Variety about the importance of music in LIFE
Call it irony I guess, but soon after we confirmed that the DVDs for the first season of LIFE would not feature the original music selection but some replacements NBC felt more appropriate (read: were cheaper to use), comes an interesting piece in VARIETY about what? The importance of music and how it is used to tell stories and advance plots in shows like our very own LIFE !
This article reinforces one more time how despicable this whole thing is, and how much it hurts the show. Because on more than once occasion, the music on LIFE isn’t just a background noise, it’s so much more, it’s been carefully selected to make us feel a certain way, to convey certain feelings, to create a special atmosphere, and to replace those songs by others is simply to rewrite part of the episodes, it’s like NBC re-shot scenes to use a different actor because it was cheaper that way… disgusting is what it is.
Back on the music…
TV shows use songs to tell stories
TRUE BLOOD, LIFE add music to advance plotsTwo music-driven television shows — one new, one returning — demonstrate how placements can play a pivotal role, either by drenching scenes in song or by very carefully placing just a song or two for lengthy stretches.
(…) NBC’s LIFE, which returns to air Oct. 3, will follow the musical pattern it employed last year, in which most episodes only used two songs, but played nearly three-quarters of each song rather than just a few bars. The tunes originate from obscure artists like Daniel Johnston as well as arena headliners like the Rolling Stones and Radiohead.
Usage is less about quantity than accentuation. Case in point: Morphine’s “Buena” during a four-minute segment in the first season of LIFE.
“That was bizarre in that we put it into a cut and it played out to the second,” says Rand Ravich, LIFE’s exec producer, who selected all the show’s music in its first season. “You have to be careful — music has to enhance; you don’t want it to overwhelm. It’s nice to see when it acts as one more component” in a scene.
[ Source: Variety ]
One thing for sure : I hope you watched the original episodes, I hope you still have them around, and if not my advice is try to download them somewhere, just not from any official source, because that won’t be the original episodes. I was really excited about the DVDs and all the extras, but there’s now way I’ll spend my money to get something I will never watch, to get a show I love completely butchered by a network because they hoped to save a few dollars…
Saddens me, because I looked forward to watch those episodes over & over again, with commentary tracks and all the available bonuses, but hopefully they’ll find their way online…
What about you ? Are you still buying the DVDs despite this mess ?