291. Empire's Helen O'Hara on the musical evolution of superhero cinema

MFA Book Month concludes this week with journalist, author and Empire podcast geek queen Helen O'Hara joining me for a journey through the music of superhero cinema, from John Williams' magisterial score for SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE through to Kendrick Lamar's BLACK PANTHER soundtrack and much in between. We discuss the evolution from theme driven symphonic scores to the intense blare of Hans Zimmer, the use of pop music in superhero films from Prince's BATMAN music to the toe-tapping GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, how Marvel found its footing with the scores of the MCU after a slightly muddled beginning and we plug Helen's new book THE ULTIMATE SUPERHERO MOVIE GUIDE. We also get into it about JOKER (no spoilers), what almost drove Helen off Twitter, I offer some lightly controversial takes and it all ends on a very silly note.