BMI honored the composers and songwriters of the music from the past year's top-grossing films, top-rated prime-time network television series and highest-ranking cable television shows at its annual Film & Television Awards dinner on May 12. Held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, the black-tie gala was hosted by BMI President and CEO Frances W. Preston. Preston and Doreen Ringer Ross, BMI's Vice President of Film/TV Relations, gave out more than 100 awards during the ceremonies.

Click here for the 2004 BMI Film/TV Awards Song List

Click here for Film/TV awards event photos

One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of the BMI Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement to composer/artist Mark Mothersbaugh. Named after late BMI Vice President Richard Kirk, the prestigious award is given annually to the composer who has made significant contributions to film and TV music. Former recipients of the award include John Barry, Randy Edelman, Danny Elfman, Charlie Fox, Jerry Goldsmith, Earle Hagen, Michael Kamen, Alan Menken, Thomas Newman, Mike Post, Lalo Schifrin, Alan Silvestri, Richard and Robert Sherman, W.G. "Snuffy" Walden, John Williams, Patrick Williams and Hans Zimmer.

Mark Mothersbaugh	Mike Post

One of the most unique and prolific contemporary composers in film, television, interactive media and commercials, Mothersbaugh was a founding member of influential rock group Devo, parlaying his avant-garde musical background into the world of scoring for filmed and animated entertainment. An artist both musically and in the literal definition, Mothersbaugh has created an aural framework with his scores for the forthcoming films Lords of Dogtown and The Life Aquatic, as well as having scored the hugely successful Rugrats television, stage and film franchise. He has also scored a diverse array of films and television shows, including Thirteen, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, 200 Cigarettes, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Happy Gilmore, The Mind of the Married Man, Power Puff Girls, Pee Wee's Playhouse, Beakman's World and more. With over 100 credits in the medium including over 400 commercial credits, Mothersbaugh is also co-owner of Mutato Muzika, an umbrella company that is home to a full-time staff of composers and music editors.

Korn

At the dinner, Mothersbaugh was honored by some of the directors he's worked with, as well as by the characters from Rugrats. Director Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic) called Mothersbaugh a "conceptual artist...his studio is kind of like Andy Warhol's factory. He's very versatile, his mind is constantly spinning and coming up with different things, and he's not locked into any one direction. He's more interested in trying everything."

"What Mark brings to my movies that's the most important to me has to do with the tone to them," said Anderson. "He's drawn to something - his sense of humor and a sort of wistfulness to him - that is the right kind of chemistry for my movies. It fixes the oddness of the movies and mixes into it something that has to be just right, and somehow he knows where that needs to fall."

Director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) said she was a fan of Motherbaugh's work and wanted him to score her directorial debut Thirteen but was afraid he might not want to do the low-budget film. "I just tried to think of things that would get him excited about doing it," she said. Describing a scene in the movie that she thought would appeal to his creative side, she said she asked him, "Mark would you be interested in creating the sound of brain cells popping?"

Hardwicke went on to describe Mothersbaugh as, "Quirky, crazy, super imaginative, super creative...you don't know what the answer will be and that's the fun of it. He will surprise you with something you didn't plan on, or didn't anticipate. That's what I like, I want to be surprised," she said. "He wants to make it work and delight you too. He gets into a character's head and understands that words can be too heavy handed. I think his music helps carry us places and makes us feel things."

Other top winners at the BMI Film & Television Awards included legendary composer Mike Post, who received the most nods with three for Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: CI. Also feted were double winning composers Don Davis for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, David Newman for Daddy Day Care and The Cat In The Hat, Theodore Shapiro for Along Came Polly and Starsky & Hutch, Rolfe Kent for Freaky Friday and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Teddy Castellucci for Anger Management and 50 First Dates, Pete Townshend for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami, and Rob Cairns for The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

BMI also honored the composers of the highest-ranking cable television shows of the year, including Butch Hartman and Guy Moon for Fairly Oddparents and Danny Phantom, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh for All Grown Up, Stewart Copeland for The Amanda Show, Douglas Cuomo for Sex and the City, and Brian S. Friedman and Rick A. Friedman II for Punk'd.

The Most Performed Song from a Motion Picture was awarded to the band Korn for their song "Did My Time" from Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. "Did My Time" was written by Jonathan Davis, David Silveria, Munky, Fieldy and Head, and published by Evileria Music, Fieldysnuttz Music, Gintoe Music, Musik Munk Publishing and Stratosphericyoness Music.

BMI's Emmy Award winning composers were also honored, including Jeff Beal for Monk, Christopher Cerf and Glen Daum for Sesame Street, Lenny Williams and Chris Biondo for National Geographic Explorer - "Hornets From Hell," A.J. Gundell, Jerry Pilato, Dominic Messinger, Gary Kuo and Kim Oler for All My Children, John Henry Kreitler for "Forever Near" from Passions, and David Foster and Linda Thompson for "Aren't They All Our Children" from The Concert For World Children's Day.]]> 2004-05-12T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/podcasts/container/133416 Jonathan Davis discusses Working on Lara Croft film, Queen of the Dead, Twilight Zone; Why films? Davis, Jonathan, Pop, In Their Own Words, Video, 2004, BMI Film TV Awards 2004-05-11T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233387 Artists, Davis, Jonathan, Eminem, Korn, Musical Styles, Rock, Musicworld, Feature, Type, International The five members of Korn have helped pioneer the rap-metal revolution that has spread like wildfire over the past several years, mixing hard-hitting beats, growling guitars and sometimes brutally personal lyrics to often stunning effect. With its fifth album, Untouchables (Epic/Immortal), the group ups the ante, capitalizing on the rap-metal mania while looking well beyond it.

Leadoff track (and first single) "Here to Stay" features an ultra-heavy bassline, menacing guitar work and Jonathan Davis's trademark straightforward, angst-ridden vocals, while elsewhere the group delves into knockabout punk on "Wake Up Hate" and the softer melodicism of "Hollow Life." The approach clearly worked: Untouchables debuted at number two, kept out of the top spot only by omnipresent rapper Eminem.

Throughout its career, Korn has garnered no small share of controversy. Employing some of the same shock tactics as Marilyn Manson, the group can sometimes skirt the limits of what some might define as "good taste." Yet the muscularity of Korn's music and its intelligent lyrics have won legions of fans and swayed some of its harshest critics.

The band began its path to the top as LAPD, a hard rocking outfit based out of Bakersfield, California. In 1993, LAPD guitarists James "Munky" Shaffer and Brian "Head" Welch, bassist Reginald "Fieldy Snuts" Arvizu, and drummer David Silveria joined forces with Davis - then a mortuary science student - and the Korn name was born.

Relentless touring in support of Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson and Megadeth led to gold certifications for the group's first two albums. By 1998's multi-platinum Follow the Leader, the group had established itself as a major force in its own right, headlining Lollapalooza and winning the reinstatement of a Michigan high school student who had been suspended for wearing one of the group's t-shirts to class. (The high school administrator had deemed the group "indecent, vulgar and obscene," although the shirt in question merely featured the group's name.)

Later that same year Korn debuted the "Family Values Tour," featuring some of the heaviest rock/rap outfits around, including Limp Bizkit and Rammstein. It was with 1999's Issues, however, that the band reached a pinnacle, debuting at number one and spawning the eerie, high-charting single "Falling Away from Me." The album went quadruple platinum.

"We knew when we wrote the album that we were going to have to do something really great," Shaffer said at the time. "We had to move forward, push the boundaries, and create something very personal."

The same could be said of Untouchables, produced by Michael Beinhorn (Aerosmith, Hole, Soundgarden). As a result of the state-of-the-art equipment used in making the album, he says, "You can pick out and hear each individual instrument while everything's going on. Considering how dense the recording is - how many instruments are playing at any given time - it's pretty remarkable."

Now on an international tour, Korn is positioned to widen its influence even further. Parents everywhere be warned.

Pedigree notwithstanding, the members o Adema have made a name for themselves by injecting songs like "Freaking Out," "Everyone" and "Blow It Away" with generous doses of pop-inspired musicianship. Alternative Press magazine described the band's self-titled debut album "nu metal that . . . replaces nail-on-a-chalkboard screaming with actual harmonies and melodies." Echoing such sentiments, Spin magazine opined: "Adema commercialize the Korn sound with two new accessories: hooks and looks."

Adema was formed from the ashes of two popular Bakersfield metal acts, Juice and SexArt. After a year of rehearsing, the band recorded demos so impressive that two-dozen record labels competed for their services. A victorious Arista Records sequestered the band in a Northern California cabin, and these intensive writing sessions resulted in the material featured on the band's debut album.

Co-produced by Wallflowers guitarist Tobias Miller and Bill Appleberry, Adema's album is a hard-fought labor of love. "We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to come up with an honest record," Chavez told Revolver magazine. "We wanted to make the music - not who I'm related to - the issue."

Judging from the rave reviews they've received, Adema can consider their mission accomplished.