn't fit dragon ball in tone it was just a bad choice of music...HOWEVER! It addressed in issue I've always had with the use of the Kikuchi scores, that being for me, the scores are used too sparingly and the movies often have these long, drawn out silent portions and at least for me...its a little annoying. I know that some people like that and to them the sparing use is what makes Kikuchi's score so special but, quiet portions are a careful balancing act, go too long and it feels like a moment is dragging on, go to short and the gravity of the moment won't sink in. So in that regard, I like that the score broke up the quiet a little...just the choice of music was truly awful.

Hope that ramble makes sense!

[Bansho64]

It was an absolutely atrocious change and I try my best to avoid it at all costs. It's like taking the bass line out of "Another One Bites The Dust" and replacing it with farts.

[Lord Beerus]

It was an absolutely atrocious change and I try my best to avoid it at all costs. It's like taking the bass line out of "Another One Bites The Dust" and replacing it with farts.

Just imagining that made me laugh quite a bit. As a fan of Queen, I'm quite tempted to do that for shits and giggles.

[Hellspawn28]

It surprise me how people bitch about DBZ Movie 8 not having the rock music on Toonami like two years ago. I'm not sure if Nick Toons air the old versions of DBZ Movie 4 and 5 with the rock music or not.

[LSSJGODSSJ4Gogeta]

It was an improvement over the orginal audio.

Agreed.

[ABED]

It was an improvement over the orginal audio.

Agreed.

The heavy metal was better than Kikuchi's score?

[LSSJGODSSJ4Gogeta]

It was an improvement over the orginal audio.

Agreed.

The heavy metal was better than Kikuchi's score?

Yes. Over 9000x better.

[Bansho64]

Just imagining that made me laugh quite a bit. As a fan of Queen, I'm quite tempted to do that for shits and giggles.

To be honest, I'd probably rather hear a rendition of that rather than watch the movies with those rock replacements. Seriously, not even exaggerating. I could barely hear what the characters were saying sometimes I'm glad Toonami used the original soundtrack when they re-aired some of the movies awhile back. It made me appreciate their dubs a tiny bit more. I can bear a little of Faulconer because he had some good tracks but the soundtracks for the movies made some of them almost unwatchable for me. EDIT: It's like what Akira said below. It's like watching a crappy AMV.

[Akira]

I hated it, mainly because it made the dub of those movies unwatchable for me when the DVDs first came out. As someone else mentioned, it made it feel as if it were an anime music video. Back then, youtube was full of such stuff, and it seemed to be an extension of that popular fad at the time. To make things worse, it wasn't even music I recognized or understood. (I was an 80's kid, and probably close in age to VegettoEX, as I graduated high school in 1999) It was one thing I liked about the later double feature releases that they finally included a dub track with the original soundtrack.

It kinda bastardized the films it was included in, and really destroyed the flow and how the movies were meant to be seen. Coming off of the amazing Pioneer releases of DBZ movies 1-3, and Funimation's releases of DB Movies 2 and 3, I was very excited when I could get rid of my cheap VCDs of the later movies and start buying official bi-lingual releases of them. When they had all this western music added in, it was a major letdown for me. So, what did I think of those placements? I thought they were extremely sub-par, and while I kept the movie singles for having a 4:3 version of the films, those are really only ever watched subbed if I choose to watch them.

[DB_Fan1991]

I'm indifferent to it. As a Disturbed fan I think it's cool hearing their music in Z movies 4 & 5, and it has its place in NA DB history. While I will always prefer Kikuchi's score over the rock band music despite being a fan of the genre they were just a sign of the times. The songs themselves outside of the movies are good songs, but these days if I watch the dub which is rarely it will be with Kikuchi's score. I loved that Toonami aired Movies 5 & 8 a while back with the Kikuchi score especially the latter as it was the first time that Cha-La Head Cha-La aired on US TV with the English dub.

[Hellspawn28]

It won't surprise me if the music in these movies did help inspire AMV's boom on Youtube from 2006-2011. I know AMV's was made before Youtube, but Youtube made it easier for AMV's because you can upload things easier and get more views.

[Esfír Dedragón]

I liked it.

At the very least, there were some scenes that I thought went well with the music. Some examples I can think of are Goku transforming against Cooler with Deftones's "Change" in the background, Broly transforming to Pantera's "10's", and the Family Kamehameha being done with I.O.N.'s "Ignored" in the background. I also liked the original broadcast English audio of Goku fighting Cooler with Disturbed's "The Game". It was in-sync a lot better that the re-releases that followed. The muffled music when they were underwater was cool.

But I do admit that sometimes, the music tends to distract what is going on in the animation, rather than amplify the emotional connection the audience is supposed to have with it. At least The Return of Cooler had silence. Haha.

And, yes, despite VegettoEX's amazement to the fact, there were some people whose earliest introduction to rock/metal music came through the English audio of DBZ, including me. I didn't really buy my own music when I was younger and I didn't have a diverse taste in what I liked to listen to. I usually listened to what my parents had; most of which was foreign music and older music from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. There were some exceptions, though. I remember how happy I was when I was given the soundtrack of Space Jam. As I got older and had more friends, I was introduced to similar music that I heard on the English version of DBZ in the past.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Some of Menza's stuff actually fit pretty nicely, I think. The rock inserts are kind of funny, enough that I was not thinking about how FUNi thought this was a good idea, but that they actually went through with it. Newer American releases having the proper music makes it something of a moot point.