Zimmer, Goldsmith, et. al. — scores that run as separate entity

Not sure how to describe this … think about 2001 and Kubrick using music NOT composed for the film (forgetting
about North’s discarded score).

Zimmer and Goldsmith scores come to mind as they’re the ones I’m most familiar with — but they’re certainly not alone.

Think about the running movie (visuals, non-music sounds) and the music.

Many composers tightly couple the action (or lack of) with their scoring. But, with Zimmer, I sometimes notice the music doing its own thing. Like grocery store "Muzak" running in the background. I noticed this with CHAPPiE, which IMO was a horrible film but had a great Zimmer OST (I saw the film only after I’d heard the OST album several times).

J. Goldsmith, in his running commentary for the HollowMan DVD, noted something like this …. that the composer must do it for the art or for himself first. That the score need only make sense to composer ("as long as one person gets it" is I think what JG noted in the commentary). And I did notice this music "decoupling" in parts of HollowMan! Goldsmith’s commentary seemed to indicate he did not take the HollowMan project seriously.

I think this makes OST albums work better (because, in films, subtle cues get drowned out by sound effects — this happened in CHAPPiE often). But I’m not sure how many composers ACTIVELY compose FOR THE MUSIC (ART) FIRST. And/or proactively compose for an OST album (I assume most of their paycheck is from the initial film-project budget, which (itself) is based on projected movie-theater ticket sales — i.e., for Joe 6-pack).