Diegetic television music.

The broadcasting of diegetic music—musicians performing on the screen—on early television was prevalent for two reasons: music performance was a continuation of the broadcast practices on radio and audiences were used to broadcast music; and music acts were inexpensive for fledgling TV stations to program.

As a novelty, early television broadcast a wide range of programs, from sporting events to current news events, as well as live artistic performances. Classical music broadcasts, in particular, were prevalent on American networks in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in part because television was considered an elite medium in its early years. Television sets were expensive, and owned only by a wealthier demographic, so programming was designed to cater to this audience. NBC, in particular, continued many of its musical programs from its radio broadcasts of the 1940s, such as ten televised concerts of the NBC Symphony Orchestra between 1948 and 1954, when Arturo Toscanini retired as its conductor. These concerts were simulcast on NBC radio and television stations, a practice unique at the time. The NBC Opera Company produced 43 different broadcasts from 1949 to 1964, beginning with Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief on 16 March 1949. The one-act opera was commissioned for NBC radio in 1939. NBC’s first made-for-TV opera was Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, first broadcast on 24 December 1951. Other television operas commissioned by the NBC Opera Unit included The Marriage by Bohuslav Martinů (1953),Griffelkin by Lukas Foss (1955), and La grande Bretèche by Stanley Hollingsworth (1957). CBS countered with television operas by Norman Dello Joio, Carlisle Floyd, Ezra Laderman, and Igor Stravinsky (The Flood, 1962), but perhaps became more famous for the broadcast of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, broadcast from Carnegie Hall from 1958 to 1972. NBC broadcast its last opera, Menotti’s The Labyrinth, on 3 March 1963, while CBS halted opera broadcasts with Benjamin Lees’s Medea in Corinth on 26 May 1974. ABC, while not specifically commissioning operas for television, periodically broadcast performances from the New York Metropolitan Opera in the early years of the network.

As TV sets became less expensive, more viewers from a wider demographic were able to buy them, and thus a plurality of musical styles was broadcast to appeal to the mass viewing market. Eventually, the special broadcasts and commissions for new classical works died out as other TV genres such as dramas, situation comedies, sporting events, and news and current events programs gained popularity. Almost all classical music broadcast in both opera and the concert hall was taken over by such public television networks as PBS, which began in 1961.

The influence of Broadway on television was evident in the NBC broadcast of the Broadway musical Peter Pan starring Mary Martin in the title role. The musical was broadcast in color on 7 March 1955, as a special live presentation on the program Producer’s Showcase, a 90-minute weekly anthology series. The musical was so popular, it was presented again in 1956 and 1960, with nearly the same cast for each broadcast. CBS responded later, by broadcasting Once upon a Mattress, a popular 1959 Broadway musical starring Carol Burnett, on 3 June 1964. Her appearance on this show catapulted her career with the network, leading to her presenting her own comedy–variety show (1967–78).

Also in this early period, variety shows were developed to feature musicians who adapted to the medium and were popular with audiences. One of the earliest musical stars was Perry Como, a popular crooner from radio whose smooth, satiny voice adapted well to television audio. Other popular musicians followed, notably, the singer Dean Martin (who co-hosted The Colgate Comedy Hour with Jerry Lewis), Arthur Godfrey, and Frank Sinatra, all of whom hosted their own TV shows. Some big-band personalities also made the transition to television: Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey hosted the program Stage Show (1954), the bandleader Fred Waring hosted The Fred Waring Show (from 1949), and Paul Whiteman hosted Paul Whiteman’s Goodyear Revue (1949–52) andOn the Boardwalk with Paul Whiteman (1954). The most successful was the bandleader Lawrence Welk, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show for more than 25 years from 1955.

During the 1950s and 60s diegetic music on television developed primarily in two areas: the musical variety show that abandoned the vaudeville format and sought greater sophistication through jazz and Broadway music; and the late night talk show. In the variety format, stars like Sinatra and Como continued hosting programs in which they and guest stars sang jazz standards and Broadway show tunes. Nat “King” Cole, a talented jazz pianist and vocalist, sought to break the color barrier on television with The Nat King Cole Show in 1956. Seeking to host his own show after scoring many hit records in the 1950s, Cole sang, played piano, and featured dozens of renowned jazz artists. Although NBC was supportive of the show, a sponsor could never be found, and Cole cancelled the show after a one-year run. Dinah Shore proved that women musicians could host their own programs, starring in The Dinah Shore Chevy Show that began in 1956 and ran through 1963. The popular film and Broadway star Judy Garland also hosted her own show for a season (1963). Other shows followed, hosted by the musicians Sammy Davis, Jr., Steve Allen, Leslie Uggams, Danny Kaye, Steve Lawrence, and Dean Martin. Perhaps the most popular and successful of all variety shows was The Andy Williams Show, which ran off and on from 1962 to 1971. As rock music became more popular, shows by the Smothers Brothers and Sonny and Cher were featured as experiments as to how the new musical form would adapt to the old format of the variety show. While these programs sought to cater to a new generation of TV watchers, they mostly rehashed the old formulas of standard variety shows.

Despite the popularity of musicians hosting their own programs, the program perhaps most responsible for broadcasting the widest variety of musical styles on television was The Ed Sullivan Show, hosted by Ed Sullivan, a former newspaper columnist and critic. Sullivan had a talent for identifying performers, especially musicians, who would attract viewers to the program. His show was one of the longest running in television history, beginning in June 1948 and running until CBS canceled it in 1971. Along with comedy, dance, and acrobatic acts every week, Sullivan featured music performances of classical, jazz, Broadway, opera, folk, rock, and soul. The show was especially noted for introducing Elvis Presley (1956) and the Beatles (1964) onto the American music scene. In addition, Sullivan brought to the show such rock bands as the Rolling Stones, the Four Seasons, the Animals, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and the Who; such jazz greats as Cole, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Mills Brothers, and Louis Armstrong; and classical and pop-classical artists like Sergio Franchi, Jan Peerce, Liberace, Roberta Peters, and Itzhak Perlman. Sullivan’s show exemplified the musical eclecticism of network TV that was prevalent in its formative years but which had waned by the 1980s.

Music also played a significant role on late-night talk shows. One of the earliest experiments in late-night television was Tonight!, which premiered in 1953 and starred Steve Allen, a notable comedian, jazz pianist, and writer of more than 8000 songs. The show featured plenty of jazz played by Allen himself and the NBC Orchestra, which at the time was a jazz big band directed by Skitch Henderson. Allen also hosted jazz musicians on the show, blazing a televisual trail for African American jazz artists including Earl Hines, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. After Tonight! Allen went on to host other late-night and prime-time shows including The Steve Allen Show, featuring the Donn Trenner Orchestra, which included such virtuoso musicians as the guitarist Herb Ellis and the trombonist Frank Rosolino. Later incarnations of Tonight! included the same high standards in music. Jack Paar’s show featured his orchestra director José Melis. Skitch Henderson returned in 1962 with The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, but left in 1966 and was replaced first by Milton DeLugg, who was in turn replaced by Henderson’s lead trumpeter, Carol “Doc” Severinsen, who headed the NBC Orchestra until Carson’s retirement in 1992. After Carson, The Tonight Show with Jay Lenofeatured the jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis as bandleader from 1992 to 1995; Marsalis was replaced by Kevin Eubanks, a Berklee-trained musician who was the band’s guitarist. After Allen’s show, music was used mostly for “play-ons” and “play-offs,” that is, music to bring guests onto and off the stage. However, talk shows frequently had the orchestras play to the audience during commercial breaks and often featured the band alone or with guest performers.

Jazz and swing artists dominated both variety show and late night talk genres in the 1960s and 70s. Big bands were led by such swing artists as David Rose (The Red Skelton Show), Les Brown (The Bob Hope Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Hollywood Palace), Sammy Spear (The Jackie Gleason Show), Skitch Henderson (Tonight!), Severinson (The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson), Mitch Miller (Startime, The Mitch Miller Show, Sing along with Mitch), Johnny Mann (The Joey Bishop Show), and Mort Lindsey (The Merv Griffin Show), among others. Jazz pianist Billy Taylor became the first African American to become music director of a talk show, performing on The David Frost Show” from 1969 to 1972. By the 1990s and 2000s successful imitations of Carson’s talk show included The Late Show with David Letterman, featuring Paul Shaeffer, a keyboard player who started his career on Saturday Night Live; The Arsenio Hall Show with bandleader Michael Wolff; and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, featuring the Max Weinberg Seven, whose leader was also the drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

Despite the hegemony of jazz, Broadway, and Tin Pan Alley standards, rock gradually made headway in American television, beginning with Elvis Presley’s appearance on Stage Show on 4 February 1956. That same year, he also performed for The Milton Berle Show, The Steve Allen Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. After Presley’s success on his show, Sullivan, in particular, began to feature rock-and-roll artists, which culminated in his hosting of the Beatles on 7 February 1964, another landmark event.

Although shows like Sullivan’s helped to bring rock music into the TV mainstream, rock and pop music was popular on locally produced shows that aired to local youth audiences. One such show was American Bandstand, which made the jump from a local TV music show in Philadelphia to a nationally syndicated series on 5 August 1957. The show began as a local music show in 1952, hosted by two Philadelphia DJs. When Dick Clark took over the nationally syndicated version in 1957, he brought in top pop acts daily until 1963, then weekly until 1987. The show featured ordinary (but auditioned) teenagers dancing to recorded music and guest artists including, among others, Danny & the Juniors, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Connie Francis, Fabian, and Patsy Cline (in the 1950s); Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and Cass Eliot (1960s); Stevie Wonder, Billy Preston, Tony Orlando, Marilyn McCoo, and Michael Jackson (1970s); and Billy Ocean, Gary U.S. Bonds, and Huey Lewis and the News (1980s).

The success of American Bandstand marked a shift in musical style on television, as appearances of jazz and Tin Pan Alley musicians began to decline, while appearances by rock stars became more frequent. Clark produced a spin-off show called Where the Action Is (1965–74), in which many top American and British acts starred, including Otis Redding, the Four Seasons, the Association, the Zombies, Peter and Gordon, and the Everly Brothers. Regulars on almost every show were the made-for-TV pop group Paul Revere and the Raiders. Shorter-lived, youth-oriented variety shows were Shindig (1964–6, on ABC), which was hosted by the DJ Jimmy O’Neil and featured its house band, the Shindogs, and a female vocal quartet, the Blossoms; and Hullabaloo, a more buttoned-down show on NBC. Other rock variety shows that aired on American television through these years included The Lloyd Thaxton Show, Solid Gold, Soul Train, Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, and The Midnight Special. Of these, Soul Train, an African American version ofAmerican Bandstand hosted by Don Cornelius, was still in syndication in the early 2010s after beginning in 1971.

Country music also had a few outlets in national television, notably Ozark Mountain Jubilee, (ABC, 1955–61), The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (NBC, ABC 1955–65), and The Johnny Cash Show(1969–71). Hee Haw, a comedy–variety show starring the country musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark, was also popular, and Austin City Limits (from 1975) has featured blues, rock, folk, bluegrass, and related styles broadcast from the public television station KLRU (formerly KLRN) at the University of Texas, Austin. Finally, the folk music movement was represented in its heyday by ABC’s Hootenanny, which debuted in 1963, but lasted only one season due to a controversy created when Pete Seeger and the Weavers refused to sign government loyalty oaths to appear on the show.

Perhaps the shift toward pop and rock reached its greatest outlet on television with Saturday Night Live, an innovative comedy–variety show that aired during the late-night talk show slot on Saturday on NBC. The program began its run in 1975 and was still being broadcast in the early 2010s. Besides featuring its own house band, the show presented a weekly guest musical group, usually a popular rock band or solo artist. By the beginning of the 21st century, the show had employed a variety of music directors.

Yet another diegetic music genre is the talent show, in which non-celebrities perform on television. An early version was The Original Amateur Hour, which was an adaptation of a radio favorite,Major Bowes Amateur Hour. A few other programs followed, including a comic spin on the genre with The Gong Show, and in the 2000s shows like America’s Got Talent appeared. The genre reached its most elegant and popular form with American Idol, in which amateur singers compete for a major recording contract.

With the advent of cable television, audiences became more fragmented, as new networks sprang up trying to appeal to target audiences. As the three primary networks lost influence and audiences, others changed the face of music in television. The greatest of these new musical cable networks was MTV, which began broadcasting music videos in 1981. Imitations of MTV were developed for other niche demographic markets during the 1980s and 90s, notably VH1 (for older rockers), Black Entertainment Television, Country Music Television, and the Nashville Network, not to mention music specials on premium cable channels such as HBO and Showtime. The popularity of music videos soon became apparent as another medium by which to broadcast music and to bolster record sales.

Cartoon music.

Children’s cartoon shows provided the same types of music as that found in adult programming. Although many early cartoons on television were transplants from earlier film shorts (MGM’s Tom and Jerry, Warner Bros.’ Merrie Melodies, and Fleischer Studios’ Popeye the Sailor), made-for-TV cartoons developed by the late 1950s and flourished by the 1960s. To appeal to the new baby-boomer generation, a spate of cartoon shows were produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (The Ruff and Reddy Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Yogi Bear Show, The Flintstones, and The Jetsons), whose scores and theme songs were composed by Hoyt Curtin; these continued through the 1990s with programs like Smurfs (which included collage scores containing classical pieces), Scooby-Doo, and Jonny Quest. Walt Disney adapted his cartoons to television along with its entire production stable, and by the 1990s the studio had its own network on cable television. Another notable cartoon series was Rugrats, produced in 1991 for the Nickelodeon children’s cable network with music by Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh; the former was a founder of the band Devo and composed music for other shows like Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Subsequently animated shows such as The Simpsons (theme music by Danny Elfman, music by Alf Clausen), Family Guy (music by Walter Murphy and Ron Jones), and King of the Hill (theme music by the Refreshments, music by Roger Neill and Greg Edmonson) have followed the format of The Flintstones as adult cartoons and have employed music imaginatively, using musical style and specific pieces to conjure up parody, metaphor, and irony in their narratives. These programs have also revealed a different kind of labor separation in the TV music business, as numerous composers, orchestrators, conductors, and arrangers have been involved in their production.

Advertising music.

Music in TV advertising reflects many of the trends for television music in general. As in television programming, music in commercials may also be considered to operate extradiegetically, intradiegetically, and diegetically. In its early form it tended to be in a light classical style (although several popular songs were also appropriated with new lyrics extolling the product), with some experiments with jazz, and rock and pop styles were developed from the 1970s to the 2000s. The primary form of musical advertising in the early years of television was the jingle, usually defined as a brief, catchy tune with lyrics that included the name of the product being advertised. Like TV themes, jingles have persisted in the memory of many American TV watchers. Such jingles as “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star” (Texaco), “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” (Kellogg’s Rice Krispies), “When you’ve said Budweiser, you’ve said it all” (Budweiser), and “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should” (R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.) were common during the heyday of the televisual jingle. Like television music itself, commercials evolved to use pop and rock music, begun perhaps by the cola wars of advertising between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In 1969 the Coca-Cola Co. bought into an advertising campaign in which hundreds of youths from around the world were pictured with bottles of Coke singing a pop-style song, “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” Pepsi followed suit with their own advertising campaigns, eventually using celebrities in their commercials: from 1984 Michael Jackson sang new lyrics to his pop songs (for example, “You’re a whole new generation” to the tune of his hit “Billy Jean”) and allowed the use of his songs as underscore (“Bad”); and from 1991 Ray Charles sang the jingle “You’ve got the right one, baby.” Another notable campaign was the “Like a Rock” campaign for Chevrolet (General Motors) trucks in the 1990s, which used the song by the American rock singer Bob Seger. After the 1990s, jingles as an advertising strategy were used less and less by advertising agencies, causing several jingle composers to bemoan the loss.

Besides jingles, music in commercials has often served to underscore dramatic action on the screen. In this regard TV commercials can be segmented into several types, such as mini-narratives (“slice of life”) and testimonials, all of which flourished side by side in network television. Regardless of form, both advertising professionals and music scholars have commented that music functions in specific ways in successful campaigns, notably by creating moods and feelings, and can unify aspects of an advertisement by being entertaining and able to wed the visuals to the message, highlight the action, embellish the optical effects, and give an inexpensively and locally produced spot the feeling of being a Hollywood production. It has been said that music should arrest the viewer’s attention and provide a structural continuity to the ad.

Much early thinking about music in advertising centered on the philosophies of Rosser Reeves, who believed music should contain a strong advertising message and appeal to the widest possible demographic. As television evolved, however, music followed the narrowcasting strategy of targeting specific market demographics by using rock and pop for young audiences, country music for rural audiences, and so on. Most theorists on advertising music agree that, above all, music in commercials should be entertaining, with a lyrical language that simultaneously establishes authority or advocacy for a product, while producing an artistic surface message that sugar-coats the appeal to buy a commodity with an aesthetic dimension of music.

See also Film music and Television musical.

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Ronald W. Rodman

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 856