I'm watching yet another British reality show, this one where people who are thinking of moving to Europe are looking around at houses. In 90% of all these shows, from cooking to real estate to gardens, they use the same incidental music, such as the music they use for See The Lovely Countryside Our Tent Is In! on GBBO. Everything I've heard on GBBO I've heard in a half-dozen different shows, all from different production companies. Unless everybody gets their incidental music from the same sound shop.
I was once discombobulated to discover that the music on David Attenborough's
Trials of Life
sounded almost exactly like the music on Doctor Who during the period when John Nathan-Turner was producer. Near as I can tell it's wholly coincidental, the music was done by different people.
Connie, and billytea, you have discovered the exciting world of Library Music.
Which is where film/tv production companies buy a subscription to a library of musical cues and thus save themselves the expense of hiring a composer to do an original score. The same cues get used over and over in different productions.
They have been around for a long time and record collectors love to get hold of the old original LPs which had cues for Groovy Space Disco, or Bongo Teenagers Attack or Stinging Strings of Psychotic Break.
Jesse that would crack me up more except I currently have a friend who seems to not get that some stuff is not couple stuff. And it should not be assumed to be couple stuff. And if you find out it's not, it's not cool to suddenly bail. (Especially when you've been dating almost a year, this is not new!)
Connie, and billytea, you have discovered the exciting world of Library Music.
Not so! The music for
The Trials of Life
was done by George Fenton, who's since done many other Attenborough specials. (And earlier in his career did The Jewel in the Crown, which was unexpected.) When JNT took over Doctor Who, he sacked their long-running main composer, Dudley Simpson, and instead used the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. That was the department originally responsible for the iconic theme music, as well as sound effects such as the TARDIS dematerialisation and the sonic screwdriver. (Their 80s work for the show was very heavy on the electronica.)
Jesse that would crack me up more except I currently have a friend who seems to not get that some stuff is not couple stuff. And it should not be assumed to be couple stuff. And if you find out it's not, it's not cool to suddenly bail. (Especially when you've been dating almost a year, this is not new!)
Oh yeah, we were kind of salty the first time she tried to invite her partner. Because the friends part trumps the girls part, right? Just because she's a girl doesn't mean she's invited.
The BBC does have a vast library of music beds, though, so incidental/transitional music on shows not budgeted for their own original compositions are all picking from the same tracks.
One of the more amusing TV music things I remember was watching a show with contestants visiting New Zealand. A number of them were ooh-ing and ahh-ing about the Lord of the Rings movies when the music started. It was from Harry Potter. tsk ... SOMEONE wasn't up on their movie music.
Some may find the fourth panel relevant. [link]
Exactly, Jesse! It's not about "girl" time it's about friend-not-romantic-partner time!
I have no idea what to do with a non-napping toddler who is suddenly waking up at 6:30. We're both exhausted.
