The same music is being used!

[Nelli]

A while ago now I saw a trailer at the cinema for the film the Mummy, and couldn't quite believe my ears as I could quite confidently recognise the music from the film Bram Stoker's Dracula being played. Then again not so long ago I saw a trailer for another film (can't quite remember what it was) and along with the voice over, the music from Braveheart was being played. What is going on? Has the film industry finally run out of ideas? I don't think so ... or do they just think we won't get it? (Admittedly however these were trailers and not the actual films that were using previous aired music). Can anyone explain what may be going on?
Nelli (a frustrated musician!!)

[eram]

It is populism, nothing less. Listen to Classic Fm and you always get the same tunes coming up as people's favourites. The same composers go round and round. But this is because they are great and emotive and all the rest. Only ad agencies these days seem to seek obscure music. When you are dealing with Gothic or large emotion, falling back on stuff that has consistently moved people is relatively wise. And of course it is less costly and far less time consuming that comissioning new works. A fine case is the theme music from Gladiator by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard - it went straight into the classical music charts.

[artisan]

The fact that you recognised it as belonging to Dracula meant other people associated it with scary movies. A lot of movies use music in-jokes.

[Hitchcock]

A lot of movie trailers are released before all the production of the movie is complete, including its' soundtrack so the promoters use what they can, even using music from other films. I've seen trailers with quick cut scenes from other movies in them. Most noticable are the Star Trek Trailers (Generations uses scenes from The Next Generation and STVI). Have you seen Die Hard? the music right at the end of the film were his Cop friend shoots the terrorist? that bit of music is from the finale of Aliens.

[mikewith]

Are these movies released or produced by the same people? They may have the rights to use a certain piece of music in films (plural) rather than a single film. A friend who allowed a song to be used in one movie was surprised, upset (and unpaid) to hear it used in several other films, but could do nothing about it. He'd signed away the rights unwittingly.