Throwback Thursday: Background Music and the Soundtrack Phenomenon

"The problem with reality is that there’s no background music, so you don’t know whether you’re experiencing a comedy, suspense or a tragedy." ~ Unknown

I don't know about you, but a lot of times when I'm walking or driving in my car, or doing whatever, there is music playing in my heart, or head or wherever those tunes are coming from. Often it is upbeat and it makes me feel upbeat. Other times it puts a rhythm in my step.

But wouldn't it be funny if the soundtrack were on the outside? You walk into a room and the mood changes because the music is David Grusin's theme from Tootsie. Following you wherever you go.

Or what if the music changed from cheerful to ominous while you were heading up the stairs to your office, but you did not know it... You're still humming a happy tune, but the soundtrack has shifted to discordant, edgy.

Actually, music tracks are a strange notion sometimes. It is funny how we have learned to just accept them in movies, though even the best music can't save a bad film. An even stranger thing for me, however, is the laugh track on television sitcoms.

Wouldn't that be funny if when you said "Good morning!" to the clerk at the checkout counter a laugh track started playing?

ON ANOTHER TOPIC
It's interesting how we take things for granted as if what we are experiencing has always been this way. When it comes to things Internet, it's a relatively short history, so if you wish to go back and time it's not that difficult to get there. Here is a link to a story in the tech section of the Telegraph about how 20 popular websites looked when they first launched.

We've come a long ways, baby.

The Music In My Head

Notes from Saturday

Today it is Paul Winter, Winterland. Light, airy, rhythmic, delicious. It seems like there is always music playing there, lifting me up or soothing me down, carrying me along through my day. And I wonder, is this a common experience for all? For a few?

Music has always been a part of my life, and usually the tracks playing in my head are familiar because of they were listened to over and over again at one point in time or another. The Paul Winter music is particularly well suited to my first class seat above the clouds, drifting toward Minneapolis on my return to Duluth. The plane floats, carried along on the flowing melody, sweeping us along on a jet stream. Not the jet stream, of course, that shoots west-to-east, but we’re being briskly buffeted by currents and waves as we bobble along, smooth then not so smooth, but hardly tempest-tossed.

Often it is Dylan. Desolation Row has a lyrical quality with a rhythmic strum that hankers along with the pace of a typical day. Visions of Johanna can have the same effect, the mournful mouth harp embellishing the easy pace.

Procol Harem's White Shade of Pale is another smooth soother of a tune, the organ transporting you on a wave of ethereal internal ecstasy as you do your chores, process paperwork, disappearing into your day. Need to slow even further? Go with Who Knows Where the Time Goes? by either Judy Collins of Sandy Denny. This song will take you there....

On the other hand, if you're getting ready for the gridiron, need a boost, the Stones can get you ignited. There's a reason Microsoft chose Start Me Up as its anthem going into the Internet age. One of my favorites is Can't You Hear Me Knockin' when its time to pick up the pace. Then again, Dylan is no slouch when it comes to energizing, either. Take hold of the opening notes of Highway 61 Revisited off his Live album and hold on.

Then again, you don't always need contemporary music to give you that joltin' jazzed jivestep. Duke Ellington and even Ludwig van B can both put spring in your step when you need it.

What's the music in your head today?

Background Music

"The problem with reality is that there’s no background music, so you don’t know whether you’re experiencing a comedy, suspense or a tragedy." ~ Unknown

I don't know about you, but a lot of times when I'm walking or driving in my car, or doing whatever, there is music playing in my heart, or head or wherever those tunes are coming from. Often it is upbeat and it makes me feel upbeat. Other times it puts a rhythm in my step.

But wouldn't it be funny if the soundtrack were on the outside? You walk into a room and the mood changes because the music is David Grusin's theme from Tootsie. Following you wherever you go.

Or what if the music changed from cheerful to ominous while you were heading up the stairs to your office, but you did not know it... You're still humming a happy tune, but the soundtrack has shifted to discordant, edgy.

Actually, music tracks are a strange notion sometimes. It is funny how we have learned to just accept them in movies, though even the best music can't save a bad film. An even stranger thing for me, however, is the laugh track on television sitcoms.

Wouldn't that be funny if when you said "Good morning!" to the clerk at the checkout counter a laugh track started playing?

ON ANOTHER TOPIC
It's interesting how we take things for granted that what we are experiencing has always been this way. When it comes to things Internet, it's a relatively short history, so if you wish to go back and time it's not that difficult to get there. Here is a link to a story in the tech section of the Telegraph about how 20 popular websites looked when they first launched.

We've come a long ways, baby.


EDNOTE: Most of the paintings and illustrations on my blog are available for sale. If you see something here that makes you say, "I gotta have it," be sure to let me know and we can negotiate a price. Feel free to click on images to enlarge.

Title of the photo at top right: You Crack Me Up