Music in TV Shows

[Deleted member 26715]

For those who don't have a TV please put the thread on ignore!

For those who do have a TV what are the thoughts on the current trend to have the music so loud that it drowns out the voices of the actors, the reason I'm asking as I have poor hearing, so it could just be me, that I pick up the frequency of the music over the frequency of the voices. We finished off watching Traces on BBC iPlayer last night & a couple of times I couldn't hear what they were saying due to the loud music.

 

[DRHysted]

You are not alone, I find it frustrating. In fact I stopped watching a program once because of it.

 

[biggs682]

It's a sign we are all getting old .
But yes it's very frustrating

 

[PeteXXX]

Apparently, adverts are a bit louder so you can still hear them from the kitchen when you pop out to make a cuppa.

 

[PeteXXX]

BTW.. I do have a TV but I don't have a licence..

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Apparently, adverts are a bit louder so you can still hear them from the kitchen when you pop out to make a cuppa.

I have noticed this as well, you have the volume set to watch the program, then the adverts come on & blast your ears out.

 

[matticus]

It's a sign we are all getting old .

Sure, it's possible that we only moan about it as our hearing is worse than the 12-year-olds making the programs ( /ed_reardon).
But it's also true that music has become way more of a feature over time. Just watch a black-n-white drama - TV or film, your choice. The BBC know about this - they get complaints all the time (I think it was Mark Lawson who acknowledged the complaints, several years ago)

The point where it really started to grate - and I know this makes me look ridiculous - was the modern Dr Who. There is barely a second goes by without background music. You can watch stage musicals with less music. Luckily no-one mumbles in Dr Who so it's not a problem, but it was the program where I first noticed an hour of constant music.

This is bad production. Even in simplistic terms, music has more impact if you use it sparingly, and it has very little impact during dialogue.

 

[Donger]

A lazy way of building atmosphere. It has been around for ages, and I remember my dad complaining about it. The thing is, it really doesn't stand the test of time. When you watch some of the stuff from the 70s it is not only the fashion styles and the moral attitudes that grab your attention, but also some of the truly awful incidental music. I don't know why current TV producers think their soundtrack music will be any different. In 20 years time, kids everywhere will mock it, however trendy it may seem now.

 

[Edwardoka]

I don't watch much TV but I live with someone who does, and yes, you can hear it from across the house.
Really grating. They also have horrendous taste in movies, it's gotten to the point that I can tell what genre they're watching without hearing a single line of dialogue.

"This is one of those films that has a dog as the protagonist isn't it?"
Readers, it was. I am... *music swells dramatically* the Terrible Movie Whisperer.

 

[winjim]

I think they might mix the sound to be listened to in an 'ideal' environment, forgetting that we don't all have super duper home theatre surround sound systems and often listen through the crappy speakers on the back of the telly. The last couple of seasons of the Walking Dead, besides just being generally rubbish, had such badly mixed audio that I couldn't tell what was going on, and that's mostly dialogue without much music, although a fair amount of foley I think.

Remember when Game of Thrones made that really dark episode, everybody complained and the producers said that it was our fault for watching it on rubbish equipment? Never has it been more evident that a show takes its audience for granted. In this case it's kind of a moot point because the last couple of seasons of that show were also generally rubbish, but TV programmes should really be produced to look and sound decent on the cheapest, crappiest piece of junk they're likely to be watched on.

 

[Cathryn]

Remember when Game of Thrones made that really dark episode, everybody complained and the producers said that it was our fault for watching it on rubbish equipment? Never has it been more evident that a show takes its audience for granted. In this case it's kind of a moot point because the last couple of seasons of that show were also generally rubbish, but TV programmes should really be produced to look and sound decent on the cheapest, crappiest piece of junk they're likely to be watched on.

Those were DARK days for GoT fans in every sense of the word.

 

[winjim]

Those were DARK days for GoT fans in every sense of the word.

I just wanted it to end. I didn't care how. Now it's finished, the episodes are deleted from the Sky box, the books have gone to the charity shop and I just want to draw a line under the whole thing and try to forget it ever happened.

 

[Cathryn]

I just wanted it to end. I didn't care how. Now it's finished, the episodes are deleted from the Sky box, the books have gone to the charity shop and I just want to draw a line under the whole thing and try to forget it ever happened.

I quite liked the ending (apart from Bran???) but was gutted about how it went downhill at the end.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I quite liked the ending (apart from Bran???) but was gutted about how it went downhill at the end.

Is that not the way with most TV shows, they always try to push an extra series or two out of the contract where they'd be better going out on a high

 

[winjim]

I quite liked the ending (apart from Bran???) but was gutted about how it went downhill at the end.

I think the ending was not unexpected and they could have done Bran but properly. But the series as a whole was rushed and all over the place.

Have you read the books? They go on, and on, and on, and they're locked into a narrative structure which increasingly doesn't work. There's a decent story in there, maybe a trilogy as first intended, but they are crying out for a decent editor. The trouble is, GRRM absolutely idolises JRRT so he feels it's his duty to write an epic in the style of LotR but exceed it in tedious drudgery at every turn. And despite Neil Gaiman's protestations he is milking his fans by refusing to just sit down and finish the bloody thing. He's not a good writer.