The Importance Of A Soundtrack

Over the past month I've watched a few productions from Mark Burnett , including his successful franchises of many years (Survivor, Apprentice, The Voice, etc.) as well as his latest creation The Bible for History channel. Though the latter was met with mixed reviews, there's no denying his exceptional talent for producing TV hits.

(Just a quick side-note; my favorite of Mark's was when he teamed with Jeffrey Katzenberg for season 1 of the reality drama The Contender. Though the show ran for 5 seasons, nothing could match the first season with big bucks sponsorship coming from Toyota, costing over 2 million per episode & it showed. Hans Zimmer did the soundtrack & everything about the show was great. Hosted by Sylvester Stallone & Sugar Ray Leonard, if you get a chance to see season 1, it's a real treat. Even though the show was about boxers, it had a broad appeal for the human interest stories. I first became aware of it while at a meeting in a fancy restaurant. We were negotiating the production of a similar show with some promo material on the table, the waitress, a cute young thing, asked if we were from The Contender? She intrigued me by expressing so passionately how much she loved the show. A curious phenomena as she seemed outside what experts judged the demographic [18-45 year old males])

Let's get back to soundtracks... It wasn't until I sat down recently to watch my first episode of Mark's show which rules Friday nights (Shark Tank), that I realized the quality of his background music. Of course I've experienced the soundtracks on Survivor & Apprentice, but Shark Tank really impressed me with the quality of production.

The style of music they use on these shows is treading a very fine line between dramatic & over the top. If you remember the quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, I would classify their music as crossing over that line into the over the top range.

Here's my thought; on Shark Tank, the music is such a massive contributor in creating the moods, tension, excitement & ambiance, it really makes the show. If we set aside subject matter & just gauge the percentage points for power of audience influence between visuals, dialogue & music, the music holds a huge chunk of the power on this show.

However, while viewing the credits & going by the industry standard of Top Billing for preeminence which depreciates the further you get from top, music is nearly last, believe it or not it comes after the Transportation Coordinator.

People have been talking about effects guys not getting the respect they deserve, how about these musicians who painstakingly go thru this type of programming with accents after every line of dialogue carrying the viewers on musical waves of dramatic intonation? Where's their due?


PS - For VFX, on the show's bumpers I also like the visual effect of the hammerhead sharks circling above the office towers.

Musicians have been unionized for decades. Musicians have several outlets for recognition by their peers. Composers in film are more widely recognized and known than VFX artists. Film composers are recognized by many other sectors of the music industry outside of films.

VFX folks only have the film industry, the don't really get to practice their craft in dozens of other media outlets. It is a much more constrained market.

Although it is odd that music credits come towards the end. I've often had to do that myself, being told the reason is that there are many songs in a project, and each one has to be sited, and it becomes a very long, complex list of sub-credits that can stand alone.

If you look back at films in the 30s, 40s, 50s you'll see the composer and orchestra listed in the opening credits. But back then, music was one composer/conductor, and one orchestra. Not all convoluted and complicated like it is today.

Also, the composers on major films today only come up with basic music piece ideas. A subordinate with little to no credit does the heavy lifting of actually writing out all the instrument parts and arranging. It is a very different world today.

Hopefully independent films will be able to change all of this corporate mentality BS that is dragging the film industry down.

Valid points, Ben.

The Shark Tank show doesn't have a list of songs at the end of the credits (as it only contains original music), but rather the names of the one or two musicians that construct the soundscape for the program. Union or not, it seems that since their music is such an integral vital component of the show they should at least get better billing than the craft services lady or the guy that runs the generator on the truck.

Maybe I'm too much of an idealist...

I agree...

While we're talking soundtracks (& Burnett), I though you guys might like to read this quick interview with Hans Zimmer the cinematic music master (Gladiator, Prince of Egypt, etc.) Over the past couple of weeks Burnett's been running a miniseries on History channel called The Bible. Zimmer scored it & it's breaking all kinds of ratings records.

Here he shares why he normally doesn't do television.

(Man, how great was that Gladiator soundtrack?!?!)

Sounds like the same singer (Lisa Gerard) from Gladiator is on this one too...

variety.com/2013/music/news/zimmer-has-l...orical-epics-821060/



PS: If you ever get a chance to see the first season of The Contender, not only is the show epic, but Hans Zimmer's cinematic score is a real treat for the small screen.