@Errikos said:
People smirk and condescend on such TV today, since Ally McBeal, Law and Order, Sex and the City, CSI, etc. are not fully patronizing and are much more relevant today (right...). If that is the case, why is the music which is supposed to heighten that "depth" (yeah...) and "sophistication" (sure...) so freaking base? Why oh why does TV music slurp so vehemently today (excepting Star Trek TV and a couple of other shows)? O.K., say that I am biased since I hated those shows with an immortal passion... In that case, I found House MD's first few seasons generally quite intelligent (you may disagree). At the same time, I was confounded by the inappropriateness of the title and dramatic musics (you may not disagree). If you can't score for - what is intended - a highly brilliant and complex, suffering personality and your music sounds like powering up a studio's gear, get the F.A.Q. out of here and give me the job!
As I said in my original post to William’s original post, is it bad composing or is it show producers who desire bad composing. It seems to me that it’s the later because I’ve noticed that more and more TV show themes are not themes at all but sound designs; block chords, peppered with eerie synth arpeggios treated with a delay effect, BLOINKS! BLOOPS! And FASHIZZLES! And, of course, everything is drowning in way too much reverb. The show producers at some point have to listen to this stuff and make a decision, right? “Absolutely brilliant! The way those FASHIZZLES and BLOOPS whirl around in your piece are so characteristic of our protagonist. This is what we’ve been waiting for.” What I fear the most is that this is some kind of cultural paradigm shift in television music. Or what is more commonly referred to as a “generational thing.” Maybe the kids nowadays just don’t dig good TV themes.
On the other hand, it could very well be bad composing and that’s what I hope it is. I’ve also noticed a few TV shows are licensing top 40 pop songs to be their themes as well. Didn’t used to be the other way around? I remember some really good TV themes becoming Top 40 hits like, The Rockford Files, Greatest American Hero, Bosom Buddies, and, I think Cheers. Perhaps there are some musically inclined show producers out there who have heard the BLOINKS and BLOOPS and have said to the so-called ‘arteest’ composer, “dude, I’m not paying for something that you just shat out of your DAW in five minutes.”
These things tent to be cyclical though. I hope we go back to the basics like melody harmony and counterpoint soon because it sure is getting hard to do BLOINKS BLOOPS and FASHIZZLES with my mouth every time I play ‘Name That TV Theme’ with my friends.