Music in Cartoons

I remember being a child and watching Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies. The oldest memory I have, in fact, is of a six minute short called What’s Opera, Doc?

Taken from Wikipedia: What’s Opera, Doc?is a 1957 animated cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Chuck Jones for Warner Bros. Cartoons. The Michael Maltese story features Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny through a 6:11 operatic parody of 19th century classical composer Richard Wagner’s operas, particularly Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) and Tannhäuser. It is sometimes characterized as a condensed version of Wagner’s Ring, and its music borrows heavily from the second opera Die Walküre, woven around the standard Bugs-Elmer conflict.

As a child I was exposed to so much music and it has increased my admiration of a variety of music. Disney’s Fantasia, a 1940 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and the third film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, is easily the first exposure I had to classical music. I fully credit these experiences as being moments in my life when music became part of my mental growth, so I began to wonder, what music are children being exposed to in cartoons today?

I have a niece and nephew and they both adore Spongebob Squarepants, a show that I thoroughly do not enjoy. I was wondering though, what music is on the show and how it has been incorporated so with a little bit of research I’ve uncovered quite a bit of information.

The SpongeBob SquarePants theme song was composed by Derek Drymon, Mark Harrison, Stephen Hillenburg and Blaise Smith and is primarily based on the sea shanty, “Blow the Man Down”.

A cover of the song by Avril Lavigne can be found on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack and another cover by the Violent Femmes, which aired as a commercial on Nickelodeon to promote season two, can be viewed in the special features of the Nautical Nonsense/Sponge Buddies DVD.

A choral version was recorded for the SpongeBob Christmas special where the last repetition of “SpongeBob SquarePants” was replaced by, “It’s the SpongeBob Christmas special.” The theme song is occasionally utilized as marching cadence. An instrumental version of the opening theme is used in Italy.

Traditional sea shanties are used for the musical themes in the show. Most commonly used is that of “Drunken Sailor”. In the episode “Krusty Krab Training Video,” a young Eugene Krabs is shown walking to a soda vending machine, la-laing the shanty “Blow the Man Down.”

The majority of the background music used in SpongeBob SquarePants comes from the Associated Production Music library, some of which have also been used in shows such as The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, The X Factor, Camp Lazlo, My Gym Partner’s a Monkey, Bill Nye The Science Guy, and The Adventures of Pete and Pete. For competition-based episodes, some of Sam Spence’s NFL Films music is used (such as “A Golden Boy Again” used in episodes such as The Fry Cook Games and “Ramblin’ Man from Gramblin” is used in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V. “The Lineman” is also used extensively in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episodes.) Ironically, one of Spence’s more famous songs for the NFL Films library of music is an orchestral version of “Drunken Sailor” called “Up She Rises”, first suggested by Steven Sabol to his father Ed because he liked the song at summer camp.

Also used to great comedic and dramatic effect in the show, is Hawaiian steel guitar music. Various compositions featuring the Hawaiian steel convey happy, sad, or goofy emotions and situations. Many are traditional Hawaiian melodies such as “Aloha ‘Oe” and are usually sampled from the above-mentioned APM music libray, and are from time to time performed by classic steel guitar artists.

A number of songs are written and recorded by surf instrumental guitar-based rock bands, including The Woodies and The Langhorns. The MelTones’ songs “Kung Fu Saturdays,” “Polynesian Adventure” and “Rocket Sled To Oahu” were used in the series. The Surfdusters’ songs “Henpecker”, “Dementia” and “Kona Angel” were also used in the series.

In the episode “Prehibernation Week,” the music is played by the heavy metal band Pantera. Whenever SpongeBob does something dangerous, the music starts playing. The opening credits have a shot that reads “Special musical guests Pantera”.

The episode “SpongeBob B.C.” features background music including a track best known to British viewers as the theme to 1970s TV sitcom Terry and June. The music was written by John Shakespeare, a former member of 1960s pop group The Ivy League.

The episode “Band Geeks” ends with a shortened version of the song “Sweet Victory”, which was written and performed by David Glen Eisley and Bob Kulick.

The very first episode “Reef Blower” which has no dialog in it was scored by the LA band “The Blue Hawaiians”. The music from that episode has gone to be the “busy” music theme for montages whenever SpongeBob is busy doing something.

That is a wide inclusion of music but none of it is as elaborate as what was in the cartoons of the 40’s and 50’s.

In the 90’s, we had cartoons like Animaniacs which regularly featured music by They Might Be Giants, so my question is really this, Does the music we are exposed to as children create an influence in us that dictates our tastes later?

I’m not a huge fan of Opera, despite the early exposure via Merrie Melodies but the very first time I heard Opera live, it blew me away and brought me to near tears. Classical music, as lovely as it is, has never really been something I listen to but I can, even to this day, differentiate between various composers more recognizable work even having no recollection of listening to them.

The children of today are being exposed to much more simplistic and less involved music, but will it change the way we hear and understand music in the future?

Unfortunately, I can’t predict the future. I hope that with the rise in video games, which feature a wide variety of music, that it will only help to fuel a passion for the art, but I can’t say for sure.