Music on Reality TV is Insanely Manipulative
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- The use of stock music on Reality TV (Gordon Ramsay & Kitchen Nightmares, America's Got Talent, The Bachelor, Married at First Sight, etc.) has become more blunt over the last 20 years, constantly reusing the same tropes to present a simplistic, highly reified portrait of people & animals. Misrepresenting the world. In this video I break down the most common musical tropes used across various types of Reality TV comparing them to similar tropes used in nature documentaries to show how manipulative and unsophisticated they are.
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Subtitles by Pentameron
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The 'Other' in Music
Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Musi...
www.washingtonpost.com/outloo...
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About Archetypes in Branding
brandsbyovo.com/expertise/bra...
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Helpful Reification Links:
Introductory:
Reification, Music and Problems of Modern Philosophy - Jonathan Lewis, 2014
pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/port...
Adorno: A Critical Introduction - Simon Jarvis, 1998
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0...
Advanced:
History & Class Consciousness, Georg Lukacs, 1923
www.marxists.org/archive/luka...
Dialectic of Enlightenment - Adorno, Theodor, 1944
www.amazon.co.uk/Dialectic-En...
Philosophy of Modern Music - Adorno, Theodor, 1949
www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-N... - เพลง
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May the cringe be with you.(￣^￣)ゞ
We all know you made this to justify fanatically watching 'the bachelor'
Awesome production! Thanks!
One way to really get a handle on how awful this manipulation is is to watch similar shows in a language you don't understand. The music is so much more obvious in its purpose, and annoying in its execution, because it's all you can understand, and it makes you far more aware of what it's doing when you go back to shows in your own language. Most mainstream commercial TV is pretty hard to take at this point.
@@joking6096 yeah it's pretty horrible subtitles. I hope all his videos aren't like this
so, basically, music in reality TV is just like laugh tracks in sitcoms
In the sense that it cues you up, sure. I think there are some interesting distinctions between the two though. Laughing tracks are very very strange for another reason... that they almost laugh for you... to remove the need for you to do it. Laughing tracks are horrific.
@@Tantacrul
> they almost laugh for you...
right, it's not the same thing, if anything, the editing has to actually be made with more breaks to leave room for the tracks, instead of being "quicker" to fit the music…?
but yeah, they're horrific. glad we're past that
How good laugh tracks are depends on how good the joke accompanying it is and since comedy is subjective canned laughter is neither bad or good.
Auto-tune, Auto-Sad and Auto-Happy 😂
@@ephjaymusic Ren & Stimpy springs to mind...
As a former tv editor, i am also guilty of this music destruction. But holy shit i laughed like crazy at the happy sad hornblasts
you left the cancer though, so props to you
did you get paid well or was it the usual abuse?
You should be arrested on the spot but I like your honesty haha
@@Blacktronics you'd better believe it was severe abuse
I bet Vil is a good person as are most individuals who collude to make the most egregious productions. People I've met briefly like Ryan Seacrest and Rush Limbaugh's producer Kit Carson are immediately personable and not conspiratorial or evil in any way, while some I know better like Alex Jones are predictably complex. Its when the pressure is on that a production, like a corporation or a street mob, can turn dark and vile.
[insert INCEPTION 'BWAAAAAAM']
As someone who grew up in Florida, where there are alligators (a type of crocodile) in like every lake, the horror music over the crocodile was really funny. They spend 95% of their time lazily floating around, 4% looking like giant dumb dogs abovewater and 1% biting things that practically walk into their mouths because they're so lazy that prey animals just assume they're safe.
Florida man writes a TH-cam comment.
@@berdyking7967 True but so was everything I said.
That might be true but if I ever see an alligator up close you bet I'm going to run away in the opposite direction like Satan himself was chasing me
Ok
Alligators aren’t a type of crocodile, but yeah as a fellow Floridian I can confirm they are lazy af and barely ever move lol.
Someone should develop a dating show where all of the contestants are composers who have to write a leitmotif (with specified instrumentation) to follow them around, giving everyone the ability to establish their own vibe.
I could see myself getting into that. "Wow, this baroque pipe organ number is a bold choice for a character theme. I like this person and hope that they end up getting together with that bland nothing person they're inexplicably pursuing."
Honestly, I think that would be an absolutely interesting idea.
Would the contestants' compatability be decided on how well their personal leitmotifs work together/sound when played over each other?
@@jett3474 I think it'd be more fun if they're thrown into a studio in pairs and tasked with creating a coherent song that incorporates both themes, forcing them to collaborate and compromise their original idea on the road to a shared artistic vision and determine compatibility that way.
@@227 That idea has legs!
Yea
The autosad+inceptihorn AI it's probably one of the best shitposting ideas I've ever heard
Exactly.
Popular meme but it’s sad
Also, that inception horn thing reminds me of 21st second humor.
I can't wait for TV to be AI generated formalist shitposting in 10 years time
Yes!
I don't even think this would be too hard to create, as least the inception horn portion, just have a program that tracks increased motion or a total pause in it and BAMN inception.
Honestly random footage with the inception horn constantly going off and changing the footage sounds like peak postmodern humor.
Oh look, the "21 century/genz humor" memes! xd
@@_tomatty I mean I guess? I do honestly believe humor is generally becoming more surreal/meaningless.
It legit made me laugh
I'd watch sad/happy, but personally I prefer what America's Got Talent becomes, good/bad
His argument is on point tho hahaha
The inception horn blasts over random footage is literally the memes my zoomer little brother shows me. We're already at that point lmao
Cue auto sad music 😔
At the same time, I think turning it into a meme is an L for the corporate because they lose that influence. Cause now it’s just “hahaha funny *BOOM* *eyebrow raise*”
LMAO it actually is
@@Masked_SVincent Corpos 0 : 1 Zoomers
@@Masked_SVincent Honestly sounds like a pretty good idea.
Turn their emotional manipulations to post-ironic shitposts that they lose all meaning and thus become useless as a way to convey emotions in a way that can manipulate the audience.
Side note, it's not just the music that is so ridiculous. The woman in the white top at 16:07 who is presented as a shy single mom was actually already an accomplished professional singer.
Before appearing on America's Got Talent, she had CD and DVD deals, a couple of top40 hits and she had performed (more than once) at the largest venues in the Netherlands.
Never let facts stand in the way of a good story.
I'm not saying some performers can't act fake but performers or anyone can still be shy. It's like struggling with depression or anxiety. Doesn't mean they can't work or do life. Some people stereotype mentally ill people can't too. Have you seen Johnny Depp interviews? He says he's shy. By the way he acts, I think he kinda is. There's some performers who live very private lives. They don't do interviews or have photos of them online. Cause they like being private, or are shy or introverts.
Some artists just like art, not performing or dealing with people. Some performers have anxiety cause of being bullied by the public or the industry and the public putting very high standards on them. Some performers quit cause they can't handle it or personal problems. Like Mars Argo. She's a singer who suddenly disappeared and stopped performing. There was a uproar with people asking where she was.
The lady in question recently even beat up supermarket employees for daring to tell her son to stop vaping in the store. Its been all over the Dutch news, career probably ruined
@@dingusdongle7231 nah she'll probably join a Big Brother series and dramatically confess she was going through a rough phase while sad_piano.mp3 plays in the background
And AGT is gonna be blamed for her success.
I'm not even a sound guy, i'm a VFX guy, but when i walk through the living room while my mom is watching TV i can often call out what's gonna happen next in the show or who the bad guy is despite not knowing anything about the show and its characters, just deducing from cinematographic language and the music used.
All those series are built on the same blueprint, i swear. Anyone claiming AIs will never be able to replace artists working on those needs to take another look at their production, because you wouldn't even need an actual AI to get a computer to mimic it easily.
Cue: Disney
Honestly it's Chekhov's gun on steroids
yeah I can basically tell whats happening/gonna happen from across the house
A formula is a step away from an algorithm
@@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse yeah, I think Disney fed the script of Star Wars: A New Hope to an AI program, then the AI wrote The Force Awakens.
"I was diagnosed with cancer."
Me: (actually thinking he's serious)
"...and then cholera and then aids."
Me: "Oh, it's a joke."
"Then my wife and kids died-"
With the intentionally shitty photoshop of his face onto a stock family image - it's beautiful
It's that easy to lie and create an illusion. The music maked you already think that you are supposed to feel sad about something very serious.
I actually feel bad for laughing when he started crossing out the woman's and kid's faces from that bad photoshop image... :(
He didn't mention it but his house actually burnt down while flooded and he lost his vision, hearing, and sense of smell.
@@wohlhabendermanager That shit sent me ngl hahahaha
16:04
-"I'm tired of being judged"
- Goes to a reality where she will be judged
"I don't want people to know who I am." "I want everyone to know who I am."
To be perfectly fair it is a different kind of judging, and I think it’s easy enough to tell what the woman means, but it’s still quite funny
It's like going on a worldwide privacy tour.
@@tanto64like that one South Park episode? The one that was clearly about prince harry?
@@fauxpolecat3456 The very same
As someone who works in this industry, the music composer is ALWAYS the last step and often times rushed and given either little or too much direction. It’s not easy by any means. A lot of the time, the director will ask for vague styles and use non musical terms to describe what they want such as “epic” or “dramatic” and then rush the composer to finish the entire score in very short periods of times. It’s not the composers fault.
I feel like most people here would agree, in that pretty much every person involved with the creation of this schlock is suffering somehow except for the folks at the tippy top
and it's all largely unnecessary
They're kinda selling their soul though! Imagine wanting to live for your art, then ending up scoring The Bachelor instead. Ouch.
@@Pr0HoN I think it says a lot about society mate
@@Pr0HoNWell, the rent must be paid I guess...
Who's that handsome chap you're standing with in the intro, and why hasn't anyone noticed him yet?
I did ❤️ Very handsome indeed ☺️
So that wasn't Martin Scorsese?
Repetition... does it legitimize?
@@biancuzzo-vgm451 I taught him everything he knows about eyebrow maintenance.
Ah yes... *more*
good to know musescore aren't holding you hostage until you fix their design problems
ALL HAIL OPEN SOURCE
I mean, I think it needs a complete redesign. It needs a new interface, new features... basically, it needs a New All.
@@edderiofer new all lmaoooo
@@edderiofer still sad that the New All button was removed
Haha
I’ve always thought that The Bachelor + it’s spin-offs were basically just the equivalent of harem anime for boomers 💀
Fun fact: There is a show titled The Bachelor: Japan which is pretty much what it is.
Ans it definitely feels like a harem anime.
I actually remember when I was little, nature documentaries being almost devoid of music - the narrator would be providing commentary on what was happening, maybe embellish a little to set a certain mood, but you were basically left to just digest the behavior without emotional herding towards a particular interpretation.
Marlon (from the wraparound porch with julep in hand): I’m here back at the house with my shotgun while Jim’s enjoying the dugout canoe with his slingshot.
Jim (paddling a log around the bayou): argh argh glug glug glug
Alligator: mmmmm…. Jimmmm… mmmmm
Marlon: Jim? Jim who?? Never heard of the guy. Buy life insurance from Mutual of Omaha!
dude have you seen Tik Tok? We're ALREADY at sad/happy NOW, I don't even wanna think about what's next
oh god oh fuck
Viewer sad now :(
It did occur to me that Sad/Happy was not amazingly far fetched. I tried to add an extra layer of randomness to it.
Tantacrul you should see a 21st century humour video, that's what internet humour has become lol
Tbf there’s a lot of good stuff on Tik Tok. Moreso I think than on reality TV
“The AIDS cancelled out the Cholera”
Tea spluttered all over my screen.
"The tea cancelled out the laptop"
In my head, I heard the Inception horn blast.
I hope your laptop is fine and it will be in good health one day
( sad music plays while I speak this slowly )
timestamp
The dog part really had me cracking up man! You said “we totally missed the part where the dog can READ AND TALK!”
Simons face and the broken keyboard music will be forever be engraved into my consciousness
My ex-girlfriend is a victim of this editting. Her views of romance and how the world operates are almost entirely based around the plot elements of Love Island/The Bachelor/etc, and I can recall countless times where we watched movies or shows that didn’t use this manipulative editting, and she lost interest within 5 minutes, using my appreciation of the work as her sole reason to “suffer through it.”
Holy shit I hate pop nature documentaries.
"This lion caught her husband cheating on her and now she's SO MAD" -unrelated footage of lioness looking to the right of the camera-
Comments: omg you can see the heartbreak and betrayal on her face animals really do feel emotions 😭
i mean they can, but it's no "human" emotions, i guess
@@regularnick Oh no, I'm not complaining about the "animals have emotions" part. It's the humanization I have a problem with. Erasing the behaviors and experiences of animals and insisting that they're feeling something the viewer will find more relatable.
Common irl example is people forcing animals to swim because they find it fun and want the animal to experience it, even though the animal is upset or harmed by it.
I feel like BBC documentaries are pretty good about this sort of thing. Presenting the animals as they are, and describing their behaviours as they are, with minimal intrusive editing to "spice things up". Anything with David Attenborough presenting is an especially safe bet, in that regard.
Animals do absolutely feel emotions and are a lot *more* humanlike than we usually imagine but yeah.
I've heard some nature documentaries head out with the script already written and just find footage to match with it
Imagine being an author dedicating your life to portray the complex nature of the human condition, or a composer trying to do the same in a piece of music, just to have these people completely bastardise everything you live for
viva la revolucion!
What people think composers do: extensive symphonies using advanced compositional techniques to portray complex emotions
What composers actually do: “Girl Next Door,” “The Fighter,” “Sad Piano,”
Well, a composer by the name of "The Caretaker" finished in 2019 a 6 hour long experimental album called "Everywhere at the end of time" that is meant as an audible voyage through the slow mental decline of a person with dementia. its terrifying, soul-crushing, tragic and truly amazing in the way how music can portray complex emotions and the woe of mental conditions. I'd recommend you give it a listen but it may leave u a lil depressed for a while.
@@giacomoriva9842 nah i truly felt like that. It fucked me over for like 2 days. Really, dont listen to EATEOT if you're in a particularly vulnerable state
@@giacomoriva9842 i really feel like it. stuff these days just becomes super popular for a month before people call it "a dead meme" and you're not allowed to like it anymore. such a shame.
“… and the dog’s a dog”
I must admit I laughed far too much at this joke than I had any right.
One reason I think meme culture is so fascinating (and very much a double edge sword sometimes) is how quickly it can turn cultural dead-ends into something completely new, on such a grand scale due to the internet. This is a great vid!!
"the crocodile is a cold blooded monster..." the crocodile that just doesn't want to die: ok...
Saltwater crocodiles are the only animals, nay, monsters, that I'm genuinely afraid of; their child-eating reptilian beasts whose suffocate their pray in the mud. In some places, such as estuaries in Borneo, there is a the fear of your dog, child or grandma dying in a deathroll.
@@LazarusWilhelm To paraphrase tommaso - they just not die.
Imagine if aliens made a documentary on the human species and put a showcase of our worst atrocities. What kind of music would they choose?
'Monster' is questionable. But crocodiles ARE apparently cold-blooded.
Do crocodiles kill for fun?
I'm here to chew gum and crash Sibelius, and I'm all out of gum.
Hahaha
Sibelius stole his gum
Best comment
The usage of music in this video was fantastic. That "the dog can read and talk" hit me like a train because you used happy music and a simple explanation of their backstory. Really got me to get how the trick works
I read an interview with a Netflix producer. She claimed that emotions are shown so explicitly due to how we consume shows, series and movies: probably on a smart phone sitting in a crowded metro. The implications are exactly as you have stated: art should challenge us, in this way it doesn't. However this problem is not only with tv-shows and the like. Like this producer designing shows for smart phone watching: yt, insta and spotify have their own implicit rules you should abide to if being popular is your goal. Anyway, cool video!
I never ever watch tv shows in my smart phone, and absolutely watch movies or series on a smartphone in the metro or any other crowded place... The only time when I watch something like that is in my television or in my laptop in the comfort of my own home, usually during the evenings. The same apply with youtube videos. ... I guess I am not a part of the consumer that this terrible Netflix Producer has in mind.
Not knowing anything about music I always called this "Music doing the acting for the actor"
OH ABSOLUTELY YES!
If only they were actual actors ...
That’s good man
yeah, thats the reason I avoid using music on stage when I direct something. Music works, but it cheapens the acting.
They *are* "actual actors"...
The bird eating the worm. * Ominous music starts* ... this was brilliant.
Made me ribl **role in mah bed laughing**
I had a similar experience watching March of the Penguins in a theatre.
At some point in the doc, some birds of prey try to eat some of the young penguins, and someone in the seat behind me audibly gasped. But if we had been following *those* birds for an hour, we’d want them to feed their young as well 😅
@@Epinardscaramel i guess. Crazy how perspective changes things.
Definitely
@@funkylentil6966 how did you spell it so wrong XD
Man whenever I watch docs with my mates, I'm always saying how ridiculously manipulative the music is. They looked at me like I was crazy, so to illustrate my point, I put the documentary on mute it and played some funk fusion. Suddenly the scary great white shark started looking pretty slick and sexy.
I showed this video to my mom, in response to when she showed me "Old Enough" on Netflix. It's amazing how you were able to dance around her patience fuse in such a way that every time she said "Okay! Move on!" the video essay actually does.
My mother usually falls asleep if I show her a documentary.
6 months later: Tantacrul given complete control of soundtracking a revamped Animal Planet.
"I'm tired of being judged" - goes onto a show with actual judges
The worst part of this is that it is so insidious. It's hard to notice until you really look for it, which is why this video is so important (and brilliantly made too). It is just so desensitising and superficial. We just detach from empathy and the things people go through which are sometimes genuinely tragic, and it's just reduced down to 'person is sad.' And we don't even realise it happening. It almost feels condescending and mocking, both to the person on TV and ourselves.
your perspective on animals’ framing is so SO important. I literally could not agree with you more, as someone who adores animals and values empathising with them to the greatest possible extent
Pausing the video to say: asking naive questions is exactly what you SHOULD do in a problem-solving session. The music in that Apprentice scene is not only prompting us to judge the contestants unfairly, it’s also training viewers to hold back in those situations so we don’t look stupid.
(Also-also: I would totally wear a “Pizzicato = Stupid” tee shirt...)
Yep, fully agreed. I routinely ask stupid questions and still sometimes cringe at them (especially when the question was answered 10 seconds ago and I was zoned out) but it enhances my learning so much. Nobody is going to remember those stupid questions, but if you watch this pornographic depiction of business/problem solving you might think that looking stupid is actually something to worry about.
@@murtaza6464 **pizzicato** 😬😬😬😬😬😬
this thread reminds me of a thing. ya know how everyone was shitting on trump for "telling" people to inject themselves with bleach? the media left off the part where he was literally sitting right next to an actual medical professional and was asking "stupid questions" in order to try to get the professional to say something to the people about covid that wasn't just "sit at home and wait to die"
@@bloodyhell8201 there really was no need for that
I get you’re joking but still
Wouldn't be a Tantacrul video if it didn’t descend into a surrealist nightmare at some point. I love it.
I know, I always feel like he's found some way to give us LSD virtually...
I still get chills from thinking about that Sibelius video...
I first see a typo then i see it gone and now i am wondering if the surrealist nightmare cost me my sanity or if someone has the simple yet powerful thought to correct simply corrected flaws simply because its possible
@@user-py7qh8bn8s The eldritch "edit" button is a force not to be trifled with
We all thought it and you put it in to words.
Amazing insights. This clarifies and puts into words a lot of the frustration I’ve felt about reality television and documentaries, and addresses a disturbing problem that only seems to be getting worse as you showed in the video.
For some reason I’m not as bothered by the nature video stereotypes, but to be honest I haven’t really thought much about it. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to it, but I don’t mind the stereotypical inserts and over-dramatization of predators, etc 😂 but I will certainly think about this the next time I’m watching….
Glad you liked it 😊
I think the sound/music choices of nature documentaries vary massively depending on the publisher. To be very simplistic: National Geographic are generally ‘cinematic’. They like to use music you’d hear in movies. BBC are broadly more creative and focused on education. The lines are very blurred though.
I actually find the animal ones quite sad...
The tone they set can really affect the way humans view animals, and even take them out of the context that they're in. Jaws, while a horror movie, set the tone for how sharks are depicted in media and people's nightmares as well, and you can see that nature documentaries also use music similar to the jaws theme -- the suspense of watching a predator prey IS a real thing, but it connects the fictional depiction of the shark in jaws with a depiction that is presented and thought of as a more realistic medium. Many docus however, don't mention how rare it is actually for sharks to attack humans, so this connection the music creates between the two ends up with some people not being able to let go of the shark = evil human-killers stereotype and it actively harms sharks in real life, cause humans react to them violently.
So while the music can make the documentaries more engaging for the viewer, I think there's also something to be said about the way they create or enforce stereotypes that may affect animal populations as people irrationally react to them. Not claiming that sound design in documentaries is THE driving factor in it all, and surely many people will understand that predators catching prey is just part of the circle of life, though.
@@stinks7065 wow, that was put in a respectful and insightful way, I agree, more or less
@@sparkypikachu7776 Haha yeah I'm not here to fight! Just wanted to add my 2 cents (as concisely as possible) as someone who cares a lot about sharks and has also watched a lot of nature documentaries! The topic of music shaping tropes and our perceptions of things is super interesting and I'm sure would have a lot more nuance if it wasn't in an online comment section :D
You've summed it up beautifully. As a music lover *and* former video editor, I had some heated discussions with producers over this kind of music abuse.
Music in reality TV is bad, but sad/happy in *both* comic sans and papyrus is a crime against humanity.
Good eye!
But it's an accurate analogy.
@S Undertale didn't invent the fonts?
Undertale
@S
They're both terrible fonts to use in a word document
In nature documentaries, when dolphins or seals are hunting for fish, it's whimsical and charming. When a wolf pack hunts a fawn, it's stressful and scary. Like, the former can turn into a gigantic massacre of several dozens of fish, but their struggle for survival is lesser, because of Bambi I guess? Who knows.
dolphins are rapey assholes of the ocean and should get waay more bad rep, but cute i guess.
@asdrubale bisanzio well yeah but isn’t the point of nature documentaries to empathize with and observe the lives of animals? Who cares what a dolphin means to a human, for the fish and dolphin involved it’s a live or death situation, not a game.
Lmao, back in the day when I was watching Animal Planet, there were always only two types of ads for their documentaries.
1) *furball puppies running around with whimsical music* tune in next Wednesday to see our cute and cuddly friends, romp around in the meadows. 2) *cue orchestral drums and horns* FEAR THE SHARKS, AND THEIR MERCILESS COLD BLOODED JAWS, IN THE CHILLING NEXT INSTALLMENT OF *MYSTIC MONSTERS* THIS THURSDAY
NOTHING in between, it was honestly hilarious.
@@jamzam9807 See, that is exactly wrong. It's not about the animals in the documentary, it's about how the animals make *you* feel. It's not about the action on screen but how it relates to the generic experience everyone has heard.
It’s kind of context and direction based though. If you watch a documentary about zebras then the zebra being hunted brings on the scary music. If you watch one about lions then you get the triumphant music when the lion gets the zebra.
100% agreed on everything here, thank you for expressing this sense of "this makes me feel stupid and manipulated" that i often get watching tv. Also, reducing an animal or person to "cute" is somethings i am increasingly aware is actually disrespecting it. When you judge someone as cute, you're likely to call their opinions or wishes also "cute", i.e. not really important. I especially can't stand it when old people or toddlers are called cute/adorable while their wishes are being ignored or downplayed. Also the thing you start out with "oh, that's biscuit music" makes me so very sad when it happens to pieces of classical music that have such a deep history/context. The opposite is also annoying.. how often the Pirates of the Caribbean tune is abused to indicate adventure/courage. That was a good score, but I can't enjoy it anymore.
Yeah, in Poland we had a fucking vegetable oil ad that used some sort of folk song. I don't even know what it's called, when I hear it I just think "Oh yeah Kujawski vegetable oil" My music teacher in primary school complained a lot about it.
I had this happen with a song in Minecraft written for Minecraft. One of the youtubers i watched used it as his outro music for a series and i didn't realize the song was ingame until like 20-40 episodes had gone by of me associating this song as outro music and it felt like such insane cognitive dissonance to hear it in any other context. (The song was Otherside and its a music disc you have to actively find and play)
I also feel like this effect is similar to how different jingles get stuck in your head so thoroughly. I have several radio add from kindergarten locked in my brain that i will forget after i forget my own name.
This comparison of Nat-Geo vs BBC was such on point and close to me.
I from completely irrelevant country in Europe, but I was getting quite a bit nature, culture, and science docs, and I was clearly seeing the difference.
Where US docs were always in your face with both narration and music, those from BBC or other European makers was quieter and slower, giving more time to think, while epic music was saved for wider shots or after we got to know the character (be that animal, or a building).
Same with movies. All popular movies now have to be filled with action and generic music... and then I switch to spaghetti westerns, Ghibli movies, or one of soviet era movies that survived the test of time, and ALL of them, even if filled with action, have slower and somehow still very impactful moments where only thing you can hear is wind blowing across the empty fields.
Are we talking Estonia levels of irrelevant?
@@daemonspudguy Poland I feel like this country is only pain in the butt for our allies for how annoying we are
bbc docs have gotten so much worse im afraid. i can't watch them anymore. they aren't interested in education but basically stringing together clips into some sort of weird movie. its So frustrating especially since the stories are never even real.
@@cola98765 The hardest working team I ever encountered as a manager was a group of five middle aged Polish women. I have never seen a work ethic like it
"The guy's a police officer, and the dog's a dog"
Absolute
Gold
Absolute
Dog
”Reminds me of that cliché that psychopaths show more compassion for animals than they do for humans” 😂😂😂
And that concludes our extensive three-week course
the dog-getting-knived animation killed me :D
@@sontrajamfemininegaze145 You just know that thousands of introverts wondered whether they were psychopaths at that.
As someone trained to be a sound designer, i can't watch a lot of TV, and specially shows like apprentice and such. I know all the tricks used in the sound design and i just can not stand it. It is SO shoddy storytelling and manipulative. I get irrationally angry at them. What i yearn is being genuine and honest. Which is why i spend by far most of the time watching those youtubers that offer me factual, honest content.
“Factual honest content”
🤣
I remember the days of the American version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." Their "question" music was so tense and elevated, my heart would start pounding. I would hate to have a heart attack just so I could hear "the Rachel."
@@saxo689 most of the time, anyway
I think most of us have this experience honestly. Getting irritated at seemingly meaningless musical/audio design shit is just something everyone around me has to bear
The stock sound effect that gets me all the time - and Kitchen Nightmares is a big offender in this regard - is that ramp-up cymbal sound effect. The sheer rate and volume they use it at honestly sucks the life out of me.
This explains so much about why my abusive parent liked reality TV and contest shows so much. She craved that emotional simplicity and straightforwardness.
I thought I was the only one that saw the link between my abusive narcissistic stepmom and scripted reality/soap opera TV programs.
Always had a bad taste in my mouth whenever I kept seeing the same dramatic story rehashed and dramatized to feed into biases.
I'm here too. A middle-aged man. My mother is also totally into reality TV and contest shows. A female friend of mine once said that my mother seems to hallucinate me and interact with that hallucination. But the other alternative is that she scripts and directs me like one of those one-dimensional characters. I'm a super talented, super intelligent, super fragile and super lazy character who could accomplish anything and impress everybody but always chooses to do nothing. I must choose between my incredible unused superpowers or deal with a totally unlived life in actual reality. No wonder I end up doing nothing.
Why would an abusive person like it more then an average person though?
@@mannperson324
Because abusers want puppets, not humans. They seem to enjoy reality TV because the people portrayed in these shows are simple, one-dimensional, easy to understand characters.
This is why it is often said that narcissists want to be around simple yes-men and get angry once the people they interact with show the authentic complexity that humans possess. Here, it is the same logic.
I'm not from the US and haven't watched TV in a while. Last I remember from TV here, it was dramatic but not _this_ bad. I watched Kitchen Nightmares because everyone was talking abt it and MAN, the sensory overload. I felt like I was going crazy.
Georg Lukács, the creator of Sctar Warcs
Tsar Warcs
Ah yes, the hit film Csilag Haboruk. Featuring notable characters like Hadnagyur Kenobagy, Lukacs Legsetalo, and Sotet Fater.
SRAR WALS
Did I just hit... *a hungarian comment thread*
@@walktroughman1952 Igen
I was a chef's apprentice for a short time. The archetype of the tyrant head chef has made an ugly mark on the industry. My chef had a habit of completely withdrawing from the operation for weeks at a time because she thought we should make it on our own and it wasn't her job to babysit us. This was always followed by a dramatic return characterized by yelling, losing her mind over small issues, insults, and "tough love". She never lowered herself to helping me in the moment, instead silently gathering my mistakes to use in a rant. She literally told me "you have to be a bitch in this industry", and that I could "cry if I wanted to, then suck it up". We essentially lost and replaced nearly the entirety of our staff three times, over the four/five months I was there. All the long term staff quit eventually, including the apprentices. She appearently jumped ship the day after I quit, and the restaurant shuttered.
Ah yes, people mistaking "being a bitch" with being a leader. Also when people mistake tough love, that is being honest about a person's shortcomings and working on how to fix them, even when they themselves don't necessarily want to, with just criticizing someone at every turn and leaving them with no idea what to do next.
@@AirLancer THIS! 👏
You're supposed to "be a bitch" when it comes to surviving in an industry, not when it comes to raising talent. That's like a lion treating its cubs the same way it treats the other adult lions its competing with. So fucking stupid.
When people like this say they're doing this for their own good; they're lying. It's just a convenient way for them to vent stress and make you feel responsible for it. Absolutely sociopathic behavior, usually inevitable in career-obsessed insects who don't have a family.
@@elooflskhu5358 Oh, believe me, some of those people do have families. What you’re describing is also how a lot of abusive parents are. They may perceive themselves or be perceived by others as strict, but there really are no rules, just excuses to be mean that are enforced whenever they feel like it.
@@meowtherainbowx4163 True; I meant that the example in which they take out their stress on their coworkers or subordinates is exclusive to those without families. To those with families, they take it out on their family members instead, so that they can maintain a pristine reputation in the workplace. Usually, they have vastly inflated egos that aren't suited to their actual station in life, while simultaneously (and paradoxically) being cowardly rats, so whenever they encounter something demeaning or degrading in the workplace (boss treating them like shit, coworkers gossiping, etc.), they suck it up, lick it off the floor, hold it in until they get home, and then spit it out onto the one person who's powerless to impact their work life; their child. That way, they can feel powerful without ever having to put themselves at risk.
Source: personal experience.
I love how at 25:50 it basically becomes 21st century humor.
BTW great video, you made good points.
Thats what I was thinking 💀
That bit has simultaneously aged like fine wine, and a corpse. It’s crazy how right he was with some stuff nowadays. (Mostly the utter catastrophe that is short form content)
I don't think it's inherently wrong to use archetype themes in every scenario. Since there's a cultural understanding of what certain musical tropes mean, it allows you to introduce a character's role a lot quicker and more efficiently if you have limited time. But when you're using it in a show that is explicitly meant to (supposedly) show real life, it ends up warping our view of how normal human beings act as opposed to movie characters.
Good point, although if a show/movie is doing its music right then each character will have a theme or motif and this should contain the archetype. So the main villain's motif will sound evil or ominous, and thr protagonists may be more optimistic or possibly even heroic. And this lets you elevate the work by incorporating characters' themes/motifs into as many scenes as relvant and then the audience can geek out over the tiny details of related themes or a character's motif in a scene they aren't in but are still related too.
Tldr, for fictional characters the use of archetype themes and musical cues to separate them can be amazing, for real people its dehumanizing.
@@jasonreed7522and the switch to eastern music for that one weird looking fish is just downright hilarious. The use of that archetype is slightly problematic as it transforms foreign music itself into a novelty. And most of all, the music totally didn’t fit that scene and it was hilarious
THANK YOU! This was by far my biggest pet peeve during the video. Tropes are tools, no matter the medium. They see frequent use for a reason and are very useful in establishing things. The problem lies not in the tropes themselves necessarily but using them wrong.
Damn, the corporate music he made is turning into a leitmotif for corporate music. How convenient!
He complains about reification, and still uses it to good effect!
_[quietly to self] bo-ba-whay... bo-ba-whay..._
@@pikksen7905 as soon as those two chords hit I started chanting and laughing.
This is something I realized a few years ago, when you really pay attention to the background music in reality tv instead of just mindlessly absorbing it, you start to realize that it's often comically dramatic compared to what's actually going on in the show.
Exactly. Exadurated emotions. Which for the mindless is like a hook.
@@adonas3903 *Someone places a plate on a table* BAM BAM BAM BAM DADADA!!!!
@@roryreviewer6598 HOLY, DID HE JUST PUT A PLATE... ON A TABLE!? I don't think my heart can take this anymore... *dies*
@@roryreviewer6598 THE PLATE-ON-TABLE-INATOR!
DUM DUM DADADA
Don't forget the shaky camera
I'm kinda shocked you didn't mention arguably one of the most comedic things about Kitchen Nightmares/Hell's Kitchen that also plays a role in its auditory manipulation: the stingers.
Me and my friends had a binging week of US Gordon Ramsey content, the reverse cymbal and horror waterphone stingers became practical inside jokes with the group cause of how hilariously and embarrassingly overused they are.
There used to be a reverse cymbal app many years ago, I spent about a month playing it every time my then girlfriend walked into the room
Videos like this should be required in school. Refining media comprehension is such a critical skill in life
Can we also just spend a moment to just hear me say "Desaturating an image is visual Auto-sad". It's honestly got to the point where it actually ruins the suspension of disbelief in a show when I see it employed and I feel compelled to rebel against the feeling it's trying to give me.
I can already picture it in my head, desaturation, slow zoom in and a slow anticlockwise rotation
@@bluebaby30 Like those "how clean is your house" before and after shots of the same room where it's not even trying to be subtle about the saturation filters.
@asdrubale bisanzio You're thinking of Wales specifically I feel. But honestly, you can just do the reverse and crank up the saturation for the happy shots and it'll be fine.
Many a time, when a sad scene is as saturated as the happy scenes, it actually ends up coming off as sadder because of the contrast.
Lol Zack Snyder movies.
I am not willing to change
*Music changes*
I am willing to change
That whole section!
"I'm not willing to change" _conflict music_
"I wish he'd change" _sad music_
"Are you willing to change?" _tension music_
"Yes I'll change" _happy music_
It could be joked: “In Soviet Russia music changes you” but here we are.
Also, maybe what we’re actually witnessing are the thousand lost souls of composers and editors screaming towards us in desperation to end this madness.
I hate the way baroque has come to just mean 'oooh spooky halloween', bossa nova is 'elevator music' and swing is 'casino music'.
Those shows are like a story introducing its characters really well, but then having them do almost nothing meaningful.
it's like eating a bag of marshmallows
that little “creepy creaky door string” sound that happens when there is anything at all ever which even slightly resembles conflict
Yeah. It is such an overused effect.
guys where did my water bottle go *HELLS KITCHEN WATERPHONE EFFECT*
i...i took the water... *thunderclap*
YOU WHAT??? *reverse cymbal*
_tense 16th notes spiccato strings_ can u believe this flippin guy? he took my frickin water....
The worst one is those cymbal rolls. They absolutely drive me up the wall and destroy any semblance of immersion
I first heard that sound in the game Dragon Age Origins, now it's in every reality show.
The first time I ever saw the UK version of kitchen nightmares after watching so much of the US version I was shocked on how much I got to relax during the episode. No crazy constant bad sound effects and compressed audio, even on the illegally uploaded botched-ish youtube videos. Honestly I hate shows that force in sound effects and no room to breathe constantly. It’s like having to listen to the low health pokemon music for 45 minutes straight
Both US and UK episodes claim to help the restaurant owners, but only the UK episodes actually carry that emotion. Although it's not only the music and editing, albeit it that they play a major part here. Every single argument that probably was resolved in less than two minutes gets exaggerated with music and editing, the story telling and narration being complicit.
I feel that Kitchen Nightmares USA to the UK version is like fast food is to a proper restaurant meal.
Yeah the UK kitchen nightmares is practically ASMR compared to the US version
You know I've never thought about it that way but it explains why my childhood memories of evenings at home where my aunt or granmother would watch reality tv shows has such a discomforting element of sensory overload
As a brit I have noticed that US documentaries and reality TV is so hard to watch in general compared to UK ones. The ultra-dramatic nature of American docs and the sound effects and voices is just too much! UK television doesnt have this problem so much. The dystopian view of TV dumbing people down etc feels very real when watching American docs
The most shocking part of this video was the part where it's mentioned that psychopaths are more sympathetic towards animals rather than humans and now I have some serious introspection to do
Okay I know I’m late but I have to say: using the finale to Shostakovich’s 7th symphony at the end of this video is complete genius. It’s a work so full of ambiguity, musical trope subversions, and double meaning that it’s the perfect contrast to the banality of reality TV music and I love that it was included.
Imagine just walking around town and you start hearing a pizzicato piece following you.
XD
"... Shit what did I do wrong this time???"
And if you're fat stewie follows with you with a tuba
That's when you know you've lost your keys or something lol
With every passing video, Tantacrul becomes more and more like a BBC documentary host.
Inauthentic and annoying?
With every video he becomes more like Brian Griffin...
@@Sk0lzky why are you here then?
With every video he becomes more like the thing he hates? He either becomes a hero or stays in the business long enough to become a villain!
@@dumpc because I like watching Tantacrul
18:54 "... And the dog's a dog." That was genius. It had me laughing.
Great video. I will try to subscribe.
"Turns out, the guy's a police officer and the dog's a dog." This was way too funny to me.
As someone who was featured on a reality show once, it genuinely amazed me how they just took one aspect of your character and ran with it, often editing in bits of filler talking head that were totally unrelated to fit the narrative. It wasn't just some people being made to look like dicks, there were people who got the absolute rub of the green in terms of an edit and were made to look like really wholesome great people, who in reality weren't.
Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you, but what does "Rub of the Green" mean in this context? I googled it and only found information golf
@@george_yassington I found "good luck in an activity or sport" on Collins Dictionary
@@george_yassington Basically just means good luck, usually used with the connotation that "the powers that be" have given you favour. Believe it comes from golf although there are cricket version of the same phrase.
Ngl everything you said that was bad about Kitchen Nightmares is the precise reason I watch it. It's hilarious.
I can get behind that
I admit I've defended reality TV as something fun to not take too seriously and joke about with friends. This is so well argued I can't disagree at all, all of your videos are impeccably argued. Thank you for giving me hope in humanity
i love the obligatory descent into raw fucking madness before the conclusion in each video its SO good
The word Tantacrul has now been reified in my brain to mean psychedelic analyses of jankiness, jajaja.
If Gordan watched this analysis of the ridiculous music going through his programs, he'd probably agree with you.
Yes, and what of the ridiculous music throughout THIS video?! I found it very ironic that @Tantacrul felt the need to "spice up" his own documentary with the same droll pseudo-music that he was critiquing.
@@axe2grind911a that's the joke, someone else pointed it out in another comment lol
@@devilex121 Not funny, only confusing.
Yeah honestly. I've never met the guy of course, but the personality he conveys in shows like Kitchen Nightmares is inaccurate to his whole being. He's being as "reduced" as any of the restauranteurs he interacts with. Sure, he's a passionate man with feelings boiling on the surface, and sure he's a bit more partial to cussing than the average person, but those are parts of a greater whole.
From what others say, and from what candid things I hear about him, he's pretty darn conscious of this reductiveness
Probably
“I am tired of being judged” Signs up for a talent show with judges
I went through my entire childhood not understanding how someone could sit through mind-numbing shows that were obviously fake...except for Lizard Lick Towing, that sh-t has hilarious to me lol 😂
Because to some of them the one-dimensional characters are how they view real people too.
In Germany, we have a lot of these shows so that we call this genre officially "Scripted Reality".
It’s funny how “scripted reality” is actually a more accurate name than just “reality”
@@avidagamegerl1081 How very German lol
That's definitely better, though I think that's still giving too much credit with the word "reality", heheheh.
Holy fuck, the segment where you predict the future of reality tv shows literally had me laughing so hard I was in tears. Incredible.
I know, and my rational brain was thinking, All these videos are showing really bad accidents and stuff, people are probably getting hurt...this is not supposed to be funny, stop laughing you jerk. Meanwhile I'm laughing hysterically. Just more evidence supporting Tantacrul's thesis I suppose.
*Inception bwooong intensifies*
i was honestly kindof disturbed. this episode of tantacrul is so Black Mirror it's unreal, and the worst part is sad/happy is probably definitely going to be pitched to an entrepreneur at some point.
Just look at your average TikTok it’s the sad/happy thing but unironically
look up “21st century humor” on youtube. it’s basically that
I have started noticing these tropes in reality shows long time ago and once you start paying attention to it, it becomes incredibly off-putting. I don't really watch many reality shows, but one of the few I like are kitchen nightmares and the UK version is infinitely superior to the US version. This is due to the music as you pointed out, but also due to the fact that in the original UK production the show was narrated by Gordon himself and it gave us much better understanding what he's trying to do with the restaurant and what is his thought process. On the flip-side, the US production is just trying to stir up drama at all costs even where there is none.
The producers of these soulless shows make it like this, because they believe that is what the majority of people want to watch and what will make the most money. Sadly, sometimes I wrestle with the feeling that maybe they are right. But most of the time, I want to believe they are wrong.
The original uk one is so much better! My fave uk reality show is faking it from channel 4, you might love it
Absolutely love the little segment where it goes from Auto-sad to INCEPTION BRAAAAAM!!! It's so funny and so true at the same time.
NGL, the "Inception horn blast" sequence had me laughing like an idiot.
Same! :)
It's so weird to think that it's so ubiquitous now. Like, why? I remember seeing Inception in the cinema twice or maybe even three times when it was out, because I liked the experience so much, and being pretty impressed with the way the sound design accentuated the story and the nail biting tension, but why did it become the ubiquitous movie trailer and "oh no something's bad coming up" sound ?.. Whyyyyy?
@@Feamelwen IMO It's kind of like "volume" The more dramatic it is, the more attention idiots pay to it (idiots willing to pay to watch it), and then the less dramatic trailers get left in the dust, so it's been a race to the most dramatic. Why do you think all movie trailers nowadays have crazy big explosions and battles and insanely dramatic music? IHE (I hate everything) made a video about it several years ago that if you have time to burn and are *really* interested about this you can watch. I don't remember the name, it's been a long time.
I, for one, welcome our AI Reality TV overlords.
@@ComputersVirtualMachinesAndMor Hey, I actually found that video (from 2015, which is basically prehistoric times in internet years) and watched it. Thanks for the recommendation!
I've just rewatched again and bwaaaaaa lol!!
Pizzicato - sneaky steps.
Big horns - action sequence.
Echoing piano notes - sadness.
Sudden guitar riff - enter the rebel.
Accelerating orchestral music - scientist on a breakthrough.
Drawn out Cello - medieval battle formation.
African ryhthm music - africa.
Indian flute - yoga in an aashram.
Cymbal crash and quivering piccolo - samurai in a field.
The African rhythm one kills me, anything to do with Africa (cue the African drums)
@@victorokeahialam8925 imagine if there was a sound effect for America
@@AllonKirtchik Fiddles. I feel like fiddles feel like unique America sound. Lol imagine that being plastered over every American culture though lol.
@@AllonKirtchik screaming children punctuated by gunfire?
@@AllonKirtchik th-cam.com/video/wifZPeMWim8/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=GianniMatragrano
There you go
Yo Tantacrul you independently developed 21st century humor near the end there. Revolutionary.
Wow - this is so good. I always found it so cheesy how producers would place music that manipulated me to make me feel a certain way. Your analysis really helped me break down how it happens and why it feels so frustrating.
For nature documentaries, I consider the meme "watching a hawk eat a frog in a documentary about hawks vs watching a hawk eat a frog in a documentary about frogs", the music really can be necessary to remind us that from the perspective of the animal we're following, their perception of the cute n fuzzy thing is impending doom
So the whole trouble of killing and dying. And all people get to take away from it is either one of two canned and manufactured emotions.
i almost had a seizure trying to read this
@@starchaser777, he was trying to say that nothing is real, everything is just perspective.
This video is absolutely stellar. I am so glad you mentioned the complex lives of animals and how often we miss the chance to consider their sentient experience!
Hi ben
I dunno, I'm pretty sure that crocodile had a gun.
@@rainbowkrampus yeah man he looked dodgy
Also, don't forget how tasty they are! So many dimensions of pure taste bud joy.
@@bernadettetreual it's a relevant joke because it also requires removing the enormous complexity of animal experience and reducing it down, in this case to how they taste, which is ironic because this video literally criticises that pattern of thought
brilliant episode.. so true it's impossible to un asociate a tune or jingle once you relate it to something.. it's even impossible to truly forget a jingle:o
few days ago i heard a jingle from an aaancient catfood commercial.. used in a commercial for a whole other product/brand. after the "huuh!? this isn't a catfood commercial'' realization.. i was again shocked that i aparently subconsiously remembered that catfood jingle i haven't heard in 2 decades.
I am glad that you put into words what i was wondering about for quite some time now. Especially the 'archetype' consideration is eye-opening.
Oh my goodness he actually shot the intro WITH HIS FACE in it...
TANTARIFFIC!
@@ThePixelPolygon I definitely didn't replay that part at least five times in a row nor did I screenshot that picture of him with the thumbs up....
@@scusachannel1682 And you definitely didn't apply radial zoom blur on it and make the result your desktop wallpaper.
It's a promo for a new show, "Men standing around in woods wearing scarves, staring into the distance."
As an American who is very easily manipulated by television music... this was an emotional rollercoaster. Also, my wife was kind of half-watching in the background, and she said "I've never even noticed any of this." Which is hilarious. I've told her before that I can't watch reality TV because of the editing and music, and I don't think she even listened. I was probably interrupting her episode of "Rock of Love". If you really want to look at reality TV music, that show is a rabbit hole you won't want to go down. Its truly... something.
Marriage .. but with music in the background .. now that’s reality
I couldn't bear to watch the auto-sad/horn sequence but recognise its greatness. You missed out on the strings repeating enervating bowed open fifths for several bars straight to show us how busy and productive everyone on camera is just about to be, and also what I call the 'dong-twongle' - the sound that accompanies the ludicrous pause before the judges announce who's out of the competition this week.
What you've said in the dead end segment hits straight home to me. In Poland the ads go even crazier with the cultural reference part because they make their own cheap, annoying, drilling into your head constantly kind of covers of popular and catchy songs. Good God it's annoying but it works so well. That's also one of The Reasons why i don't watch TV anymore and have Ad blockers (i don't i just reload the page as many times possible until the video just plays).
“They think that by citing a famous psychoanalyst that their work will sound less pathetic” that was a freaking ROAST
It had amazing delivery too, which I find to be one of the hardest roasts of all time
I want an episode of Kitchen Nightmares or something similar where the owner of the restaurant has a dog and the editing is more interested in the dog than anything else
As it should be
What episode?
try the "grandpa" episode of "high maintenance"
My favourite part of any reality show about restaurants, or house buying programmes or whatever are where they have an establishing shot of the property and there's a cat wandering around outside. It's just a tiny break from the manufactured emotion, to have a brief moment of honesty: "we chose this shot because aww kitty"
10:05 this reminds me of a story I read a while ago about how the movie jaws instilled a deep fear of sharks into many people leading to the deaths of millions of sharks. The media had a part in that as well, exaggerating everything, but the underlying problem is the same.
I think I heard somewhere that Peter Benchley, the author of the book the movie was based on, regretted ever writing that book because of the damage the film caused.
I might be remembering wrong though, so don't take my word for it.
14:35 I heard 'sassy' as 'sussy' and nearly fucking died of an aneurysm
sad/happy is a genius hyper-reality show idea
I'm already cackling at "Tantariffic"
Thus video turned out to not be a 7.5/10, but skyrocketed to 9.5/10. Great fricking work!
"Invite me into crocodile's world, don't just describe how scary it is to meet one"