I think to myself that I’m a tolerant, even long-suffering person, and I think that yes probably in most things I am – or appear to be! I might be smiling politely, but inwardly I might be cringing at something which is really irritating or annoying. The sort of something I mean is usually trivial – I’m not shy or afraid of disagreeing (politely I hope) with a point of view, However, when watching TV, and sometimes – and increasingly often listening to the radio, I become more and more irritated, progressing from mumbling to myself to tutting, harrumphing, and finally full-on moaning and complaining.
So what is the trigger for my irritation, what is it that winds me up so that I might even leave the room, preferring to wash up or clean the bathroom than suffer it further? It’s background music. Now there have been some magnificent compositions which enhance and elevate dramas and documentaries, which can add pathos or tension to a scene, or underline the feelings of a character, passion, sorrow, excitement – yes background music can be magnificent. Yes, magnificent as in “The Magnificent Seven”, comic as in some of the Ealing comedies, and carrying a narrative forward without words.
However, it seems that background music is now almost compulsory and too often it’s just an annoyance, and not background but foreground music. It becomes a distraction to what is being shown, and even compromising the dialogue – whether a documentary or a drama, I often find myself talking to the tv, telling it to tone it down, change, stop the annoying sweep of strings, or plinky-plonk piano, or irritating jazz style discordance and dissonance. This has now become more common on the radio as well, trying to add more drama to a drama, quirky trills to documentary, or jingles in a feature programme.
Harrumph.
My featured image is of the amazing and incomparable Celtic Shambles, who could never ever be accused of being background music!
PS: I continue to have problems with teh updated WordPress, so apologies if something here is awry
