The O.C. Music: Looking to buy the O.C. Score Soundtrack?

Will the score ever get released? 

Looking to buy the O.C. Score Soundtrack? Well your going to have to get in line! The background music or score has never been formally released so the bad news is you can't, well, yet...


The O.C. composers

Christopher Tyng

Christopher Tyng was the main music composer for the first half of the show (from 2003-2005). Weather it was a dramatic moment or a comedic one Christopher's background compositions set the tone for the entire series. At the time Christopher Tyng was also juggling composing for the hit TV show "Rescue Me" as well as a Futurama video game and a TV series called "Game Over". Christopher left the show in 2005 for unknown reasons. It could be to jump on the "Rescue Me" wagon and focus solely on that project until that show's ending in 2007 or it could be that The O.C. creators wanted to take a different musical direction.

Richard Marvin

Which they did, they hired composer Richard Marvin in 2005. Marvin stayed for the remaining of the series (seasons 2.24, 3 and 4). You may have recalled when the switch-over happened as you heard a brand new ending credits song appear in last episode of season 2 "The Dearly Beloved". It was a huge whoa moment! Naturally It seemed like Richard Marvin was trying to emulate the pallet that Christopher painted but also throwing in bits here and there of his own great color and style. Its up to you to decide which composer you like better.




Fans taking matters in their own hands 

Over the years there has been DVD releases as well as various other The O.C. merchandise but still no official background music release. So due to that, fans have uploaded their own attempts on various websites (mainly YouTube). The best YouTube channel for higher quality background music tracks from The O.C. can be found on the awesome YouTube channel called OCscore. This channel provides compositions of both Christopher and Richard. Meanwhile other fans have shared their audio files in torrent form that can be found throughout the web. These tracks have been produced home-made using a vocal removal techniques, getting rid of voice frequencies, thus keeping the background music intact. This effect can be produced via Audacity and many others free computer audio software. Due to not having the original files they aren't perfect, you can subtly hear actors voices at times as well as other artifacts that were layered in the shows audio that are impossible to remove. Despite its flaws its very enjoyable never the less.

Petition 

There is an ongoing petition at Ipetitions.com (click to sign) which demands the release of high quality versions of the score that fans can then buy. If you want to support the cause, sign it and maybe eventually the networks will release the tracks. But like most things, we are in the dark when it comes to the business decisions made in Hollywood. There could be countless reasons why the soundtrack hasn't been released yet or ever will. Until then get creative, check out the pretty good quality tracks via youtube and relive your favorite O.C. background music moments!