Dancing with the Stars...The Music

[cierre boca y baile]

Previous Dancing With the Stars Discussions
Preshow and Week 1 Discussion (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9152)
Week 1 Poll (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9845)
Week 2 Discussion (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9909)
Week 2 Poll (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9927)
Week 3 (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=10023)
Week 4 (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=10123)
Week 5 (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=10219)
Finale (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=10312)

Soundtrack (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9893t=10122)
Judges & Contestants (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9928)
In the News (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=10054)
Music (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=10036)
Sold Out (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9883)
Free Tickets (http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9233)



What is up with the crappy elevator music??? That totally ruins
the show for me. Why can't they play the version by the real
artist. It just makes the whole thing come off cheesy and second
rate.

[Adwiz]

I dislike the intro music, which feels too 80's for me. But the worst choice of music is what they do at the end, when the losing couple are asked to do a final dance. What in the world are you supposed to dance to a 35-36bpm 4/4 tune like those wretched choices these past two weeks?! I doubt the music director has any dance background.

[Joe]

Last week's final music was clearly a hustle.

Part of the reason they don't use the original artists is that the original songs they've selected and "ballroomized" aren't danceable--at least not to the same dance.

[pygmalion]

Aren't danceable? Or just aren't strict tempo? 8) :)

[Joe]

Well, you can clearly shake your booty to ANY piece of music...

[pygmalion]

Yes. As a matter of fact, I can. :wink: :lol:

[Medira]

Or even without music...

(_(_) (_|_) (_)_) (_|_) (((_(_) (((_|_))) (_)_)))

[DancingMommy]

shake shake shake...
shake shake shake...
shake your bunny....
shake your bunny....

[Medira]

shake shake shake...
shake shake shake...
shake your bunny....
shake your bunny....

((((((\_/))))))
(((((( o.o))))))
((((((-]-[-))))))

[pygmalion]

:lol: :lol:

[maleva]

I think they choose the Muzak for the show because they want it to appeal to the non-dancing public. What do you guys think:

Can people who don't dance appreciate dance music or can they relate more to the popular music?

I personally think it's a misconception that the proper dance music would turn people off. I think it would expose them to something new and maybe inspire them to dance. Who would want to learn to dance if they think that we dance to bad remakes of Britney Spears 'Toxic' ?

The whole reason we dance is because we like the music right? I could hardly hear the samba beat or the waltz rhythm in last nights show. ugh.

[saludas]

I think I can answer the question: why not the original artist?

I work in the TV field.

TV shows normally contract with production companies for music - the buget for music can be a fixed rate, that way. This usually precludes using 'hits' - the artists look down on the piddly amounts offered by some tv shows.

Movie budgets for music run into the millions (as do games) and so you are more likely to hear original music in a movie.

Additionally, there is a payment schedule called 'residuals' that are payments for additional showings of a tv show, on a sliding scale, but substantial, nonetheless.

As to the QUALITY of the music produced for this show, unfortunately, they picked the wrong music producers!! LOL.

Many of the folks in the business are not that 'hip'. The few producers that are are usually not always available for these shows.

However, I can assure you that many times when you watch a tv show, you are fooled by the realism of a piece of music placed in the show.


The rule in tv production is: quality, price, and speed of delivery - pick 2.

[pygmalion]

Hmm. Neat perspective, saludas. I learn something every day. Thanks.

[Larinda McRaven]

thank you Saludas!

[Ralph]

I actually like the intro music *hides*

[Indiana_Jay]

(_(_) (_|_) (_)_) (_|_) (((_(_) (((_|_))) (_)_)))


((((((\_/))))))
(((((( o.o))))))
((((((-]-[-))))))

:uplaugh: Medira, m'dear, you're hilarious!

[Indiana_Jay]

As to the QUALITY of the music produced for this show, unfortunately, they picked the wrong music producers!! LOL.
Clearly. This issues bugs my LW and me, too, perhaps even more than it bothers some other dancers because we're both university-trained musicians. (We're the kind of dance students who get annoyed when an instructor puts on a CD, realizes it's not the best tempo and then uses the CD player's variable pitch control to sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide the music up or down to the tempo she wants, taking the pitch with it!)

I think I said this last season and I'll say it again. If the music director was worth his baton, he'd write arrangements of the tunes so that they have the more traditional rhythms and feel of the dance styles. An arranger can make just about any tune sound like a rumba, for example, but still make it recognizable. A good director should be able to do this himself, without hiring an outside arranger. But then, he'd have to know what a rumba is supposed to sound like!

Except for the style knowledge, the rest is not that difficult! These days, with computer programs like Finale (think of it as the musical notation version of Word), you can write the scores pretty quickly and even have the software print out all the individual parts for you.

They could thus have the best of both worlds... tunes the TV audience recognizes and enjoys and music that matches the styles of the dances. Oh well.

[Medira]

:uplaugh: Medira, m'dear, you're hilarious!
*curtsy* Thank you, thank you! ;)

[SDsalsaguy]

I think I said this last season and I'll say it again. If the music director was worth his baton, he'd write arrangements of the tunes so that they have the more traditional rhythms and feel of the dance styles. An arranger can make just about any tune sound like a rumba, for example, but still make it recognizable. A good director should be able to do this himself, without hiring an outside arranger. But then, he'd have to know what a rumba is supposed to sound like!
As I mentioned in the Week 1 thread, during two of the commercial spots various audience couples were selected to dance and requested: (1) a WCS for which they recieved a country 2 step, and (2) a salsa, whcih I could not identify as such. That should tell you just about all you need to know about the dance music knowledge of the band director. :roll: :roll: :roll:

[alemana]

if it were me and i asked to hear a salsa, and none were played... i would stop.

[Ralph]

I think they pick certain music because it appeals to the non-dancing viewers.

[alemana]

i think this item should be called "Dancing with The Stars - The Music, The Nightmare."

[Joe]

That's not all you can shake...

(.Y.) ((.Y.) ((.Y.)) ((.Y.) ((.Y.)) (.Y.))

[GJB]

That's not all you can shake...

(.Y.) ((.Y.) ((.Y.)) ((.Y.) ((.Y.)) (.Y.))

: )

[new-ish]

I had real fear about what they would use for Tango, but "La Cumparasita" and "Por Una Cabeza" were a very pleasant surprise. But to do "La Cumparasita" without good staccato action was a big mistake. See the movie "Tango" that was done a few years ago with Juan Carlos Copes (Carlos Nebbia) near the end of the film and you'll see what I mean.

[old dog]

Some of the music on DWTS would be very difficult for me to dance with. Contemporary music often buries the characteristic dance rhythm under what I call 'noise.' Would DWTS die if they used more 'old standards' for the dances? [It may die anyway if it can't retreat from the popularity poll it seems to have become.]

Is anyone writing/arranging "good" ballroom dance music these days (especially waltz, rumba and fox trot)? If there is, where and how does one find such music? Digging through mountains of stuff in hopes of bumping into it by chance wastes a lot of time.

I sometimes see suggestions on dance-related web sites or in forums, but when I listen to the newer pieces, they usually don't make me want to jump up and dance -- especially likely if the music was written in the last 10 - 20 years.

When I want to find some different danceable tunes, I usually dip into the hits of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s and am not often disappointed. IMHO, we live in a vast (dance) musical wasteland.

Sorry if it seems I went off on a rant. Maybe there is a better place for this and maybe I'm just way off base anyway. I'm pretty new around here.

[Medira]

Hi old dog! Welcome to DF.

I agree that a lot of today's music isn't written with dancing in mind. Well, no more than the hug and sway or grinding, sadly. However, I've managed to find the occasional diamond in the rough (so to speak) ...but then again, I'm a music collector and I enjoy hunting for new stuff.

As SDSalsaguy has mentioned before, the band they have on DwtS, isn't that great...and as many of the posters have said, some of the song selections have been extremely questionable.

Don't give up and keep looking for those diamonds in the rough. They're out there. ;)