Tv Shows Background Music

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 13 Feb 2009 11:53 am

I like to watch cop shows,DEA,COPS,CSI,LAW AND ORDER,ETC,It's seems most of them uses this Rap Crap [which I detest] as background music,It is so loud and distracting sometimes you can hardly hear the dialogue,this bugs the hell out of me,the commercials are just as bad,but at least I can mute them. Am I the only one that lets this get me upset ? DYKBC.

Leroy Riggs · Post by **Leroy Riggs** » 13 Feb 2009 1:37 pm

No, you are not the only one. I've also noticed that documentaries use this same technique (to keep your attention?).

I hate the noise.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 13 Feb 2009 5:15 pm

To me the generic LA D-team, studio-musician, fuzzed-out rock that is often used as background is just as bad as the generic hip-hop.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 13 Feb 2009 6:42 pm

I'm don't like that crap either - whether it's rap or rock, doesn't matter. I'm ok with music when it's a score written for the show or movie, but then it's not just background muzak anymore. Sometimes I think it's just one guy hired by all the studios to "sweeten" the shows. Whatever it is, it's annoying. Another annoying feature on the COPS-type shows is that phony, piped-in siren they play during all the chases.

Cass Broadview · Post by **Cass Broadview** » 14 Feb 2009 5:59 pm

Charlie, i agree with you 100% on these TV cop shows like Law & Order. But charlie, is Chuck Norris any better singing his own theme song on those hideous Walker Texas Rangers" reruns? GASP!

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 14 Feb 2009 10:15 pm

Was watching a "cop" show today, and could hardly hear the dialogue for the obnoxious loud background music. So I went to my music room and put on a good country tape to play along with,Jody.

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 14 Feb 2009 11:19 pm

I used to be into watching cop shows and private eye shows. Back in the 1980s I watched quite a few episodes of Simon & Simon, and there was a lot of pedal steel music in the background.

I was told by someone on the forum that Dean Parks played the theme song on slide guitar, but I don't think it'd be too hard to do it on PSG.

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 15 Feb 2009 12:45 am

Cass, I don't care for Walker too much,When he kicks a guy about twenty times in the face with a boot before he knocks him out,and the guy barely has a bloody nose,that's way beyond stupid.By the way years ago I saw the kick boxing match on tv,when he came out of retirement after making movies,HE GOT HIS BUTT KICKED. DYKBC.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 15 Feb 2009 9:14 am

I had to kill my TV because I was getting noise-saturated. When you watch the news, they have a news show theme that plays for a second, then a feature theme, then back to the news show theme to tell you they're going to a commercial, which may have four or five themes of their own each, then back to the news show theme - each commercial for another show plays their theme - then the news theme, to tell you that they're not going back to the news yet, but to another commercial. You'll hear well over a hundred different clips in one hour, count 'em. They haven't yet offered to pay me to subject myself to that....

There's the relationship music, the whole-tone piano scale when the single girl is walking through the dark parking garage, the pounding stress music for car chases and hospital bang-'em-with-the-paddles scenes, and extra-throbby music when the idiotards are diving down to get the treasure chest that the "Survivor" staff intentionally dumped in the bay - oooh, I'm stressed....

One of the most common methods used to drive prisoners insane is to bombard them with loud aggressive music - "Hide the ax, honey, I'm-a gonna watch TV!"

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 16 Feb 2009 11:15 am

If I were in a sealed room and they started pipeing in Snoop Dog,Ludacris,Scarface,etc,in about fifteen seconds,I would be telling them where ALL my exwives are buried. DYKBC.

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 16 Feb 2009 7:52 pm

I'm ok with music when it's a score written for the show or movie, but then it's not just background muzak anymore. Sometimes I think it's just one guy hired by all the studios to "sweeten" the shows.......and could hardly hear the dialogue for the obnoxious loud background music.

I haven't owned a tv since the Watergate Hearings, but once in a while, I get a call to "play" on one of the CSI shows. There's one composer and he has about 3 days to write, record, edit and mix something that fit's with what they send him. This isn't like film music, where it's been cut to the temp dub, and the composer has a good idea of what the director is looking for.

Bill has to come up with something that doesn't get in the way of the effects, supports what's happening in the scene and pleases the director and all of the "suits", who, since they're all geniuses, have an opinion of what he should do and how he should do it.

When I say "play", what I do is, since there isn't any time to work up anything, Bill played something on the keyboard and I go through my samples to find something that supports what he's doing. When there's a tension scene, I go through my stings and aggressive stuff, and we just load up the tracks, to be figured out in the mix down. Total time, 3 hours and I'm packing up.

Since budgets are now being cut even more, corporate needs more profits, you can expect to hear more "canned music".

You may not be hearing the dialog, because the producers don't think it's worth hearing, and keep in mind, he show is considered filler, to keep you there for the next commercial.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 17 Feb 2009 7:03 am

I think it's just one guy hired by all the studios to "sweeten" the shows......

So chas, are you saying then that you're that guy?

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 17 Feb 2009 11:14 am

Yo Barry, you got me....touche´

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 17 Feb 2009 11:16 am

dubble-post

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 17 Feb 2009 11:18 am

I've sometimes wondered if Earnest Bovine is getting a piece of that pie as well ....

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 17 Feb 2009 12:48 pm

If he isn't, he should be. He can play circles around me.

I don't get the "play the guitar" calls, for a number of reasons, including, I'm not a good reader. JD, Doug and Greg get the majority of those. What I get, and it's few and far between, are play the samples I've made from my instruments, or if there's playing guitar involved, I'll record what they want, usually "pads" or "neutral" kinds of things, at my studio, and burn a cd or upload it, FTP, to a server somewhere.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 17 Feb 2009 1:35 pm

Ry Cooder, of course, did some great soundtrack work with his slide guitar as a central voice, and I've always though a pedal steel guitar in the right hands could make for a great soundtrack machine - not a "country-western" movie thanks, but a creepy detective/suspense kind of thing. Unfortunately, it's all going in the other direction - canned music, product placement for the latest frothy young thing, nostalgia throwbacks....

I get a feeling of utter contempt from Hollywood producers, directors & writers these days, they just pump out recycled, lazy garbage and wonder why TV viewing is down. The last movie I saw with any originality was... "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" starring Wallace & Gromit?

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 17 Feb 2009 1:59 pm

and I've always though a pedal steel guitar in the right hands could make for a great soundtrack machine - not a "country-western" movie thanks,

I'm not saying it was in the right hands, but starting around 1984/85, I played on over 60 film scores.