Tuning in American Narrative Television Music

Television has been called the "boob tube," "goof box," and even a "vast wasteland" of American culture. Yet, for all its banality, television is in many ways a mirror of culture, and communicates messages within culture through the multiple channels of visual images, language, sound, andmusic. All of these channels contain their own unique coded messages to create the larger meaningful text of television. As one of these sensory channels, music contributes to meaning in television through its artistic language and through television viewers' association of music with certainaspects of culture. Music has always been an integral part of the American television, even from its earliest days. Like its parent medium of radio, television broadcasts music to entertain viewers with live and video taped performances, but music has also come to play a much larger role in television beyond itspleasurable performance aspects. Music is used in narrative programs to evoke moods and identify characters and setting, it is used to sell products through commercial jingles, and most importantly, music generally aids broadcast television in navigating through the continuous "flow" of dailyprogramming. This navigational aspect of television music is a distinctive feature, and functions to transport the viewer through three "spaces" of TV: the flow of the televisual apparatus, with commercials, newbreaks, and promos; the storyworld of each narrative program, and the representationalspace between narrative and flow. As Heard on TV is an examination and analysis of music in American television during the first fifty years of its history. The book focuses on how music has functioned to serve as a navigator through the flow of television and contributing to structure narrative programs, while also conveyingmeaning to its viewers by correlating with the images and sounds that it accompanies. Drawing from precedents of the cinema and radio, the book examines music in a number of "classic" television genres by positing a theory of "functional musical spaces" adapted from theories of Charles Morris,Umberto Eco, John Fiske, and others.

Ronald Rodman is Professor of Music at Carleton College, where he teaches courses in the music and cinema and media studies departments. He has published numerous articles on tonal music theory, film music, and music in new media.