ASTS 058: Listening To... GODZILLA! (The Showa Era, Part 1)

Hello and welcome back to the podcast! Starting with this episode, I present another entry in my "Listening To... " sub-series, this time focused on that long running film franchise with a massive pop cultural footprint, GODZILLA!   While it’s a pop culture reference known the world over, GODZILLA is perhaps best understood by one country and culture, that being Japan and its people. But what does GODZILLA music sound like? We might know it when hear it, but where did it begin? The scaly behemoth has been a towering figure of science fiction and monster movie cinema ever since the original movie, GOJIRA, premiered in Japan in 1954, inadvertently beginning what emerged as a popular sub-genre called "kaiju eiga".   During the more than 70 years of big screen adventures, this series has journeyed from apocalyptic, black & white installments, to colorful kid-friendly monster mashes, topical storylines and splashy, big budget epics. Keeping pace with this is a great wealth of musical variety, from a number of talented composers, but the originator of it all is Akira Ifukube, a legend in Japanese film and music circles. It is Ifukube's music for the Showa era that is the focus of this first episode.   Title playtime index: Intro - 00:00 "Modern Monster Movie Music Suite" - 00:05:33 GODZILLA (1954) (Akira Ifukube) - 00:13:23 KING KONG VS GODZILLA (1962) (Akira Ifukube) - 00:20:30 MOTHRA VS GODZILLA (1964) (Akira Ifukube) - 00:32:46 GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964) (Akira Ifukube) - 00:36:42 INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER (1965) (Akira Ifukube) - 00:40:48 DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968) (Akira Ifukube) - 00:47:44 GODZILLA VS GIGAN (1972) (Akira Ifukube) - 00:54:33 TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA (1975) (Akira Ifukube) - 01:04:30 Wrap up - 01:14:22   Stay safe out there, take care of yourself and each other!    Connect with the podcast on Facebook, Twitter and Bluesky: www.facebook.com/ascoretosettle https://twitter.com/score2settlepod https://bsky.app/profile/score2settlepod.bsky.social   Email the show at [email protected]