Why is music so bad in cartoons and even in movies? I think Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is the only one that had a decent soundtrack.
Only half-decent musicians I know in cartoons are usually for horror cartoons like Courage the Cowardly Dog where the musician actually gives a shit to create SOME atmosphere because "it's a horror, it's suppose to leak atmosphere". Horror musicians are usually better than action show musicians ,
but even if the music is good the problem is the dialogue overpowering the music and the music never lasts long enough to leave a memorable song in your head. You'd have to basically have a lot of stretched out episodes of nothing but songs and background music playing with 0 dialogue and even minimal sound effects to not overpower the music. But often times they are obsessed with not overpowering the dialogue and sound effects over the music. Sometimes they even play a shittier version of the same soundtrack. youtube.com/watch?v=0DG8UGxI5Bw
Usually in an action show the music is drowned out by the guns. You have more chances if it's a show with no guns.
And pointing to Interstella 5555 is cheating. Albeit it would be a good example if it was a full on movie with dialogue parts to it instead of just music 24/7 like it's some video game cinematic.
Because licensed shit is expensive, and the quality floor is high for the homebrew stuff. If you want good music, you either have to pay good money to license something people care about, or you're going to have to hunt for the right composers/musicians that'll homebrew the kind of music you're looking for AND make sure they're good enough that the viewers of your show like the music enough that it justifies the cost.
Carson Davis
To be fair, film composition music and similar music has a completely different strategy and intention than, say, pop music or dance music or any music you would usually choose to listen to, sure maybe a synthwave song will work in a cyberpunk action scene but even then it can't be too complex or overpowering or it distracts from whats going on. The philosophies of film music can be understood better from youtube channels about it if you want a better idea, I recommend checking out Sideways on youtube. youtube.com/c/Sideways440/videos However I do not disagree entirely, I think more variety and experimentation with those musical styles is overall good
PnF having incredible music is an anomaly, too bad it didn't happen with MML though.
Camden Turner
>And pointing to Interstella 5555 is cheating. Albeit it would be a good example if it was a full on movie with dialogue parts to it instead of just music 24/7 like it's some video game cinematic. Yes that would be a good example. 70% music, 30% dialogue if you truly want to experiment properly. There's no way around it, you need to separate the scenes between dialogue and music sequences, you cannot have both. youtube.com/watch?v=Vt_27bqy8S4 youtube.com/watch?v=egPR5MuE7u0 youtube.com/watch?v=VErKCq1IGIU
Anthony Powell
I'd mention mlp as a very musically competent cartoon but it turns out that cartoon horses are not a cartoon board applicable topic.
Matthew Taylor
Video games achieved what OP wants, but the animation industry gives 0 fucks about music and they are indeed obsessed with "MUH DIALOGUE" they can't shut up about it. youtube.com/watch?v=DReUg3OY2Us
That's why old video games are so much better when the character shuts the fuck up while you fight without shoving their retarded Spiderman quips in the middle of the fucking scene. But sadly even in video game cutscenes the norm is dialogue/sound effects > music. If it's not a "song sequence" then you won't have booming loud music playing. youtube.com/watch?v=clX1lSSlS18
I think Pirates of the Carribean is the only movie series that doesn't give a fuck and just raises the volume of the music whenever it wants to. The composer finds any opportunity to play the music at max volume after they stop talking for even 5 seconds.
Kevin Ortiz
>youtube.com/watch?v=clX1lSSlS18 Like I told you, you cannot have both, you need to separate them HARSHLY. (albeit the voices aren't as drowning as the retarded waterfall). The cliche there is that you can only hear that emotional music because "it's meant to be an emotional scene" otherwise in almost every cutscene the music is drowned out outside of the actual gameplay.
Daniel Ingram is still elevator music tier as much as the horsefans love sucking his dick and he makes some terrible music if there's a retarded executive breathing down his neck. He's just very musically knowledgeable, just not talented.
For example I absolutely do not find PPG and Samurai Jack's composer talented. His techno and psychedelic is pathetic compared to the real thing. And by real thing I mean quality albums, not random trash you find when searching on Youtube "psychedelic trance" Even Dexter's Lab's composer was better imo. Dexter's Laboratory
And these 3 shows were made after 2010. Zoomers don't even know their own culture. You disgusting retard, you're an embarrassment to your own generation. Consumerist whore who watches only what's popular because he's too dumb to find it himself.
Charles Parker
It varies, Like Batman TAS always had a good soundtrack.from what I recall. By contrast I had an episode of Cybersix on in the background the other day and it had some of the worst incidental music I've ever heard.
Jason Bennett
most studio/live musicians don't give that much of a shit about scoring for film/tv stuff that much, and even the ones that do don't get that much of a chance compared to dedicated film/tv composers, mostly due to exec/record label bullshit considering they're attached to one of course; not to say the latter group is bad in any way of course, as there are quite a couple I like.
>His techno and psychedelic is pathetic compared to the real thing. When working mostly out of reference/temp tracks, of course your stuff is gonna sound like the Great Value rendition of what you've listened to 9 times out of 10. What matters (or at least should matter) is how interesting you could make your songwriting despite the fact
Kayden Wood
4Kids was fucking weird how they outright removed songs and scores from the original animes despite having the rights to them. Even the rights to the original Sonic video game soundtracks. Seems more like an ego thing than something practical. "No we'll do our own version!" same way how for animation ever bothers hiring more than 2 musicians.
You'd think with how much money executives use up on animation that they'd bother paying for a proper composer or some good incidental soundtracks. Devilman Crybaby has a pretty great soundtrack. youtube.com/watch?v=_JFTgoGa2Dk
As for "licensed shit is expensive" I can understand why they couldn't air it on TV back then, but now there's so many ways to get around this by just releasing an alternate better version of your show on the internet for all to enjoy under a third party name. youtube.com/watch?v=y1V_cbC-_q0 youtube.com/watch?v=96mKGlPG0Fg
Tyler Hernandez
>most studio/live musicians don't give that much of a shit about scoring for film/tv stuff that much, What idiots. Same for script writers who don't care about TV and animation.
Caleb Hughes
Honestly caring about animation and low budget TV Shows is the same thing as caring about a puppet show. That's how they view it and that's honestly how it is unless you're making an animated movie or an adult thriller movie.
Liam Anderson
>What idiots. Eh, I'm a bit torn. In a sense, I can sort of get the reasons why they wouldn't want to delve into that sort of thing, especially if they're one of those guys who're concerned with aspects like "creative freedom" and/or "budget" over all else. That said, I'll definitely prefer those who'll take the l regardless.
Camden Price
I just want a cartoon to have the western equivalent of Iwasaki kun.
I think OK KO's soundtracks prove that high production values aren't all that necessary for writing really nice songs, and I know that was made under heavy limitations, mostly having to rely on DAW-based samples and cue tracks and all. That said, Jake Kaufman's obviously good at writing catchy, interesting cues, given his background in video games, so it works really well in this case. Here's an old power block episode showing a "making of" for one of these tracks:
The Last Airbender and especially Oban Star Racers have some good soundtracks. I think Galatik Football also had a good soundtrack. I remember there always being music during it. ATOM/Alpha Teens On Machines also had a lot of decent ish music always playing.
Liam Howard
Some great discussion in these videos.
Bentley Howard
i love the OKKO and SU soundtrack AT used to have good tunes
Hudson Cruz
Lmao what is this fanfic you just made up? Music is like the only good thing about cartoons, to the point people reeeee when a show uses licensed music instead of an original soundtrack.
If you like kipo you don't need to shit on everything else. Music and cartoons have been linked ever since cartoons were created.
Jose Myers
>sleigh bell hater He can get fucked, sleigh bells are the best part of snow themed game levels. I haven't really heard them used in cartoons much, either.
>The long wait for Amphibia season 3 is over! While waiting for season 3 to arrive, I compiled a video of every time Anne, Sasha, or Marcy's theme is heard throughout the show so far. Now while I believe I got most of them, there are most likely some I might be missing. (Anne's theme is played ALOT.) Also, some clips had to be cut down to avoid copyright.
People aren't exaggerating when they say chink-chonks can't into music. It sounds so generic. I mean it's not bad, but it's so fucking mediocre and sounds exactly like everything else you've heard before except the chink-chonk version of music sounds extra watered down like an amateur composed it.
Joshua Parker
Courage's music was top notch at tugging your heartstrings (and being able to actually hear it) youtube.com/watch?v=RDbnABbCfDA
Huh yeah actually mute characters are a great combo with music, just like video game characters. Courage is an amazing example because he's usually a mute character. Not even Scooby stays silent as much as Courage because Scooby is often seen with Shaggy.
Joseph Ward
You know what's bad? When the music is great but it's coupled with dialogue that's so cringe, no amount of musical talent could make it seem good. youtube.com/watch?v=KpEhFyF0IpY
Lucas Young
>If you'd like to discuss collaboration or custom music commissions, please email me at [email protected]
The sound guy for Courage knew how to raise up the music's volume so you can actually hear it and gave 0 fucks if you can't hear the dialogue. I'm glad the executives/producer/director whatever was smart enough to let him ramp up the volume.
Courage was also the only 2D show to use those highly detailed 3D textures and pictures for its backgrounds, again something other 2D shows never bothered using.
>It sounds so generic. I mean it's not bad, but it's so fucking mediocre and sounds exactly like everything else you've heard before except the chink-chonk version of music sounds extra watered down like an amateur composed it. This but with most movie scores for me.
