The Programme or the Theme?

[peridot44]

TV themes , I suggest, do more than introduce the programme. They do (or should) set the scene and the mood for the following programme and at the end of the show they are there to provide a place for the TV channel's voice-over announcer to gabble on about nothing worth listening to (or, at least, that's how it seems to me).
One of my current favourites is Star Trek - Voyager. definitely my favourite theme of this franchise, and indeed, of Si-Fi in general. Still think Dr Who (original version) is one of the very best and most original.
So many themes over the years are memorable and recall to mind a perhaps otherwise not-so-memorable programme.
Films do the same thing: A Summer Place, Magnificent Seven, The Big Country and many others.

However, incidental music is often overdone, over loud and sometimes unintentionally funny. e.g. in a James Bond film (Dr No, I think), Bond is attacked by a tarantula and as he knocks it to the floor, he grabs his shoe and whacks the spider several times. As he does so the director thinks "I know, I'll have loud unison chords from the orchestra coincide with the whacks, that'll be thrilling" The result had the cinema rocking with laughter.
Good material for comic sketches, too: Dave Allen, I think did this one: Man enters house in semi-darkness, creeps up the staircase. As he does so, we hear shimmering string atmospheric music. This gets louder and more insistent as he creeps along the landing and approaches the door of a closet. He flings open the door to reveal . . a string quartet, playing the music we've been hearing.
I think we rightly celebrate the art of the film music composer.
P

[socal]

i agree, peridot, that the background/theme music can be either an asset or a pain, depending on its use during a scene. I prefer the lower octaves during an important part of the film/tv show, as to add to its enjoyment. The James Bond series that you refer to is usually pretty good with its music, but i think that other films are all too guilty of loud & unneeded film scores to complement their actions on screen.

[peridot44]

All this really applies to fiction.

When it comes to documentaries about animals or plants in general, I would love to hear the natural sounds: wind, rustling leaves, birdsong etc. but too often all I can hear is loud insistent music. When I am in such places I love the natural sounds and would be rather cross if someone accompanied me with a ghetto-blaster playing 'background music' It's is getting louder, too. Never mind people with hearing-aids, I'M can have trouble picking out the voice-over!

I don't remember it always being so very loud. I even remember documentaries with (wait for it) no background music at all! All this music is accompanied with the flash-whack-bang school of production and the zip pan, jiggle jiggle, out-of-focus style of camerawork.

I agree with socal that music, well done and appropriate, can add to the atmosphere and enjoyment. If only they knew when to, and when not to, use the stuff.

[M.Maestro]

Ah, P! You are an absolute gem! I cannot agree with you (&socal) more about this topic! This is the kind of stuff that I like to discuss more of here, as it is a bit nostalgic to think about the way that our pop culture has gotten away from simplicity & moved into mass marketing/juvenille styles of entertainment presentation. A simple operatic melody of background music does fine for me, but when you're not in that 18-35 demographic that Wall Street, Hollywood, & others who are responsible for our various entertainment options, we seem to get thrown under the bus, so to speak. (and yes, i can give several examples of this, if you'd like)