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Notice How TV Music Is Getting a Lot Cooler?

March 7, 2019 · Leave a Comment

In a recent piece, Noisey explores the rise of independent artists working on scores for television programs, such as Julia Holter‘s work on the UK Channel 4 show Pure. Music supervisor Jen Moss explains how the scoring landscape is now a bit more adventurous:

“Things like cable channels and streaming platforms are allowing for slightly more leftfield storytelling and non-traditional narratives and voices,” she explains. “The creatives behind them want to to extend that experimentation into the music as well. So what we’re getting now is a move away from all the orchestral traditional scores you used to tend to get, into soundscapes that are as artful and unique as the visuals they’re accompanying.”

I imagine another factor is that so much content is created now, with even more on the way as new streaming networks from the likes of Disney and Apple appear on the horizon. With all these shows, studios are going to unexpected (and lower budgeted) places to fill composer shoes.

But the odd tone of the article stood out to me:

The trend of indie artists scoring films is finally trickling down to TV. But while on the surface it might appear like a winning arrangement for both artists, TV creators and small screen bingers alike, underneath it reveals a darker truth about how indie musicians are increasingly being forced to diversify in a time of crushingly low streaming platform royalties railroading acts into exhausting cycles of touring.

Weird. Even before streaming, indie musicians would jump at the chance to score for TV. And I don’t think I’ve ever discussed goals with a songwriter or producer without ‘scoring a film or TV show’ coming up. Yes, diversification is essential for musicians in 2019 and non-stop touring sucks. But artists given opportunities to work on television is often considered a golden opportunity, despite streaming’s impact.

🔗→ TV’s ‘Golden Age’ Has an Extra Meaning for Indie Musicians

Filed Under: Items of Note Tagged With: Film Scores, Julia Holter, Music Supervision, Television, The State Of The Music Industry

The Culture-Changing Rollable TV

January 10, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Chances are you heard about the 2019 International CES debut of this revolutionary television:

As the host notes, these will be super-expensive at first, no doubt. But flat-screen TVs were expensive as well, and now almost everyone has one. Likewise, I think this ‘rollable’ TV (and the inevitable competing versions) will catch on in a big way. What interests me is how our culture is affected when the TV is no longer the centerpiece of our living rooms. A TV that’s made to be hidden— replaced by a painting or whatever is behind its previously allotted space — proposes a mindset that’s foreign to almost every generation. Can you imagine a house where a big screen isn’t the focus of the primary social room’s furniture and all the attention?

Filed Under: Miscellanea Tagged With: Technology, Television

Of Scalpels and Synthesizers: The Music of THE KNICK

August 1, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Indiewire:

In the context of 1900s New York, (the musical score) is so blatantly anachronistic as to risk undermining any possible suspension of disbelief the director might have achieved through the show’s painstaking set design and costuming. And this may well be the point.



I’m quite looking forward to the return of THE KNICK in a few months (check out the Season 2 teaser trailer HERE). Though not without its faults, the show is beguiling, especially in its remarkably organic potrayal of the early 1900s as a setting. It can be seen as a bit of an artistic ‘passion project’ of Steven Soderbergh as he dedicates himself to each episode as director, cinematographer, and editor (though he is credited in the latter two capacities under pseudonyms for some reason). Soderbergh’s close involvement makes for a tightly consistent series. Also remarkable is Cliff Martinez’s revelatory ‘out of time’ score. When I watched the first episode I honestly was initially thrown off by the music, and I was worried the accompanying cold and rigidly sequenced synthesizer score would keep me from immersing myself in the show’s time period. I was wrong. This excellent analysis of Cliff Martinez’s score delves in to just what makes it work.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Cliff Martinez, Soundtracks, Steven Soderbergh, Television, The Knick

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