Incidental TV music - for the non-fans

[Deckerd]

I'm one of those people who never listens to incidental TV music and therefore never remembers it.

I only bring this up because I've been mystified by threads on the music of Farscape and BSG (to name the first two that spring to mind) and I was wondering if I'm completely on my own here.

Films, on the other hand, I have no trouble remembering. Famous John Williams themes, for instance, and other notables*.

This doesn't mean I'm not a music fan. Far from it. I just seem to have a deaf spot when it comes to TV shows.

*guess, go on

 

[tharpdevenport]

Just watching the wrong TV shows. Many of today's new TV shows have servicable, or bad scoring. You gotta start from the early 90's and go back (the 80's had a lot of great TV scoring, for example). Then stop at what ever decade you no longer enjoy the work of.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

It might be because TV music is churned out so quickly -- I may be wrong, but I'm under the impression that an episode's music is scored within the week-ten days allotted for filming and post production. If so, that's not a whole lot of time for a composer to generate truly remarkable and memorable themes, melodies, etc.

That's not to say that there isn't good TV music ... but it tends to be lost in the volume of solid, if somewhat unremarkable fare ...

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I completely disagree with Tharp. I think incidental music in TV series has become very interesting in the last couple of years. We've finally escaped the "wallflower" school of incidental music that had plagues the 1980's and early 1990's, and these days music is finally allowed to have some personality and to set the emotional tone for scenes. You can clearly hear that approach in shows like "Battlestar Galactica" or the contemporary "Doctor Who".

Whatever happens, though, TV music is rarely as sophisticated as film music, for time and budgetary reasons.

 

[Canadave]

I completely disagree with Tharp. I think incidental music in TV series has become very interesting in the last couple of years. We've finally escaped the "wallflower" school of incidental music that had plagues the 1980's and early 1990's, and these days music is finally allowed to have some personality and to set the emotional tone for scenes. You can clearly hear that approach in shows like "Battlestar Galactica" or the contemporary "Doctor Who".

Yeah, agreed. In the past, I find that a lot of TV shows tended to rely on having stock music ready-to-go (TOS, for example, did this a lot), slapping it on top of scenes regardless of whether or not it fit. Today, I find that composers tend to be a lot more nuanced, and develop strong motifs and thematic depth in their scores. BSG and Doctor Who are two good examples, as is Lost, though it tends to have a more uniform style than the other two (which I think is something decided by the show's producers, given the range Michael Giacchino has shown in his various works).

 

[RandyS]

Just watching the wrong TV shows. Many of today's new TV shows have servicable, or bad scoring. You gotta start from the early 90's and go back (the 80's had a lot of great TV scoring, for example). Then stop at what ever decade you no longer enjoy the work of.

Pretty much, yeah.

 

[cultcross]

I'm one of those people who never listens to incidental TV music and therefore never remembers it.

I only bring this up because I've been mystified by threads on the music of Farscape and BSG (to name the first two that spring to mind) and I was wondering if I'm completely on my own here.

You're not. I hardly ever recall incidental TV show music unless someone specifically points it out. I tend to get lost in the dialogue on TV, and ignore the music. In films, its difficult to do because the music tends to be much more high profile.

 

[zakkrusz]

Domestic TV shows, not so much but foreign scores are offen highly notable and recognizable with me.

Incidentally, I have over 100 soundtracks for anime series I thought were exceptional composed by masters such as Yuki Kajiura, Yoko Kanno, Kenji Kawai, and Hikaru Nanase to name a few of the big names. It's simply much better music than you would find in a TV show here. All togather they're about 1/3 of my CD collection.

 

[Dac]

I Absolutely adore Bear McCreary's work on Battlestar and Terminator, and he makes up a rather sizable portion of my iTunes library.

I have a fair share of Star Trek TV music also, and some Who tracks, but outside of that I don't have much (maybe the odd theme tune here and there). I guess it comes down to how much you love the show, I absolutely love BSG so the music has strong connections to the emotional highs and lows of the show. I guess thats why I can listen to his work all day.

 

[Deckerd]

I'm not arguing you about the quality BSG (or Firefly or Doctor Who). I love them all but I just never noticed the music, aside from opening and closing themes.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I'm not arguing you about the quality BSG (or Firefly or Doctor Who). I love them all but I just never noticed the music, aside from opening and closing themes.

I think it's rather strange, actually. Just speaking about BSG, the music very often was on the forefront, used in long, slow scenes with very little or no dialogue, and it had a very distinctive quality, with exotic strings and heavy drums. Never noticing it is like watching all the Rocky movies without noticing the boxing.

 

[Deckerd]

Sure come in here and have your say. You'll notice I didn't crash into the love-the-music threads and derail them?

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Sure come in here and have your say. You'll notice I didn't crash into the love-the-music threads and derail them?

Um, what?!

 

[Deckerd]

Sorry I didn't mean derail. I meant disparage.

 

[Admiral2]

I doubt you're the only one, but I pay attenton to the music all the time if i think it's good. Movies and TV. One of my favorite collections is the original soundtrack from 24.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Sorry I didn't mean derail. I meant disparage.

I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I do find it strange that anyone could watch BSG without noticing the music, though.

 

[Brikar99]

I doubt you're the only one, but I pay attenton to the music all the time if i think it's good. Movies and TV. One of my favorite collections is the original soundtrack from 24.

That one's pretty good, thought the synthesized nature of it tends to be more pronounced when it's separated from all the dialogue and sound design of the TV show. On TV, I think it blends better and sounds more natural than it does on the album.

 

[Canadave]

Sorry I didn't mean derail. I meant disparage.

I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I do find it strange that anyone could watch BSG without noticing the music, though.

I know how you feel. BSG is one of the few television shows I've seen that will actually let the music carry a scene. I can understand how someone may not appreciate it on the same level I do, but to not notice it I find a little baffling.

 

[Deckerd]

It's just one of those things, I suppose. My mind differentiates between big screen and small screen. As mentioned before this could be because the big screen musical productions are much grander and usually have much more money to spend. And they're louder.

 

[vampgrrl]

I think Bear's work on BSG is top notch...and rivals John Williams (while not as grand he scores music perfectly for the scenes its used in)
Here is Black Market (which is one of the lesser BSG episodes, but this was one of the best things to come out of it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD8B...=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UT&feature=player_embedded