Why the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Soundtrack Was Trying to ‘Reinvent the Whole Genre’
It’s a pirate’s life for Hans Zimmer, who wasn’t initially excited to work on Disney’s theme park-inspired attraction. With his work on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the composer announced that he was “reinventing the genre.”
‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ featured an original soundtrack created by Hans Zimmer
Jack Sparrow will do anything to be reunited with the Black Pearl. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl because a fan-favorite Disney flick, even inspiring changes to the theme park attraction.
Before its release, there was plenty of uncertainty surrounding the success of this film. That’s in part because the last Disney theme park attraction-turned feature film didn’t receive critics’ praise — The Country Bears, released just a few months before the first Pirates of the Caribbean.
The music for Pirates of the Caribbean was composed by Hans Zimmer. He was also the mastermind behind the instrumentals in Disney’s The Lion King, even sharing he was trying to “reinvent the genre” with his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Hans Zimmer felt that he ‘reinvented the genre’ with the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ soundtrack
In replacing Alan Silvestri as the film’s composer, Zimmer had limited time to create The Curse of the Black Pearl’s instrumentals. During an interview with Soundtrack.net, composer Zimmer also commented on the reaction to Disney’s franchise and the impact of its soundtrack.
“There was one another review about Pirates, about my woodwind writing, or rather my lack of woodwind writing. Well, guess what guys, that’s a deliberate choice,” he said. “I make deliberate choices, there are no accidents in these scores… The whole point about the Pirates score was that it was trying to reinvent the whole genre.”
“And it was so much fun just dashing out these tunes on the first one and going ‘ok, fine, I’ve done my homework, I’ve reinvented the genre,’ for better or for worse,” Zimmer continued. “But on the second film I had to go back and really come to grips with what those tunes were, and I kept thinking, ‘gosh, I wish I’d had one more day on the first one because I wouldn’t have written myself into this corner!’”
Geoff Zanelli composed music for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’
Even years after their release, the Pirates of the Caribbean originals continue to earn praise from Disney fans. Songs included on the original Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack earned millions of Spotify plays. That includes “He’s a Pirate,” which currently holds over 115 million plays on Spotify.
Zimmer returned to compose music for Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. Geoff Zanelli then took over the composer role for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
