The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Newsic
(AP)
While the themes seem largely similar, Robert Gjerdingen, a professor of music theory & cognition at Northwestern University, extrapolated some of the moods and messages that seemed to come from each network. "The ABC theme tries to be the most hip," he said in an e-mail, "with few allusions to past glories or a homespun era. CBS adds the 'Charles Kuralt' tag at the end to convey a warmer, more 'Mayberry' feel (listen here.) NBC goes for the steel and glass of corporate America, with an adventure movie connotation."
Gjerdingen described NBC's theme as "closest to themes for adventure (but not action) movies, science fiction … and 'official' sport" such as the Olympics.
As for CBS: "with its warm tag ending, [it] has vestiges of Aaron Copeland's 'Appalachian Spring,' or Elmer Bernstein’s score for 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'" However, he added, "Many viewers would more likely associate the theme with 'The Waltons.'"
ABC, says Gjerdingen, "has music in the style of ‘70s and ‘80s television themes" he said, citing shows such as "Starsky & Hutch," and "Hawaii 5-O."
Matthew Nicholl, chair of contemporary writing and production at Berklee College of Music, spent 10 years writing music for television, including news programming and political advertisements. The challenge of composing such themes, says Nicholl, is that of translating the adjectives that you hear from executives describing what they want out of the song – who often aren’t speaking in musical language. In other words, says Nicholl, the job of the composer is "translating adjectives into a musical reality."
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