I know the show’s decline is a dead horse, but I can’t help but be fascinated by how the show’s sound design slowly eroded after the movie. In the first 3 seasons, SpongeBob mainly used stock music in its sound design, meaning most of the songs were not really composed for the show. This may seem like a negative thing to point out, but I honestly think the way they used these songs were genius and really added to the unique vibe the show had. All the Hawaiian songs you heard were actual genuine Hawaiian compositions recorded from the 60s to the 90s, which gave the show’s sound an added layer of authenticity. They also featured a lot of surf rock music from actual bands, most notably a band called “The Surf Dusters” who had 12 of their songs pretty prominently featured throughout the show’s first 3 seasons (mainly 1&2). The pirate songs you heard were mainly real sea shanties that had been arranged instrumentally. Then you have the “elevator stock music”(think Always Sunny) from the 60s which gave the show a retro edge.
After the movie, the series composers (mainly Nicholas Carr) began contributing more original music made specifically for the show. He had composed for the show before of course, most notably the “Closing Theme” that played constantly throughout the first 3 seasons. For the most part though, the compositions were mainly minor stings and one-off short pieces.
Around the half way point of season 4 however, mainly starting with the episodes produced in 2006, the show began to phase out a lot of the old stock songs, and began introducing new songs made specifically for the show. What I think was lost here was that instead of having authentic sea shanties and Hawaiian songs and surf rock, the show’s music started to get a lot more goofier and sitcom-like while still adhering to the pastiches of those styles. As a result, the show’s background music became a lot “stupider” sounding and more in your face.
Starting around season 7, a lot of what was left of the show’s original soundtrack was abandoned. Most of the iconic Krusty Krab music for example was replaced with original compositions, which capture the genre in a way, but don’t have the same impact due to the fact they just sound very bouncy and cartoony in a way the old ones just didn’t. The Surfdusters, whose music was barely featured after the movie to begin with (only like 2-3 times between seasons 5-6), were never used again.
I’m not sure what inspired this change, but this direction seems to go hand in hand with the show’s pivot away from family audiences towards young children. If you look through the soundtracks to recent episodes in the last few seasons, pretty much all the music featured now are original compositions made between 2006 and onwards for the show, and they mostly sound very goofy and silly like they were made specifically for a children’s tv show (which they were). The show does still occasionally use some music from the show’s early seasons, but it’s very sparse and usually just the typical hectic songs that started getting really overplayed around season 5 or 6. The show also does still use some stock music, but it’s usually newly introduced stock songs that only recently started appearing.
I realize most people probably don’t care too much about this kind of thing but I’ve always found this interesting and a little depressing.
Submitted December 10, 2022 at 10:21PM by Cobra418 https://ift.tt/kY8Ay3P
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