Can you hear these words hidden in theme tunes?

The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/drgeofflindsey12221
How word stresses line up with musical stress, allowing composers to hide words in their tunes!
0:00 Introduction
0:37 Music rhythm & word rhythm
3:34 Music & words have to line up
4:50 Theme songs
9:34 Theme songs in comedy
10:53 John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Dr Who
12:46 Titles sequences that fit the music
14:00 The longest hidden titles?
15:58 My guesses!
The composers who appear in the video are DENIS KING (Black Beauty) and BILL CONTI (Dynasty), also the son of EDWIN ASTLEY (Danger Man).
Thumbnail USS Enterprise, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Thumbnail Tardis, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
Taken from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

Пікірлер: 2 100

  • @DrGeoffLindsey
    @DrGeoffLindsey Жыл бұрын

    The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/drgeofflindsey12221

  • @klaxoncow

    @klaxoncow

    Жыл бұрын

    I always sing along "Doc-tor Who! Doc-tor Who!" whenever the theme song comes on. I mean, like the Bill Murray example, I'm usually just doing this for the comedy. But, yeah, it fits so beautifully, it's got to be where the composer - Ron Grainer - got his inspiration from. The other one I like doing is "it's Eee-eee-eee-eee-east-enders. From the BBC" at the end of the Eastenders theme tune. Try it. It's a perfect fit, not just for the tune, but for the visuals, as the title "Eastenders" fades up at the right time and then the BBC logo fades in for the "from the BBC" bit. (I'm annoyed that they subtly changed the Eastenders theme. In its original, the opening and ending music was different. The ending had a little "dah-dah-dah-dah" at the end. A little back and forth thing that signalled - and it actually literally fits these words - "this is the end". So it was actually possible, from a different room, to tell from the music alone whether the show was starting or had just ended, by those final notes. If you heard those final notes then "oh, I've just missed it". But they redid the theme and decided to drop those extra notes, so the opening and ending are the same now. The orchestration and sound of the remix, though, was barely any different, so I'm convinced they only redid it to purposefully drop the final notes. Which is annoying, because I liked that - a show actually musically indicating "I'm about to start" / "I've just finished" in the theme - and it was actually useful, if I could hear the TV from another room. But I wonder if they dropped the final notes exactly because you could tell that the show was over, from hearing them, and then, yeah, there were times where I thought "oh, I've just missed it" and therefore didn't bother to go into the TV room. But if you leave it ambiguous - no difference between start and end - then I had to go in and look at the TV to know if it was starting or ending, and the BBC want you to be watching the TV... and I suspect that's why they dropped those final notes. They were "too useful" for the viewer, in a "not so useful" way for the broadcaster.)

  • @SleinJinn

    @SleinJinn

    Жыл бұрын

    It's not a theme tune, but given what you've said about your interests here, I think you'd get quite a kick out of "The Potato Song" by American singer-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler.

  • @2bucksoap484

    @2bucksoap484

    Жыл бұрын

    Bonanza

  • @himoffthequakeroatbox4320

    @himoffthequakeroatbox4320

    Жыл бұрын

    Dr Who says "A tiddly pom, a tiddly pom ... WOO WOOO".

  • @Gmackematix

    @Gmackematix

    Жыл бұрын

    I have always noticed this with TV themes. Some obvious like This Is Your Life or Who Wants to be a Millionaire and then others like... Coronation Street, where people like to meet. Emmerdale Farm, this show was called Emmerdale Farm Die-nasty...it's Die-nasty. It's Michael Parkinson, it's Michael Parkinson...it's Michael Parkinson. Osman....Osman....Richard Osman's House of Games.

  • @JoeSiris
    @JoeSiris Жыл бұрын

    As someone who sings "Indiana, Dr. Jones, Indiana, Indiana Jones" in my head whenever I hear that theme, I feel really validated right now.

  • @michaelcrump5319

    @michaelcrump5319

    Жыл бұрын

    I've read somewhere that John Williams actually said that he does write themes that suggest important words like that- and it seems like the Jurassic Park theme was something like "you love this scene" or something like that. Wish I could remember where that was, some trade mag like cinematographer or something.

  • @whoisharo4689

    @whoisharo4689

    Жыл бұрын

    Thats freakin genius, joe.

  • @Rosskles

    @Rosskles

    Жыл бұрын

    Lol I honestly used to hum voyager to the voyager theme song

  • @illusion-xiii

    @illusion-xiii

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes! Thank you, I really wanted those three notes to fit in somehow. I'd already noted the five-note set (a climbing "Indi a na jones"), but fitting "Dr. Jones" in there is very satisfying.

  • @RedHeadKevin

    @RedHeadKevin

    Жыл бұрын

    @@michaelcrump5319 "It's a di-no-saur, it's a di-no-saur, it's a biiig di-no-sauuurrr!!"

  • @zoppie
    @zoppie Жыл бұрын

    When "Raiders" came out, it had a tagline: "If Adventure Has A Name, Then It Must Be Indiana Jones," which perfectly fits the start of the theme melody.

  • @arcaneExistence

    @arcaneExistence

    Жыл бұрын

    wow!

  • @vincesieber8828

    @vincesieber8828

    Жыл бұрын

    omg, this has to be correct!

  • @russelllukenbill

    @russelllukenbill

    Жыл бұрын

    For sure.

  • @Freddles279

    @Freddles279

    Жыл бұрын

    In-cred-i-ble, yes it is... In-cred-i-ble, that you heard that tune.

  • @amesstarline5482

    @amesstarline5482

    Жыл бұрын

    If adventure has a name, then it must. Then it must be, professor Indiana Jones.

  • @richarddraggan8290
    @richarddraggan8290 Жыл бұрын

    One of the best examples of hidden words in theme tunes, has got to be the X-Files theme by Mark Snow. I couldn't tell you any other composer of any movie or tv show in existence. I can always remember X-Files theme was Mark Snow. It was on an episode of 60 Minutes I think back in the 90's. Where they asked the composer how he came up with the theme song. Mark Snow said he got really bad writers block and the only thing he could come up with was. "The X-Files is a show, with music by Mark Snow. The X-files is a show, with Music by Mark Snow...Mark Snow." No one believes me when I tell them this.

  • @antoniong1449

    @antoniong1449

    Жыл бұрын

    I want to believe

  • @silly_on_

    @silly_on_

    Жыл бұрын

    LMFAO

  • @nathaniellamb2154

    @nathaniellamb2154

    9 ай бұрын

    Came to say exactly this

  • @MrChristoferoful

    @MrChristoferoful

    7 ай бұрын

    Naaaah bro.

  • @EmilyGrace20

    @EmilyGrace20

    6 ай бұрын

    Ahh..crap. I’m a *massive* fan of X-Files. Watching it through again at this moment for, like, the x-hundredth time. The song just makes me warm and happy, in a nostalgic way, no matter how many times I hear it. Never knew this fact. Regardless if it’s true or not, I’ll never, ever unhear that. I gotta stop browsing KZread comments.

  • @linalool
    @linalool7 ай бұрын

    The example of the Totoro song was fascinating. As a Japanese speaker, I hadn't thought about how the song would be heard by English speakers. As far as I was taught in school, song-lyric correspondence in Japanese is more melody-oriented to follow the pitch accent of the language. Each "totoro" in the song is sung with a descending melody, the same way the name is spoken. Similarly, the 3-note descending pattern in Akira Ifukube's Godzilla theme clearly sounds like the monster's name to Japanese speakers.

  • @BaldPerspective

    @BaldPerspective

    3 ай бұрын

    The "Godzilla March," as it's colloquially known (the real name is "Main Title," since it's from the first film), is intended to be Godzilla's name (Go-ji-ra). Same for Mothra (Mosu-ra), Rodan (Ra-don [Fun Fact: his theme used to be Varan's theme, but Rodan is more famous, & the more famous a monster is, the better music they end up getting lol]), & King Ghidorah (Kin-gu Gi-do-ra). Yuji Koseki composed the original Mothra theme (since he scored that film), but Ifukube's Mothra theme is very-much based on it. While neither a Toho kaiju, nor an Ifukube-scored film series, Showa-era Gamera is also the same.

  • @dragonmasteraltais
    @dragonmasteraltais Жыл бұрын

    When I was younger, I used to 'hear' words in themes, but as I got older, I simply brushed it off as a sort of childish creative association, so to speak, which makes learning about the intended direct or subtle links between the many layers of musical pieces, and their respective titles to be incredibly fascinating. Little nuances of the human mind are always pretty cool.

  • @fshoaps

    @fshoaps

    Жыл бұрын

    Exactly the same perception and understanding of this I had. Maybe we should get rid of this “brushing off” thing from our heads!

  • @timothymarkin4481

    @timothymarkin4481

    Жыл бұрын

    That never occurred to me, even though it’s something I might have done as a child. Very cool!

  • @brianarbenz1329

    @brianarbenz1329

    Жыл бұрын

    Same with me. I guess we grasped more than we give ourselves credit for!

  • @catherinecrawford2289

    @catherinecrawford2289

    3 ай бұрын

    this is where my family's association with Law and Order came from, a seven year old cracking wise and singing, "Law and Order song, Law and Order song,

  • @nodroGnotlrahC
    @nodroGnotlrahC Жыл бұрын

    Not a theme tune for a show, but in Torchwood, Captain's Jack's theme is first heard when he breaks into a barn on a tractor. The composer is on record as saying that the rhythm of the main refrain is "here he comes in a bloody great tractor".

  • @cassistrachan8481

    @cassistrachan8481

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes! I sing it to myself every time I hear it!

  • @NOVALACEBAND

    @NOVALACEBAND

    Жыл бұрын

    This is from Countrycide right?

  • @everettrailfan

    @everettrailfan

    Жыл бұрын

    Ok now I have to go watch Torchwood lmao

  • @toast99bubbles

    @toast99bubbles

    Жыл бұрын

    That theme has been used in Jack's own spin off too. Will give it a proper listen later. Thanks for the mention.

  • @crayrudinyang5598

    @crayrudinyang5598

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@toast99bubbleswait what? jack has his own spin off other than torchwood? What's it called?

  • @bricknolty5478
    @bricknolty5478 Жыл бұрын

    This is a big focus of study in musicology. There's a direct link between a person's native language and the kinds of musical phrases that they prefer!

  • @martavdz4972

    @martavdz4972

    10 ай бұрын

    Wow, thank you! I'm Czech and I've always thought Antonín Dvořák's music has "a Czech accent" - it's composed by someone whose language has a stress on the first syllable. But I thought I was totally bonkers to think that!

  • @ShaharHarshuv

    @ShaharHarshuv

    9 ай бұрын

    I was always wondering if the fact that I find different but common musical vocabulary in asian pop has to do with the languages. I can almost recognize an asian pop tune from the music alone.

  • @Beeblebrox6868

    @Beeblebrox6868

    6 ай бұрын

    @@martavdz4972 Not crazy at all! 😀 And didn't Janáček go even further and deliberately base his music on Czech speech patterns?

  • @nedludd7622

    @nedludd7622

    Ай бұрын

    Reference?

  • @phillipgaige6156
    @phillipgaige6156 Жыл бұрын

    You and your editor’s blending of the Doctor Who theme sent chills. Very well executed. 👍🏻🖖🏻

  • @kj3d812

    @kj3d812

    9 ай бұрын

    It took me longer than I care to admit to realize the underlying four-beat motif is the heartbeat of a Time Lord. 😊

  • @LeftFalangie

    @LeftFalangie

    6 ай бұрын

    @@kj3d812 /the beat of the Master! (is that supposed to reflect the heartbeat of a time lord on purpose? I haven't watched in a while lol)

  • @CZedby
    @CZedby Жыл бұрын

    Inspector Morse surely deserves a mention here for spelling out the show's name in Morse code *and* building its theme music on that!

  • @TinaGunnarsson

    @TinaGunnarsson

    Жыл бұрын

    Yeah, that's what I thought too!

  • @CraigFisherUK

    @CraigFisherUK

    Жыл бұрын

    And "Some Mothers Do Have 'Em" was morse code too....

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    I was going to include Some Mothers Do Ave Em, which is much more impressive than Inspector Morse, but I just ran out of editing time.

  • @grietjemenger8905

    @grietjemenger8905

    Жыл бұрын

    And hiding the name of the perpetrator in each episode's theme as well, if I recall correctly.

  • @5roundsrapid263

    @5roundsrapid263

    Жыл бұрын

    Rush’s “YYZ” does the same thing with the Toronto airport code.

  • @MrJronson
    @MrJronson Жыл бұрын

    Always taken aback by the sheer breadth of sources and evidence you find for these sorts of things, it must take a lot of effort. Great vid as always!

  • @anyascelticcreations

    @anyascelticcreations

    Жыл бұрын

    And he nearly always manages to sneak some subtle humor in, too.

  • @Jesse__H

    @Jesse__H

    Жыл бұрын

    For sure. The man's a genuine scholar

  • @mustardsfire22

    @mustardsfire22

    Жыл бұрын

    On that note, Dr. Lindsey, if you see this, I'd love to see a video or read a post about how you think of the examples you use and which ones you decide to use for your primary focal points.

  • @hamishanderson6738

    @hamishanderson6738

    Жыл бұрын

    Where Eagles Dare? Ron Goodwin.

  • @hamishanderson6738

    @hamishanderson6738

    Жыл бұрын

    JOE 90

  • @ClassicalMimicry
    @ClassicalMimicry Жыл бұрын

    Gotta remember with Doctor Who the newer composers most likely played into the idea a timelord has 2 hearts, or 4 beats. Thus the drum beat evolved into a 4 beat to indicate we are starting a story of his life, but the lyrics are still "doctor who" his overarching motif. The show's story creates motifs for the independent personalities.

  • @llareia
    @llareia Жыл бұрын

    As an American Doctor Who fan who came to the series with the 2005 relaunch and absolutely LOVES the four-note-rhythm version that emphasizes "the never-ending drums!", I can honestly say that I always thought the implied lyrics "Doctor Who" were very obvious, and I'm surprised you have trouble convincing anyone.

  • @mirrenhill7053
    @mirrenhill7053 Жыл бұрын

    I can remember my dad pointing this out one night when I was a child and we were watching ‘The Good Life’ (I’m guessing you and I are around the same age so I know you’ll be familiar!). He then proceeded to sing the (wordless) theme tunes of all of the shows we used to watch, but singing their titles as you describe here. I have to say we thought he was a little crazy. There was no denying he was right in that the tunes seemed to fit the words, but we thought it couldn’t possibly be deliberate… could it? So for nearly 50 years I’ve carried this around like a sort of one-person conspiracy theory, occasionally trotting it out at parties if I felt like winding people up, because nobody ever believes it and they just laugh. So seeing this video out of the blue has BLOWN MY MIND. My dad died 25 years ago but my mind I can hear his voice saying ‘I knew it! I bloody knew it!’ Thank you.

  • @GumSkyloard

    @GumSkyloard

    Жыл бұрын

    I can surely tell you, that he's up there, jumping in happiness, over the fact that people *finally* figured it out.

  • @alangunn7254

    @alangunn7254

    Жыл бұрын

    "The good life, Tom and Barbara" do-DO-do-DO etc. :-)

  • @PeterMaddison2483

    @PeterMaddison2483

    Жыл бұрын

    I'm now going to go through my box sets of oldies I've got; A Family At War / Bless This House / Carry On / Clayhanger / Faulty Towers / Full House / It Ain't Half Hot Mum / Land Of The Giants / Man About The House / Open All Hours / Please Sir / Porridge / Robins Nest / The Liver Birds / The Onedin Line / Till Death Do Us Part / Upstairs Downstairs / Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads Some oldies I have, you can clearly hear the lyrics, so I've not included those ones...

  • @alanclarke4646

    @alanclarke4646

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@PeterMaddison2483 you have Land of the Giants?? I LOVED that show!

  • @lefty5349

    @lefty5349

    Жыл бұрын

    @@PeterMaddison2483 I recognise nearly every one of those titles. How old I feel...

  • @djdissi
    @djdissi Жыл бұрын

    That Doctor Who theme song editing @12:22 was absolutely superb

  • @INNERLMNT

    @INNERLMNT

    Жыл бұрын

    Gave me goosebumps every time the theme expanded in dimension

  • @kanton4108

    @kanton4108

    Жыл бұрын

    In the 1980 theme, Howell used his voice to create the sound that I thought for years was an electric guitar.

  • @gonesnake2337

    @gonesnake2337

    Жыл бұрын

    I like the edit from Diamonds Are For--Your Eyes Only. Clever.

  • @everettrailfan

    @everettrailfan

    Жыл бұрын

    I know right?! The seamless transitions to and from the Howell theme were really good, considering that out of the 4 arrangements chosen, it was the only one to not be in the common key of E minor (Howell wrote his arrangement in F# minor). And yeah kanton4108, Howell used a vocoder for the 2nd part of the melody in addition to various little "ornaments" throughout the arrangement.

  • @GumSkyloard

    @GumSkyloard

    11 ай бұрын

    It was a FANTASTIC edit, full of seamless transitions, and addicting to hear.

  • @GrahamJamesMcKenzie
    @GrahamJamesMcKenzie Жыл бұрын

    From a musical novice; this was both incredibly interesting and new to me. Treasure hidden in plain sight. Thank you all involved.

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks! Not sure who 'all' refers to... it's just me and the wonderful composers

  • @GrahamJamesMcKenzie

    @GrahamJamesMcKenzie

    Жыл бұрын

    @Dr Geoff Lindsey Deep thanks for sparking my intrigue further in such an entertaining manner. The "All" was encompassing a dear friend who compassed me here.

  • @gayahithwen
    @gayahithwen Жыл бұрын

    The Voyager theme is fun, because I've always heard the initial notes as the words "far from home". Which is pretty fitting with the theme of Voyager. But it also speaks to the fact that the human brain sometimes is good enough to pick up patterns that may not actually be there.

  • @yesyouam

    @yesyouam

    11 ай бұрын

    The Voyager Theme is pretty much Think of Me with Kindness by Gentle Giant.

  • @VesnaVK

    @VesnaVK

    3 ай бұрын

    ​@@yesyouamonly those three notes, though. You might as well say that "Starman" (David Bowie) is pretty much "Over the Rainbow."

  • @mikeonthecomputer
    @mikeonthecomputer Жыл бұрын

    Not quite the title, but John Williams used Close Encounters of the Third Kind's tagline of "We are not alone" to compose the 5-note melody that plays throughout the film (a message from the aliens).

  • @rogerwilco2

    @rogerwilco2

    Жыл бұрын

    I think he does this with a lot of his scores.

  • @rantingrodent416
    @rantingrodent416 Жыл бұрын

    Now that you have me listening for it, I'm pretty sure the E.T. theme goes even further than you showed. I think the tune actually fits the full title "E.T., the extra-terrestrial" My favourite case of lyrics in an instrumental theme song is that the theme of Game of Thrones accommodates repeating "Peter Dinklage" over and over

  • @karenvanhook6748

    @karenvanhook6748

    Жыл бұрын

    I heard "ET" the way you did too -- when he put up that example, it seemed to clearly be "ET, the extra-terrestrial."

  • @johnmainwaring6556

    @johnmainwaring6556

    Жыл бұрын

    That's what I thought.

  • @coleenocasturme

    @coleenocasturme

    Жыл бұрын

    I am unable to hear the Game of Thrones theme without setting off on "Peter Dinklage, Peter Dinklage..." 🤣

  • @unncommonsense

    @unncommonsense

    Жыл бұрын

    It's "E.T, riding on a bicycle...E.T., riding on a bicycle!"

  • @AnthonyCerliano1

    @AnthonyCerliano1

    Жыл бұрын

    Same

  • @DJ_Randy_B
    @DJ_Randy_B10 ай бұрын

    Ludwig Göransson's theme for The Book of Boba Fett is worth mentioning here. I remember instinctively singing "FETT!, Boba FETT!" at the end of every episode. And then on the last episode of the series, there was the addition of the vocals to the theme that sent shivers rippling through my whole body.🥰

  • @JordanSullivanadventures
    @JordanSullivanadventures11 ай бұрын

    This is maybe the best ad integration I've ever seen. I've watched probably hundreds of skillshare sponsorships for years and this is the first time I've ever actually been tempted to get one. Seeing Jacob Collier do rhythm in 5s and listening to someone talk about how to write a film or video game score was actually quite cool and relevant to this video.

  • @MakoGo
    @MakoGo Жыл бұрын

    It's difficult to consistently churn out instantly memorable, catchy melodies, so this technique makes so much sense.

  • @fshoaps

    @fshoaps

    Жыл бұрын

    You seem to look down on this practice, when in fact it’s a masterclass in songwriting. These “theme songs” are ingrained in the minds of many

  • @MakoGo

    @MakoGo

    Жыл бұрын

    @@fshoaps weird take. I'm not looking down on it

  • @fshoaps

    @fshoaps

    Жыл бұрын

    @@MakoGo Get off your high horse

  • @keegster7167
    @keegster7167 Жыл бұрын

    I have to say, I’m in a master’s for linguistics and hope to be a phonetician, and I love your videos! The presentation and explanation are just great

  • @RVBJohn

    @RVBJohn

    Жыл бұрын

    I think you're a few hundred years too late to join the ancient seafaring civilization

  • @RVBJohn

    @RVBJohn

    Жыл бұрын

    :)

  • @keegster7167

    @keegster7167

    Жыл бұрын

    @@RVBJohn Haha, yes. Still not too late to read Latin and Greek though, and not too late to see the continual decipherment of Etruscan! (Even if that’s on the philological side of things)

  • @chadmelonite9999

    @chadmelonite9999

    Жыл бұрын

    @@RVBJohn What did we do to deserve being punished by your Punic puns?

  • @keegster7167

    @keegster7167

    Жыл бұрын

    @@chadmelonite9999 He must just be a bit salty after what happened to Carthage ;)

  • @thornsong_alchemist
    @thornsong_alchemist Жыл бұрын

    What's really interesting to me as a writer is how this will then turn around, and we writers will get super inspired by a song and title our story after the lyrics of a song. A few examples that I can think of are How To Save a Life by Sara Zarr, Carry on by Rainbow Rowell, and Across the Universe by Beth Revis. It's like we've learned to nudge the reader into "Hey, this is the theme song."

  • @coleenocasturme

    @coleenocasturme

    Жыл бұрын

    "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami too, though there is nearly always an implicit soundtrack to his novels

  • @michaelhenderson6786
    @michaelhenderson6786 Жыл бұрын

    For the Jurassic Park tune, I can’t help but hear the words: “Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Jurassic Park” Also that Mortal Kombat theme really takes me back to my childhood days in martial arts 😍

  • @fbarnea
    @fbarnea Жыл бұрын

    This guy never fails to expand my world. So many new things to pay attention to and obsess over! Thanks!

  • @CaptainHandsome
    @CaptainHandsome Жыл бұрын

    The apocryphal story I've heard regarding the Indiana Jones theme is that it was intended to have the name "Indiana Jones" sung to it, but with the swear words "F-ing" and "MF-ing" in between Indiana and Jones in each of the main bars. I've never seen any evidence for this and assume it's probably a jokester recognising how well it fits but it certainly fits very well.

  • @timewave02012

    @timewave02012

    Жыл бұрын

    I think you can just make anything work at that point. Search for Jurassic Park Holy Fing S it's a dinosaur.

  • @TimwiTerby
    @TimwiTerby6 ай бұрын

    My first exposure to this phenomenon was with the theme tune of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. It ends with a musical phrase that fits the title perfectly. I was kind of hoping you'd mention it but you found an impressive compendium of examples from movies and TV series already!

  • @AbiSaysThings

    @AbiSaysThings

    3 ай бұрын

    That one is good because it's not the same as the song the title came from. I guess the musical song sounds too carefree (given that it's meant to be followed up with "I don't!"). They gave it some extra gravitas.

  • @raphaelwolff885
    @raphaelwolff885 Жыл бұрын

    The first contact I had with Star Trek was Voyager I really love the show. I'd always sing "Voyager" in my head and sometimes out loud while listening to the theme, 10 year old me feels validated :D

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes, I've been doing this sort of thing since I was 10, but that was TOS era

  • @raphaelwolff885

    @raphaelwolff885

    Жыл бұрын

    @@DrGeoffLindsey It's just amazing :D

  • @berndschneider9277
    @berndschneider9277 Жыл бұрын

    Curiously, when I was a child and before I even understood English, I totally associated the words "Black Beauty" with the title tune, so much that I would sing these words. In contrast, it never occurred to me that "Voyager" was in the VOY title music, although I've heard it a thousand times (which is not an exaggeration). Maybe the more intellectual my connection is, the less likely I would make it through the hidden title? Regarding the Roddenberry lyrics for the original Star Trek, I used to rate it as unsingable, but then discovered that Jack Black had mastered it. This is worth checking out!

  • @anyascelticcreations

    @anyascelticcreations

    Жыл бұрын

    Whaaat??? This I have to hear! Lol

  • @seraphina985

    @seraphina985

    Жыл бұрын

    To be fair the voyager one felt like more of a stretch whereas black beauty really does pretty much beg to be sung like that it just fits too well not to instinctively be inclined to do just that.

  • @zacmumblethunder7466

    @zacmumblethunder7466

    Жыл бұрын

    @@seraphina985 I agree, in most variants of English the middle syllable of "voyager" gets shortened or obliterated: Voyger. Not quite as far as V'ger though.

  • @cymothoe5299

    @cymothoe5299

    Жыл бұрын

    @@seraphina985 Not to me! My partner and I sing along to the Voyager song every time. Can't help ourselves. "Voyager, it's voyager, voyager, the show ... look out, Voyager's on."

  • @darkstarr984

    @darkstarr984

    Жыл бұрын

    @@cymothoe5299 That’s awesome! I always thought of it as “There she goes, the Voyyyy-aaa-ger, journey on, the Voyager, to hoooome”

  • @cyrusalivox
    @cyrusalivox Жыл бұрын

    I was hoping a Japanese would comment on the word play involved in the change of stress between TOtoro and toTOro. The Japanese language does have lexical stress, and it's distinctive. But Totoro isn't a Japanese word; it's a corruption of the Japanicized loanword tororo from English/Norwegian "troll". In other words, the word "troll" was brought into Japanese as "tororo", and the story is about a girl who mistakes a cat for a troll, but mispronounces it as "totoro". So perhaps the change in stress is there to underscore the fact that she doesn't know how to pronounce this word - that it's a foreign word AND that she gets it wrong. But it would be nice to hear confirmation by a native speaker.

  • @johnny-yw8ob

    @johnny-yw8ob

    Жыл бұрын

    Japanese stress isn't relevant here, since it affect pitch, not mora length.

  • @zoroasper9759

    @zoroasper9759

    Жыл бұрын

    I'm not a japanese native but I study the language; I think the issue here is that english speaking natives and other "stress accent" language natives can't really appreciate the fact that it doesn't exist in japanese You can freely stress TOtoro or toTOro because in Japanese it's not going to sound weird either way (or rather it sounds incorrect either way so it ends up not sounding weird either way). Pitch accent languages or in the extreme side tonal languages already have to accept that when music and lyrics come together the pitch of the words will get messed up unless the author specifically goes out of their way to make the music fit the pitch of the words which is quite hard (and undesirable in a lot of situations since pitch patterns are generally very limited). As soon as you put the word Totoro into music you already have messed up the pitch accent because in Japanese it is pronounced in a very "flat" way, not really musical sounding and each syllable takes the same amount of time as the others to be pronounced. to to ro. It really wouldn't sound nice, like 3 dots in morse code

  • @johnny-yw8ob

    @johnny-yw8ob

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@zoroasper9759 That + the notes in the word "Totoro" are descending both times anyway

  • @PrincessNinja007

    @PrincessNinja007

    Жыл бұрын

    Reminds me of kitsune Kitsu-ne "come and sleep" Ki-tsune "always comes" I'm wondering if Totoro has something similar?

  • @cyrusalivox

    @cyrusalivox

    Жыл бұрын

    @@zoroasper9759 No, you cannot freely stress in Japanese: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent

  • @pacldawson
    @pacldawson Жыл бұрын

    I’ve been aware of how theme songs fit movie or tv titles since I was a boy… and I’m thrilled that someone is discussing it finally!

  • @alt-oh7sg
    @alt-oh7sg Жыл бұрын

    My favorite example of this has always been in the Muse song Uprising. At the end of each verse the phrase "so come on" is sung, with the electric guitar matching the vocal notes perfectly. At a certain point the riff is played without the words and it sounds like the guitar itself is singing "so come on".

  • @emilygrae
    @emilygrae Жыл бұрын

    I love this! My friends and I, later my kids, have been putting lyrics to themes that didn't officially have them for a long time. When we were kids we were sure it was, "E.T. only from Atari!" Another of Jurassic Parks themes goes well with, "In Jurassic Park, scary in the dark, I'm so scared that I'll be eaten." I heard Jeff Goldblum singing that on a late night talk show and now I hear it anytime the theme actually plays.

  • @khelian613
    @khelian613 Жыл бұрын

    It's funny, it kinda works even when english is not your first language. Like, every kid here in France has been singing "Superman, le roi des bananes !" over the theme song x) And it's not rare to "hear" lyrics in your language that weirdly fit for music composed by foreign composer, it has happened to me with Zelda music when I was a kid, for example. (Btw, the Indiana Jones theme aligns perfectly in French with how we'd pronounce the entire name, in 4 syllables)

  • @succadick2424

    @succadick2424

    Жыл бұрын

    Where im from its always been "Superman, le roi des étoiles !", so that made me laugh

  • @clerigocarriedo

    @clerigocarriedo

    Жыл бұрын

    It's not Roi de je sais pas quoi! Of course it is "Superman, choRIzo con paaaaan" and always has been in Spain :)

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Nice example. French word setting is interesting. There are various tendencies, e.g. associating strong beats with content words rather than function words (roi, not le or des), and with the final phrase accent (-nanes).

  • @bonbonpony

    @bonbonpony

    Жыл бұрын

    That's a whole another iceberg of so-called "misheard lyrics" :) which are especially fun for mismatching languages ;) The notable example being Wes "Alane" song, which has an entire piece of alternative lyrics in Polish, basing on what the Polish people though that they sing in that song. There are some examples in English too with non-English songs.

  • @GuiSmith

    @GuiSmith

    Жыл бұрын

    @@bonbonpony I believe that’s called a mondegreen. It’s a wonderful thing that has led to some real weird transliterations of music.

  • @swissxpiplup
    @swissxpiplup Жыл бұрын

    That Harry Potter one at the end is interesting as it's actual title is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and was only changed to Sorcerer for American audiences, however both Philosopher and "The Sorcerer" have the same number of syllables and thus fits regardless.

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    The book was published in the US in 1998 as the Sorcerer's Stone and has been known by that title there ever since, like the film. The project would have been presented to John Williams (who is American) with that title. John Williams might not even have known the other title. 'Philosopher's stone' doesn't really stand alone grammatically without 'the', as it's a count noun. Also the first note is missing on the first repetition, which would make it 'losopher's stone'. So if I'm right that it's not a coincidence, Williams would certainly have been thinking 'the Sorcerer's Stone'.

  • @VaughanCockell

    @VaughanCockell

    Жыл бұрын

    @@DrGeoffLindsey The book was first published in the UK in 1997, 1 year prior to the US under the title of Philosopher's Stone. So that is the actual title as intended by the author - just to nit-pick.I also notice that if you include the lesser up-beat, then the full number of syllables are present in each repetition: phi-LOS-u-pher's stone en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher%27s_Stone

  • @peterh2884

    @peterh2884

    4 ай бұрын

    @@VaughanCockell John Williams wasn't hired to write the score for the book. The movie was always titled "...Sorcerer's Stone."

  • @VaughanCockell

    @VaughanCockell

    4 ай бұрын

    @@peterh2884 Not over here in the UK, it wasn't. Here the film is definitely "Philosopher's Stone". en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher%27s_Stone_(film)#:~:text=Harry%20Potter%20and%20the%20Philosopher's%20Stone%20

  • @RichardDCook

    @RichardDCook

    3 ай бұрын

    Amercian publishers tend to be successful with re-titling British books! "It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet" didn't sell but "All Creatures Great and Small" did.

  • @PhoenixThunderheart
    @PhoenixThunderheart Жыл бұрын

    The last three notes in the classic game, Tetris, always plays in my head as "Tet-tris song" and I can't make it stop

  • @peterparkinson7952
    @peterparkinson7952 Жыл бұрын

    Side note: I always liked how Rachmaninov signed lots his big pieces with the final emphatic tonic chords in the rhythm of his name!

  • @J-W_Grimbeek
    @J-W_Grimbeek Жыл бұрын

    16:57 I feel like the second phrase of the melody fits the name much better, with those 3 stressed notes at the end fitting -a-na-jones perfectly

  • @HannyDart

    @HannyDart

    Жыл бұрын

    yes! i noticed that too!

  • @karenvanhook6748

    @karenvanhook6748

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes, I heard that too! To me it sounded like "Indiana, Indiana Jones!"

  • @filval387

    @filval387

    Жыл бұрын

    Same, I was surprised to not see the lyrics on the screen because I had them appear in my head

  • @EdinburghAndy
    @EdinburghAndy Жыл бұрын

    I enjoyed that a lot. My favourite of your selection was The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin - I've been a big fan of the show for decades and hadn't spotted how perfectly the theme fits the title. Frank Sidebotton (Chris Sievey) put a few more lyrics to Dr Who in his Sci-Fi Medley: 'Doctor Who, It's Doctor Who, Here comes Doctor Who and the Daleks...'

  • @BrazenBard
    @BrazenBard Жыл бұрын

    A note on Hedwig's theme - I'm not completely sold on it being drawn from the title, in part because the original title is "The Philosopher's Stone", but it *does* scan very neatly to "The story of Harry Potter"...

  • @alext2695

    @alext2695

    6 ай бұрын

    I mean, they probably knew it would be used for the whole series, not just the first movie - so leaving out the specific title in favor of the repeated element might make more sense?

  • @BrazenBard

    @BrazenBard

    6 ай бұрын

    @@alext2695 Possible - but this is a John Williams scoring we're talking about; quite as plausible that they picked it as the whole opening after the piece was done.

  • @peterh2884

    @peterh2884

    4 ай бұрын

    The original title of the BOOK was "Philosopher's Stone" but Williams wasn't writing the theme to the book. The movie was always titles "Sorcerer's Stone" after the American title.

  • @karlhendrikse

    @karlhendrikse

    4 ай бұрын

    ​@@peterh2884Not true.

  • @explorer806
    @explorer806 Жыл бұрын

    Always sang “The Sweeney…The Sweeney” 😉 But as for “The Fall and and Rise of Reginald Perrin”…well, mind seriously blown. That is it from now on. Top video, sir!

  • @vintage0x
    @vintage0x Жыл бұрын

    as a professional musician and big fan of this channel, this video tickled me in all the right places. thank you, Dr Geoff!

  • @AleisterCrowleyMagus
    @AleisterCrowleyMagus Жыл бұрын

    Great video! As a lit professor I’ve spent years teaching students to “hear” say iambic pentameter or trochaic or dactylic patterns - and to understand how stresses work in our spoken language and then in poetry (for example) and also of course music!

  • @Grizzlox
    @Grizzlox Жыл бұрын

    I like when instruments are used to make the music literally sound like words are kind of being spoken

  • @jillgerber
    @jillgerber Жыл бұрын

    I’ve been vindicated! For the last 26 years my husband has teased me about singing the Bewitched and Superman themes exactly as you presented them here. Thank you!

  • @MysterySteve
    @MysterySteve Жыл бұрын

    I know this was merely for purposes of showcasing consistency, but I really enjoyed that medley that faded between the Doctor Who themes, I'd love to see something like that for the 60th anniversary!

  • @MrOtistetrax

    @MrOtistetrax

    Жыл бұрын

    The only legit version of the Dr Who theme is the original one. They've grown more and more unlistenable ever since.

  • @everettrailfan
    @everettrailfan Жыл бұрын

    I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who and have studied the theme closely for a few years (primarily the Derbyshire and Howell arrangements from 1963 and 1980 respectively) and I think you're definitely right. One interesting coincidence is that the "diddly-dum" in the bassline is the same as the rhythm of a Time Lord's heartbeat. It would be cool if Grainer had that in mind when he wrote the theme, but when the show was created, I don't think the Time Lords had even been thought of yet. It's interesting how much of Doctor Who's lore has just been written by various writers throughout the show on the fly, even the whole 12 regeneration limit was created for the Day of the Doctor lol.

  • @episodenull
    @episodenull Жыл бұрын

    The theme for Stargate, composed by David Arnold, is one of my favorites because it not only fits the movies title of "Stargate," it (unintentionally) works even better for the TV spin off "Stargate SG-1." Makes me wonder if the TV title was influenced by the music...

  • @eparhas9162

    @eparhas9162

    Жыл бұрын

    Something like, Staaar-gaate, Stargate SG 1.. Stargate SG1, SG1, Stargate SG1....

  • @Rydonmower
    @Rydonmower Жыл бұрын

    17:21 It's plausible John Williams was using the American title "The Sorcerer's Stone", but if you leave out "the" it still works with the original title "Philosopher's Stone".

  • @obrothernotagain4668
    @obrothernotagain4668 Жыл бұрын

    Mind Blown! It's a sign I've been watching way too many of your videos, that when I hear you say tunes (as chyunes vs my american toons) it causes me to start thinking about post-alveolar and pre-alveolar sounds

  • @gregmark1688
    @gregmark1688 Жыл бұрын

    One minor side note: when Happy Days first aired, its theme tune was actually "Rock Around The Clock" by Billy Haley and his Comets. The "Happy Days" song was written to avoid paying further royalties on the original song, when the show was less profitable in its later years. So, fittingly enough, the too-on-point singing of the show's title was actually contemporary with the jumping of sharks. ;^)

  • @gregmark1688

    @gregmark1688

    Жыл бұрын

    And a PS for an OMG - I saw Reginald Perrin back then and again recently and I never would have caught that. That is amazing!

  • @Beeblebrox6868
    @Beeblebrox68686 ай бұрын

    Looking at John Williams's themes, one that stands out in terms of meaning is the famous 5-note theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's specially noteworthy because it's the only one of Williams' major themes that is heard by the characters in the film, and because in the film's story it is intended to have actual meaning as language. A musical greeting, an invitation to humans from the alien visitors, or something of that nature. I've never heard it decoded literally into words, but the words that always came to mind were something quite child-like: "Come and be my friend!"

  • @kaylaa2204
    @kaylaa2204 Жыл бұрын

    Japanese does a different sort of thing. Where we would stress words differently depending on the word, Japanese uses pitch intonation, so the pitch of each syllable has a proper consistency. Sometimes even homonyms are only differentiated by pitch intonation. A - me, is Rain, starting with a higher pitch, but a - ME, starting with a lower pitch and going to high, is Candy. (Luckily there aren't too many words like that, so it's not overwhelming for a student) So yeah pretty much how we use stressed syllables, they simply have a different way of doing the same thing. That means they can stress syllables however they want in music without it sounding weird.

  • @gregmark1688

    @gregmark1688

    Жыл бұрын

    In Chinese, every single syllable can have one of five or six pitch contours (up->down, down->up, flat, etc), and every different contour can carry a different meaning. And some languages like Cambodian are apparently even worse. I didn't want none of that junk; I'm learning Korean. ;)

  • @kaylaa2204

    @kaylaa2204

    Жыл бұрын

    @@gregmark1688 oh yeah I have heard chinese places even more importance on pitch; as opposed to Japanese where you have just a few words that could be confused depending on pitch.

  • @phylocybe_

    @phylocybe_

    Жыл бұрын

    I’ve noticed this with “machigai” being pronounced differently in different songs.

  • @pennyfarting

    @pennyfarting

    Жыл бұрын

    Additionally, the fact that Japanese is based on moraic (as opposed to syllabic) rhythms and that not only vowels, but also nasal consonants can fill a mora in Japanese means that you can have situations where consonant sounds carry stressed portions of the melody, which can sound pretty unusual to a Western ear. You can hear it in the theme tune to "Space Battleship Yamato" ("Uchuu Senkan Yamato" in Japanese) the first time the title of the show is sung.

  • @taylorizedfunster
    @taylorizedfunster Жыл бұрын

    What an amazing present for those of us who are equally in love with linguistics and music! Thank you! ❤ Merry Christmas, happy holidays and congratulations on 100K and your first sponsorship!

  • @richiejohnson

    @richiejohnson

    Жыл бұрын

    nice share. Happy New Years!

  • @Vlow52
    @Vlow52 Жыл бұрын

    I usually use this interlink practically in writing poems. If it’s a rhythmic poetry, it’s much easier to compose a melody associated with lines and write the large poems by listening to that melody repeated. It provides the necessary context and mood for the text, and feels almost synesthetic sometimes.

  • @VPharp
    @VPharp Жыл бұрын

    I’m a huge language nerd as a hobby, but I’m a professional musician and I compose. Was not expecting to get musical inspiration from your channel but I’m so glad I did!

  • @VPharp

    @VPharp

    Жыл бұрын

    Also, rad sweater

  • @FifthCat5
    @FifthCat5 Жыл бұрын

    This is so wonderful! It reminded me an example of the opposite phenomenon in Handel’s Messiah: the phrase “For unto us a Child is born” where the English lyrics are completely at odds with the melody. It always bothered me until I found out Handel had borrowed the melody from one of his own Italian cantatas, where the lyrics were “No. di voi non vo’ fidarmi” which fits the melody perfectly.

  • @paradoxmo

    @paradoxmo

    Жыл бұрын

    Another fun one is “For we like sheep have gone astray”, where the singers only sing the first part of the words for probably 8 or so bars, so all you know is that the choir for some reason likes sheep.

  • @coleenocasturme

    @coleenocasturme

    Жыл бұрын

    Every time I hear the Messiah, I'm reminded again that English is not Handel's first language! The first words sung are "Comfort Ye", which I always hear as "Come for Tea", and then I'm just gone... Until "For We Like Sheep", which sets me off all over again

  • @paradoxmo

    @paradoxmo

    Жыл бұрын

    @@coleenocasturme come for tea, my peeps, Handel’s in da houzzzz

  • @jsalsman
    @jsalsman Жыл бұрын

    KLF's take on the Dr. Who theme ("Doctoring the TARDIS") was amazing in that it used a lyric composition that many people hadn't anticipated but worked so well and seemed almost like latent intension in retrospect.

  • @sanchoodell6789

    @sanchoodell6789

    Жыл бұрын

    You wot! (Bosh bosh bosh! Loudsa money!)

  • @whophd

    @whophd

    Жыл бұрын

    Hmm not so sure - it’s new words to an old theme of “Rock and Roll”, and the song happens overlay very nicely with Doctor Who (is this another “four chords” situation?) Whereas when DWPoop use Contact Trolley Snatcha Remix by Foreign Beggars & Noisia & Noisia, that really does follow the 1-9-8 motif.

  • @TerryTheNewsGirl

    @TerryTheNewsGirl

    Жыл бұрын

    That wasn't KLF it was The Timelords, or is there another version I've missed?

  • @jsalsman

    @jsalsman

    Жыл бұрын

    @@TerryTheNewsGirl same duo.

  • @sJs78

    @sJs78

    Жыл бұрын

    @@TerryTheNewsGirl , i remember the film clip with someone running down daleks in an old HQ holden i think it was..?, But yes, i dont think it was klf.

  • @Chris-lk3fq
    @Chris-lk3fq Жыл бұрын

    Also, in the Supmerman theme by John Williams, if you start from the overture, the trumpet notes sound like this: Look, up in the sky... SUPerman, look, up in the sky... SUPERMAN!!! Also from John Williams: IndianAAA!!! (The first three notes of the theme to the Indiana Jones theme.) That whole phrase goes: IndianAAA, mister Jones, IndianAAA, Indiana Jones!

  • @duncanward6226
    @duncanward62268 ай бұрын

    The theme tune to Grange Hill made so much more sense to me when I eventually heard its original use in an early episode of Give Us A Clue.

  • @freeurmind5790
    @freeurmind5790 Жыл бұрын

    I kinda intuitively knew this was the case with show theme songs. BUT I've always wondered why the intro to *"MURDER, SHE WROTE"* didn't fit. And then it hit me: while the first bar matched the video where Angela Lansbury is typing, the chorus lyrics should be saying *"It's J.B. Fletcher, it's Murder, She Wrote. La la la,"* etc. 😊

  • @sherrimakesstuff3112
    @sherrimakesstuff3112 Жыл бұрын

    I feel so vindicated! I used to sing many of these in my head, but always thought I was just weird - Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie stick out the most. Well, and of course Bill Murray's memorable lounge singer "Star Wars". Thank you for this!

  • @clivenaylor5392

    @clivenaylor5392

    Жыл бұрын

    I always supposed that the "Star Wars" theme was just "Born Free" upside down

  • @martinkrieger125
    @martinkrieger1252 ай бұрын

    I often think of examples of this as just auditory pareidolia... Like how I'm seeing the figures on your sweater here as impostors from the renowned videogame, Among Us... But with all of those interviews and the history of commercial music composition... Wow. This was really cool!

  • @ArisEmriis
    @ArisEmriis Жыл бұрын

    Brilliant! Honestly I make up words to instrumentals for fun on a regular basis. I have always wondered if composers had words in mind when I hear themes because I always come up with something fitting and I think, I wonder what the exact words would have been. So glad I found this!

  • @thicc_astley
    @thicc_astley Жыл бұрын

    i’m never gonna hear a theme tune without trying to fit the title in again. this is so fascinating!!! weirdly, this came up in my feed after i watched a video on the evolution of the Nickelodeon theme - which started out with lyrics (simply “nick nick nick nick na nick nick nick, nickelodeon) and is just instrumental these days, and some people don’t realise that it was made to fit the channel name lol

  • @thicc_astley

    @thicc_astley

    Жыл бұрын

    and i just realised the disney channel theme has 4 notes…. dis🎶ney🎶cha🎶nnel🎶 IT FIIIIIIITS

  • @2kratM
    @2kratM Жыл бұрын

    I think there's actually something similar to the Totoro example in the "Jellicles song" from Cats where in the chorus, the word "Jellicle(s)" is stressed in like 2 or 3 different ways throughout the whole song: because JEL-licles can and JEL-licles do, jelli-CLES do and jellicles CAN, etc.

  • @bobtheduck

    @bobtheduck

    Жыл бұрын

    I hate that song with a burning passion, and that was before the film came out. I saw it on Bravo when I was a teenager, back when they showed a lot of theater. Just awful.

  • @richarddury1

    @richarddury1

    Жыл бұрын

    Singing variations in the stressed syllable of the same word, has it got a name? It would seem to be a playful technique. Lucio Battisti does it in 'superMARket, supermarKET'

  • @Anson_AKB
    @Anson_AKB Жыл бұрын

    as always (and not only in music), as long as something is perfect, you don't notice and often ignore it. but as soon as there is something "a bit off" even in the slightest, you start wondering what is wrong or miss something or simply find it "somehow boring". this seems to be true for almost everything in daily life, and also for all this music. since this may only be some subconcious "everything fits and feels well", it was great to explicitly get it shown in detail. thanks.

  • @blaxlandpianopathways
    @blaxlandpianopathways Жыл бұрын

    Love your stuff, Geoff. You comment on so many of my favourite things: words, the Bible, literature, music, and this time theme tunes.

  • @TheVoidSinger
    @TheVoidSinger Жыл бұрын

    I apt to believe that most of the examples probably do incorporate this, simply because it's such a simple trick for both generating a quick musical hook, but also because it gives a nice tie back into the medium it's written for... it's a fun little detail I'll be looking for in themes from now on, thanks.

  • @FLStelth
    @FLStelth Жыл бұрын

    This concept never occurred to me on a conscious level, but I have always sang "be-witched" along with the theme as well as a few other examples like that.

  • @paiwanhan
    @paiwanhan Жыл бұрын

    You made me so happy with the Voyager theme. Honestly the best Star Trek theme songs of any Trek series.

  • @evandonovan9239
    @evandonovan9239 Жыл бұрын

    This is one of my new favorite videos. Like some others who have commented, I heard the names of shows and movies in their theme songs when I was a kid, but once I got older, I guess I got more cynical and thought this was just a coincidence. I loved that you used Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie since I used to watch those shows a lot when I was a kid (not on their original run, to be clear, but rather on Nick at Nite), and I definitely heard the lyrics in them.

  • @zigzog7
    @zigzog7 Жыл бұрын

    Interesting the the Harry Potter one fits with either “the SORceror’s stonel” or “phiLOSopher’s stone”, so both the UK and US titles for it

  • @NickUva
    @NickUva10 ай бұрын

    I'm a bit late here, but a "meta" example is how the Morse Code values for the letters "MI" are encoded all the way throughout the "Mission Impossible" theme. And it's about the catchiest thing ever, too.

  • @askarufus7939
    @askarufus79399 ай бұрын

    OMG, I just gave this theory a try in Polish language and started singning my favorite movies and series themes and they fit so perfectly! For fellow Poles: Noce i Dnie, Miodowe Lata

  • @WhoTookArtemix
    @WhoTookArtemix Жыл бұрын

    There's a theory that in the more modern Dr Who themes that have a 4 quaver bassline rhythm as opposed to crotchet quaver quaver is the rhythm of the doctor's heart beat - lub dub lub dub - two hearts

  • @woodfur00

    @woodfur00

    Жыл бұрын

    Which might sound like a stretch if you didn't know that rhythm has been used and had attention called to it in the show. I always thought it was supposed to be lub lub dub dub though, much healthier heart rate.

  • @anthonybernacchi2732

    @anthonybernacchi2732

    Жыл бұрын

    It also corresponds to the drums that the Master hears in their head for years, and to the "knock four times" prophecy in the Tenth Doctor's final episodes.

  • @DomoftheDoctor

    @DomoftheDoctor

    Жыл бұрын

    That’s a retroactive interpretation, given that the original bassline from 1963 varied between three notes (dum di dum), and four notes (di di di dum or dum dum di di). The idea of the Doctor having two hearts wasn’t even a thing until Pertwee. It does seem likely however that the Master’s drums, and the revelation that they symbolise the heartbeat of a Time Lord, was created to mirror the theme’s bassline, which is pretty cool. So the music likely inspired the drums, rather than the reverse.

  • @DomoftheDoctor

    @DomoftheDoctor

    Жыл бұрын

    I’m currently ill in bed (possibly COVID, we’ll see), so this has served to cheer me up. Regarding the Superman March in particular, I think the reason that incorporating his name into his theme is effective is that it tonally matches the character. It’s so on-the-nose, bordering on cheesy, but it perfectly fits this earnest guy whose uniform is designed to make him identifiable and thus trustworthy. And the build up to it in the fanfare feels like a question and answer, as one can imagine the first phrase raising said question and the second answering “Superman!” Then the name is re-announced over and over in the main theme, almost like an assuring “Don’t worry everyone, he’s here to save us.” I actually get quite emotional thinking about it. The world feels so horrible and corrupt, and yet we dare to imagine a friend who always fights for our best interests - if only to have the strength to be that friend for others, as much as we can. The Superman March, a theme unapologetically bright and triumphant yet tender at times, embodies that fully. It doesn’t need to be said, but John Williams really is magnificent. (Though I’ll never know why he wanted to write a new Mission: Impossible theme to replace the classic original in that first film. I’m glad Danny Elfman took over and put the OG at the centre where it belongs.)

  • @vargavio
    @vargavio Жыл бұрын

    Once I heard a parody band sing "You built a time machine out of car?" to the theme song of Back to the Future, and I found it hillariously fitting, because Marty says almost the same line in the first movie (originally it's "Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a Delorean?")

  • @Bacopa68

    @Bacopa68

    Жыл бұрын

    The original plan was that the time machine would be a refrigerator and they would get back to the future powered by a nuclear test. The nuclear explosion was nixed as being too heavy for a comedy and the fridge was seen as too similar to the Tardis. Thus the Delorean.

  • @bobbuethe1477

    @bobbuethe1477

    Жыл бұрын

    Was this it? kzread.info/dash/bejne/eZyZo8ZuacTUkrg.html

  • @optimisticwatermelon

    @optimisticwatermelon

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@Bacopa68 Then they saw a DeLorean and thought "dang that crap looks cool"

  • @yesyouam

    @yesyouam

    11 ай бұрын

    @@Bacopa68 I imagine you wouldn’t want to encourage children to watch the movie and start climbing into refrigerators. Although, Indiana Jones was propelled in a refrigerator by a nuclear explosion in his 4th movie…

  • @papusman
    @papusman Жыл бұрын

    On a commentary track for the Superman Animated Series, the composer mentioned it was tradition to fit the word "Superman" into every Superman theme song. The Fleisher Superman shorts had it, the old George Reeves show has it, the Donner Superman has it, and the animated series has it.

  • @TheGuitarGeek
    @TheGuitarGeek Жыл бұрын

    This absolutely blew my mind. Thanks so much for making this video.

  • @Mullkaw
    @Mullkaw Жыл бұрын

    Growing up watching nickelodeon/cartoon network cartoons around the 2005-2015 era, one cartoon's opening that really stuck out was that of Regular Show. Most cartoons would open with lyric-laden musical numbers that would last anywhere from 20-50 seconds; think Spongebob or Teen Titans. But when regular show dropped in 2010 it's very short opening with no lyrics was memorable at least to me because of how subversive it was from what I was used to. Its brevity comes form the fact that the tune is only four notes long which I'm now realizing just so happens to be the number of syllables in the name of the show: re-gu-lar-show. I haven't looked into this at all so who knows whether it was intentional or not?

  • @UltimateHammerBro
    @UltimateHammerBro Жыл бұрын

    I was fully expecting the Superman theme in this video even without looking at the thumbnail. It seems people noticed it long ago: there's a decades-old song in Spain which goes "Superman, chorizo con pan" set to Williams's tune. The theme for the 90s Superman animated series was apparently also based on the syllables of "Superman". Also, at 11:17, I'd swear I can hear the full title "E.T. the extra-terrestrial" in the melody!

  • @Tony32

    @Tony32

    Жыл бұрын

    You're right! it says it three times.

  • @karenvanhook6748

    @karenvanhook6748

    Жыл бұрын

    Me too -- I hear "ET, the extra-terrestrial."

  • @brianartillery
    @brianartillery Жыл бұрын

    Hammer Films' composer, James Bernard, always said that he wrote the themes for the 'Dracula', and 'Frankenstein' movies, with stark, jarring notes that all but screamed 'Drac-u-la!' and 'Fran-ken-stein!' at the viewer. Since seeing him interviewed, I've never been able to unhear them, when I watch an old Hammer horror (confession: I love them). Fascinating video. Thank you. 👍👍👍

  • @roseblite6449
    @roseblite6449 Жыл бұрын

    Love it. I never noticed it before, but it makes so much sense and I can actually hear that you are talking about with the way you broke it down.

  • @TerezatheTeacher
    @TerezatheTeacher Жыл бұрын

    You blew my mind in your book English after RP, and now you've done it again 😄 I shall now maniacally chant DOCtor WHO! DOCtor Who! DOCtor WHO! every time I watch the TV series.

  • @markjordan5761
    @markjordan5761 Жыл бұрын

    I think my favourite theme tune word trivia is the theme to 70's series"some mothers do 'ave 'em". Another Ronnie Hazlehurst classic in which he spells out the entire title in Morse Code using only two piccolos. Genius.

  • @TerryTheNewsGirl

    @TerryTheNewsGirl

    Жыл бұрын

    Maybe the theme to Bod is like that too.

  • @B-MC

    @B-MC

    Жыл бұрын

    Oh wow

  • @SuAlfons
    @SuAlfons Жыл бұрын

    Your videos are simply the best! I enjoy broadening my knowledge of English so much with them. Great finding with the hidden words in tunes!

  • @peterlawless2686
    @peterlawless2686 Жыл бұрын

    I think it goes without saying, but you’ve given me a new understanding as well as a greater appreciation of my favorite theme songs.

  • @danielguy3581
    @danielguy3581 Жыл бұрын

    My favourite example of how unusual prosody in sung lyrics can trip people up is the first line (second part of it) in Blur's 'Song 2'. Despite the sounds being enunciated clearly, many people could not make out the words. It's interesting that you bring up stressing 'Aladdin' differently would sound unacceptable, yet speakers from the region in which the name originated might disagree.

  • @kane2742

    @kane2742

    Жыл бұрын

    The line from "Song 2" is "by a jumBO jet," for anyone who's not familiar with it. The stress on "jumbo" would normally fall on the first syllable.

  • @qj0n

    @qj0n

    Жыл бұрын

    Sacha Baron Coen in Dictator used this, so main character is called Aladeen with stress on first syllable an pause after it (AL-adeen), so it's both written and pronounce differently, while still clearly inspired

  • @danielguy3581

    @danielguy3581

    Жыл бұрын

    @@kane2742 Initially I did write it out, but thought it might be fun for others to give it a listen without prior knowledge. It's curious the extent to which that group of phonemes does not sound like English.

  • @killaken2000

    @killaken2000

    Жыл бұрын

    @@kane2742 I'm wondering what other people are hearing because I never heard anything else other than 'jumbo jet'

  • @killaken2000

    @killaken2000

    Жыл бұрын

    @@qj0n 'al' means 'the' and with a long vowel it means house/family in Arabic. Al Jazeera (the TV station) means the peninsula Al Adeen can mean house Adeen. IIRC It switches during the movie depending on the scene and speaker. Maybe it's because to westerners it's potato potahto. In the movie Aladeen replaces many words with Aladeen for example positive and negative.

  • @mr.k905
    @mr.k905 Жыл бұрын

    Ha, I knew it!! Thanks for proving I'm not insane ; ) Btw, you missed one whole "In-di-a-na-Jones" in between/after the other Indianas. Great video(s)!!

  • @businessmonkeyfilms
    @businessmonkeyfilms2 ай бұрын

    Great video! Regarding your ending with Nina Van Pallandt singing, then she’s in Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” from 1973, which is scored by John Williams. The fun thing here is that the title is far from hidden in the score, but that the score repeats in all sorts of different versions throughout the film.

  • @aoifecosgrove1501
    @aoifecosgrove1501 Жыл бұрын

    This whole subject is so fascinating and so fun! Your examples of comedians spotting these correlations brought to mind two examples which were both coincidentally aired on the TV show "8 Out of 10 Cats does Countdown". One is David O'Doherty's lyrics for the "Grand Designs" theme tune and another is Nick Mohammed aka Mr. Swallow's take on the "Jurassic Park" theme. Both are so convincing that it's hard to hear anything else when listening to the themes now! They both pick up on those hidden rhythms very well. I dare say the "Jurassic Park" song adds even more support to your theory.

  • @lanasinapayen3354
    @lanasinapayen3354 Жыл бұрын

    I only learned about stressed syllables after 12 years of learning English and it was pretty much too late for me by then. So this video is pretty hard for me 😂 but I want to say, Japanese language does have stressed syllables. It helps differentiating between words that are otherwise the same, like kaki (persimmon) and kaki (oyster), or hashi (chopsticks, edge, bridge depending on the stress). Maybe it's called something else than stress in linguistics?

  • @saiyajedi

    @saiyajedi

    Жыл бұрын

    It’s pitch accent. Stress involves saying a syllable louder and slightly longer than the ones around it; pitch accent is just (as you might expect) a difference in pitch. Japanese spoken with stress accent is the purview of the [implied American] “Westerner in Japan” stereotype.

  • @steffahn

    @steffahn

    Жыл бұрын

    On that note, the two occurrences of "totoro" in the theme song *do* have the same pitch pattern.

  • @tttITA10

    @tttITA10

    Жыл бұрын

    @@steffahn Really well noticed! This is so cool.

  • @lanasinapayen3354

    @lanasinapayen3354

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the clarification everyone! Just goes to show I still don't understand stress 😂 I thought that as people say the syllable louder they also said it higher. Oh well 😅😭

  • @steffahn

    @steffahn

    Жыл бұрын

    @@lanasinapayen3354 As far as I know, stress accent is indeed often accompanied by a higher pitch. But it's also more volume and sometimes held for longer. Pitch accent in Japanese on the other hand is distinguished only by pitch and more consistently by pitch. I think One example would be the interplay with other changes in pitch, e. g. to express emotion or in questions. In English, questions often have their last word in a falling pitch to emphasize the slight rise in pitch at the very end. Or like... ordinary non-question often end in falling pitch even if the last syllable is the one being stressed in the last word. In Japanese, the pitch accent would be preserved in such situations, and rising tones for questions are added as a short thing at the end of the last syllable without influencing the relation of the pitch of that syllable to the previous ones.

  • @ChefMimsy
    @ChefMimsy Жыл бұрын

    I love when people explain things I've thought about, but never put into an actual thesis myself.

  • @chemistryguy
    @chemistryguy7 ай бұрын

    Two of them came to me in the shower this morning. Laverne & Shirley doesn't have the title words worked into the song, but every time 'we're going to do it' pops up it might as well be just that. Mission Hill, a short lived but fantastic animated series, features an acoustic version of Italian Leather Sofa from Cake. The band was supposed to write an original song but chose this one instead. It's pretty obvious why because you can hear the title over and over again.

  • @barryallenflash1
    @barryallenflash1 Жыл бұрын

    Intriguing. I love anything to do with music, so thanks for making AND sharing this! When I hear a theme song without words, I like to make up words that would fit the tune. Seeing as how I've watched a LOT of comic based TV shows and or movies there have been quite a few without words, soooo.... The Incredible Hulk actually has words. The song is called "the lonely man". There are a couple different versions of this song. Look it up, it's a fun little tune. Now I'm gonna binge watch a bunch of TV show themes because of this.....

  • @annsuma28
    @annsuma28 Жыл бұрын

    I've been watching your videos on pronunciation and accents, and while I do enjoy them a lot, this one is particularly eye-opening to me. This phenomenon is so magical and harmonic. The Doctor Who opening is a reborn theme for me now, never watching this one the same away again!

  • @DevilboyScooby
    @DevilboyScooby Жыл бұрын

    The I Dream of Jeanie theme is something that I recognise as a melody, without ever having seen a single episode of the show. Had no idea until today that was what it's from.

  • @clivenaylor5392

    @clivenaylor5392

    Жыл бұрын

    Stephen Foster was there over a century earlier

  • @cy4194
    @cy4194 Жыл бұрын

    This is a fantastic video: not just a fascinating topic, but your examples serve as a wonderful primer, for non-Anglophones, of English-language TV and film culture.

  • @kennethyates
    @kennethyates7 ай бұрын

    Loving your videos, very informative, thanks.