Well I seemed to have made a few recurring themes in the first three
Small Screen Surfin's.

1. I made note of my stance on writing intros for this page¹.
2. I seemed to have mentioned a member of the Post team, some way or another, so I won't
   be doing that any MaW².
3. My intros have nothing to do with or have some strange linked anecdote that connects it with, the main body of text...

I've been watching the UK music channel 'Magic' and have been enjoying the 'At The Movies' theme running at the moment. I don't normally watch this channel but there is something about Movie and TV themes that make me prefer them to 'proper' songs. I don't include Soundtracks in the latter category.

So I decided to take a break from my usual 'review', which will make this edition of SSS slightly shorter than usual (possibly)³. As this week the Surf's up for TV and Movie music and themes...

I've got a little test for all three of my readers. Play a song of the same genre over the
title sequence of a different TV show or Movie. Say, for example, playing the 'Star Trek' theme over the 'Doctor Who's' title sequence. Not quite the same now is it?

What I don't think people realise is how much a theme tune can help make a programme successful. Theme music is the main thing to drive you to watch a programme (obviously can't be applied to a cinema when you've paid to see but works with the trailers). It's designed to get the exact feel of that programme alone with no other. Try giving the
'Star Wars' intro music the usual style of music for sci-fi (ignoring arguments that
it is a space-opera) or The Simpson’s getting the Flintstones treatment (without the words or
even the earlier Flintstones theme before they were 'modern stone-age'). Try the Boobahs
theme over Teletubbies. Would James Bond be James Bond without the opening gun barrel?
Some might argue it's the visual but the two need to go together. You'll see what I mean if
you just take the volume off the TV during that opening (feel free to add your own gunshot
noise)

Then again, there are those themes that will send you insane and make you not want to
watch the programme at all such as 'Married with Children'... But then again,
'Married with Children' would make you not want to watch it even if you'd tuned in
accidentally...

'Lord of the Rings' wouldn't feel quite the epic without that exact score. Granted
through all these experiments the visuals play their role as well. But, somehow, it's the music
that helps make TV and Film more real. Which could not be the same if you were out in the
street and music played wherever you went... As fun as it would be, life would not seem to be
happening if villainous organ music played when your landlord came to collect the rent
(somehow I think you're all going to try that).

Why do I prefer themes over ordinary songs? Authenticity. Reality which you cannot quite feel if you turn on 'Tops of the 'Pops'' (Knowing full well that the whole pop industry is built on tweenagers now. If only they interpreted what boy bands were really singing (it's not about love)) and seeing people lip synch. No it's not the same on music videos for movies because they make you think of the film and not the singers...

Well I'm done. Hopefully that was short and was complete bias...

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