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One way to really get a handle on how awful this manipulation is is to watch similar shows in a language you don't understand. The music is so much more obvious in its purpose, and annoying in its execution, because it's all you can understand, and it makes you far more aware of what it's doing when you go back to shows in your own language. Most mainstream commercial TV is pretty hard to take at this point.
I bet Vil is a good person as are most individuals who collude to make the most egregious productions. People I've met briefly like Ryan Seacrest and Rush Limbaugh's producer Kit Carson are immediately personable and not conspiratorial or evil in any way, while some I know better like Alex Jones are predictably complex. Its when the pressure is on that a production, like a corporation or a street mob, can turn dark and vile.
Side note, it's not just the music that is so ridiculous. The woman in the white top at 16:07 who is presented as a shy single mom was actually already an accomplished professional singer. Before appearing on America's Got Talent, she had CD and DVD deals, a couple of top40 hits and she had performed (more than once) at the largest venues in the Netherlands.
I'm not saying some performers can't act fake but performers or anyone can still be shy. It's like struggling with depression or anxiety. Doesn't mean they can't work or do life. Some people stereotype mentally ill people can't too. Have you seen Johnny Depp interviews? He says he's shy. By the way he acts, I think he kinda is. There's some performers who live very private lives. They don't do interviews or have photos of them online. Cause they like being private, or are shy or introverts. Some artists just like art, not performing or dealing with people. Some performers have anxiety cause of being bullied by the public or the industry and the public putting very high standards on them. Some performers quit cause they can't handle it or personal problems. Like Mars Argo. She's a singer who suddenly disappeared and stopped performing. There was a uproar with people asking where she was.
The lady in question recently even beat up supermarket employees for daring to tell her son to stop vaping in the store. Its been all over the Dutch news, career probably ruined
I'm not even a sound guy, i'm a VFX guy, but when i walk through the living room while my mom is watching TV i can often call out what's gonna happen next in the show or who the bad guy is despite not knowing anything about the show and its characters, just deducing from cinematographic language and the music used. All those series are built on the same blueprint, i swear. Anyone claiming AIs will never be able to replace artists working on those needs to take another look at their production, because you wouldn't even need an actual AI to get a computer to mimic it easily.
I don't even think this would be too hard to create, as least the inception horn portion, just have a program that tracks increased motion or a total pause in it and BAMN inception.
As someone who grew up in Florida, where there are alligators (a type of crocodile) in like every lake, the horror music over the crocodile was really funny. They spend 95% of their time lazily floating around, 4% looking like giant dumb dogs abovewater and 1% biting things that practically walk into their mouths because they're so lazy that prey animals just assume they're safe.
I had a similar experience watching March of the Penguins in a theatre. At some point in the doc, some birds of prey try to eat some of the young penguins, and someone in the seat behind me audibly gasped. But if we had been following *those* birds for an hour, we’d want them to feed their young as well 😅
I first see a typo then i see it gone and now i am wondering if the surrealist nightmare cost me my sanity or if someone has the simple yet powerful thought to correct simply corrected flaws simply because its possible
The dog part really had me cracking up man! You said “we totally missed the part where the dog can READ AND TALK!” Simons face and the broken keyboard music will be forever be engraved into my consciousness
Pausing the video to say: asking naive questions is exactly what you SHOULD do in a problem-solving session. The music in that Apprentice scene is not only prompting us to judge the contestants unfairly, it’s also training viewers to hold back in those situations so we don’t look stupid. (Also-also: I would totally wear a “Pizzicato = Stupid” tee shirt...)
Yep, fully agreed. I routinely ask stupid questions and still sometimes cringe at them (especially when the question was answered 10 seconds ago and I was zoned out) but it enhances my learning so much. Nobody is going to remember those stupid questions, but if you watch this pornographic depiction of business/problem solving you might think that looking stupid is actually something to worry about.
this thread reminds me of a thing. ya know how everyone was shitting on trump for "telling" people to inject themselves with bleach? the media left off the part where he was literally sitting right next to an actual medical professional and was asking "stupid questions" in order to try to get the professional to say something to the people about covid that wasn't just "sit at home and wait to die"
Someone should develop a dating show where all of the contestants are composers who have to write a leitmotif (with specified instrumentation) to follow them around, giving everyone the ability to establish their own vibe. I could see myself getting into that. "Wow, this baroque pipe organ number is a bold choice for a character theme. I like this person and hope that they end up getting together with that bland nothing person they're inexplicably pursuing."
@@jett3474 I think it'd be more fun if they're thrown into a studio in pairs and tasked with creating a coherent song that incorporates both themes, forcing them to collaborate and compromise their original idea on the road to a shared artistic vision and determine compatibility that way.
As someone trained to be a sound designer, i can't watch a lot of TV, and specially shows like apprentice and such. I know all the tricks used in the sound design and i just can not stand it. It is SO shoddy storytelling and manipulative. I get irrationally angry at them. What i yearn is being genuine and honest. Which is why i spend by far most of the time watching those youtubers that offer me factual, honest content.
I remember the days of the American version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." Their "question" music was so tense and elevated, my heart would start pounding. I would hate to have a heart attack just so I could hear "the Rachel."
I think most of us have this experience honestly. Getting irritated at seemingly meaningless musical/audio design shit is just something everyone around me has to bear
The stock sound effect that gets me all the time - and Kitchen Nightmares is a big offender in this regard - is that ramp-up cymbal sound effect. The sheer rate and volume they use it at honestly sucks the life out of me.
As someone who works in this industry, the music composer is ALWAYS the last step and often times rushed and given either little or too much direction. It’s not easy by any means. A lot of the time, the director will ask for vague styles and use non musical terms to describe what they want such as “epic” or “dramatic” and then rush the composer to finish the entire score in very short periods of times. It’s not the composers fault.
I feel like most people here would agree, in that pretty much every person involved with the creation of this schlock is suffering somehow except for the folks at the tippy top
The first time I ever saw the UK version of kitchen nightmares after watching so much of the US version I was shocked on how much I got to relax during the episode. No crazy constant bad sound effects and compressed audio, even on the illegally uploaded botched-ish youtube videos. Honestly I hate shows that force in sound effects and no room to breathe constantly. It’s like having to listen to the low health pokemon music for 45 minutes straight
Both US and UK episodes claim to help the restaurant owners, but only the UK episodes actually carry that emotion. Although it's not only the music and editing, albeit it that they play a major part here. Every single argument that probably was resolved in less than two minutes gets exaggerated with music and editing, the story telling and narration being complicit.
You know I've never thought about it that way but it explains why my childhood memories of evenings at home where my aunt or granmother would watch reality tv shows has such a discomforting element of sensory overload
As a brit I have noticed that US documentaries and reality TV is so hard to watch in general compared to UK ones. The ultra-dramatic nature of American docs and the sound effects and voices is just too much! UK television doesnt have this problem so much. The dystopian view of TV dumbing people down etc feels very real when watching American docs
This video is absolutely stellar. I am so glad you mentioned the complex lives of animals and how often we miss the chance to consider their sentient experience!
@@bernadettetreual it's a relevant joke because it also requires removing the enormous complexity of animal experience and reducing it down, in this case to how they taste, which is ironic because this video literally criticises that pattern of thought
This is something I realized a few years ago, when you really pay attention to the background music in reality tv instead of just mindlessly absorbing it, you start to realize that it's often comically dramatic compared to what's actually going on in the show.
Saltwater crocodiles are the only animals, nay, monsters, that I'm genuinely afraid of; their child-eating reptilian beasts whose suffocate their pray in the mud. In some places, such as estuaries in Borneo, there is a the fear of your dog, child or grandma dying in a deathroll.
I actually remember when I was little, nature documentaries being almost devoid of music - the narrator would be providing commentary on what was happening, maybe embellish a little to set a certain mood, but you were basically left to just digest the behavior without emotional herding towards a particular interpretation.
Marlon (from the wraparound porch with julep in hand): I’m here back at the house with my shotgun while Jim’s enjoying the dugout canoe with his slingshot. Jim (paddling a log around the bayou): argh argh glug glug glug Alligator: mmmmm…. Jimmmm… mmmmm Marlon: Jim? Jim who?? Never heard of the guy. Buy life insurance from Mutual of Omaha!
In the sense that it cues you up, sure. I think there are some interesting distinctions between the two though. Laughing tracks are very very strange for another reason... that they almost laugh for you... to remove the need for you to do it. Laughing tracks are horrific.
@@Tantacrul > they almost laugh for you... right, it's not the same thing, if anything, the editing has to actually be made with more breaks to leave room for the tracks, instead of being "quicker" to fit the music…? but yeah, they're horrific. glad we're past that
My ex-girlfriend is a victim of this editting. Her views of romance and how the world operates are almost entirely based around the plot elements of Love Island/The Bachelor/etc, and I can recall countless times where we watched movies or shows that didn’t use this manipulative editting, and she lost interest within 5 minutes, using my appreciation of the work as her sole reason to “suffer through it.”
guys where did my water bottle go *HELLS KITCHEN WATERPHONE EFFECT* i...i took the water... *thunderclap* YOU WHAT??? *reverse cymbal* _tense 16th notes spiccato strings_ can u believe this flippin guy? he took my frickin water....
In nature documentaries, when dolphins or seals are hunting for fish, it's whimsical and charming. When a wolf pack hunts a fawn, it's stressful and scary. Like, the former can turn into a gigantic massacre of several dozens of fish, but their struggle for survival is lesser, because of Bambi I guess? Who knows.
@asdrubale bisanzio well yeah but isn’t the point of nature documentaries to empathize with and observe the lives of animals? Who cares what a dolphin means to a human, for the fish and dolphin involved it’s a live or death situation, not a game.
Lmao, back in the day when I was watching Animal Planet, there were always only two types of ads for their documentaries. 1) *furball puppies running around with whimsical music* tune in next Wednesday to see our cute and cuddly friends, romp around in the meadows. 2) *cue orchestral drums and horns* FEAR THE SHARKS, AND THEIR MERCILESS COLD BLOODED JAWS, IN THE CHILLING NEXT INSTALLMENT OF *MYSTIC MONSTERS* THIS THURSDAY NOTHING in between, it was honestly hilarious.
@@jamzam9807 See, that is exactly wrong. It's not about the animals in the documentary, it's about how the animals make *you* feel. It's not about the action on screen but how it relates to the generic experience everyone has heard.
It’s kind of context and direction based though. If you watch a documentary about zebras then the zebra being hunted brings on the scary music. If you watch one about lions then you get the triumphant music when the lion gets the zebra.
The usage of music in this video was fantastic. That "the dog can read and talk" hit me like a train because you used happy music and a simple explanation of their backstory. Really got me to get how the trick works
I was a chef's apprentice for a short time. The archetype of the tyrant head chef has made an ugly mark on the industry. My chef had a habit of completely withdrawing from the operation for weeks at a time because she thought we should make it on our own and it wasn't her job to babysit us. This was always followed by a dramatic return characterized by yelling, losing her mind over small issues, insults, and "tough love". She never lowered herself to helping me in the moment, instead silently gathering my mistakes to use in a rant. She literally told me "you have to be a bitch in this industry", and that I could "cry if I wanted to, then suck it up". We essentially lost and replaced nearly the entirety of our staff three times, over the four/five months I was there. All the long term staff quit eventually, including the apprentices. She appearently jumped ship the day after I quit, and the restaurant shuttered.
Ah yes, people mistaking "being a bitch" with being a leader. Also when people mistake tough love, that is being honest about a person's shortcomings and working on how to fix them, even when they themselves don't necessarily want to, with just criticizing someone at every turn and leaving them with no idea what to do next.
You're supposed to "be a bitch" when it comes to surviving in an industry, not when it comes to raising talent. That's like a lion treating its cubs the same way it treats the other adult lions its competing with. So fucking stupid. When people like this say they're doing this for their own good; they're lying. It's just a convenient way for them to vent stress and make you feel responsible for it. Absolutely sociopathic behavior, usually inevitable in career-obsessed insects who don't have a family.
@@elooflskhu5358 Oh, believe me, some of those people do have families. What you’re describing is also how a lot of abusive parents are. They may perceive themselves or be perceived by others as strict, but there really are no rules, just excuses to be mean that are enforced whenever they feel like it.
@@meowtherainbowx4163 True; I meant that the example in which they take out their stress on their coworkers or subordinates is exclusive to those without families. To those with families, they take it out on their family members instead, so that they can maintain a pristine reputation in the workplace. Usually, they have vastly inflated egos that aren't suited to their actual station in life, while simultaneously (and paradoxically) being cowardly rats, so whenever they encounter something demeaning or degrading in the workplace (boss treating them like shit, coworkers gossiping, etc.), they suck it up, lick it off the floor, hold it in until they get home, and then spit it out onto the one person who's powerless to impact their work life; their child. That way, they can feel powerful without ever having to put themselves at risk. Source: personal experience.
One reason I think meme culture is so fascinating (and very much a double edge sword sometimes) is how quickly it can turn cultural dead-ends into something completely new, on such a grand scale due to the internet. This is a great vid!!
Imagine being an author dedicating your life to portray the complex nature of the human condition, or a composer trying to do the same in a piece of music, just to have these people completely bastardise everything you live for
What people think composers do: extensive symphonies using advanced compositional techniques to portray complex emotions What composers actually do: “Girl Next Door,” “The Fighter,” “Sad Piano,”
Well, a composer by the name of "The Caretaker" finished in 2019 a 6 hour long experimental album called "Everywhere at the end of time" that is meant as an audible voyage through the slow mental decline of a person with dementia. its terrifying, soul-crushing, tragic and truly amazing in the way how music can portray complex emotions and the woe of mental conditions. I'd recommend you give it a listen but it may leave u a lil depressed for a while.
@@giacomoriva9842 nah i truly felt like that. It fucked me over for like 2 days. Really, dont listen to EATEOT if you're in a particularly vulnerable state
@@giacomoriva9842 i really feel like it. stuff these days just becomes super popular for a month before people call it "a dead meme" and you're not allowed to like it anymore. such a shame.
As an American who is very easily manipulated by television music... this was an emotional rollercoaster. Also, my wife was kind of half-watching in the background, and she said "I've never even noticed any of this." Which is hilarious. I've told her before that I can't watch reality TV because of the editing and music, and I don't think she even listened. I was probably interrupting her episode of "Rock of Love". If you really want to look at reality TV music, that show is a rabbit hole you won't want to go down. Its truly... something.
At the same time, I think turning it into a meme is an L for the corporate because they lose that influence. Cause now it’s just “hahaha funny *BOOM* *eyebrow raise*”
@@Masked_SVincent Honestly sounds like a pretty good idea. Turn their emotional manipulations to post-ironic shitposts that they lose all meaning and thus become useless as a way to convey emotions in a way that can manipulate the audience.
I know, and my rational brain was thinking, All these videos are showing really bad accidents and stuff, people are probably getting hurt...this is not supposed to be funny, stop laughing you jerk. Meanwhile I'm laughing hysterically. Just more evidence supporting Tantacrul's thesis I suppose.
i was honestly kindof disturbed. this episode of tantacrul is so Black Mirror it's unreal, and the worst part is sad/happy is probably definitely going to be pitched to an entrepreneur at some point.
I read an interview with a Netflix producer. She claimed that emotions are shown so explicitly due to how we consume shows, series and movies: probably on a smart phone sitting in a crowded metro. The implications are exactly as you have stated: art should challenge us, in this way it doesn't. However this problem is not only with tv-shows and the like. Like this producer designing shows for smart phone watching: yt, insta and spotify have their own implicit rules you should abide to if being popular is your goal. Anyway, cool video!
I never ever watch tv shows in my smart phone, and absolutely watch movies or series on a smartphone in the metro or any other crowded place... The only time when I watch something like that is in my television or in my laptop in the comfort of my own home, usually during the evenings. The same apply with youtube videos. ... I guess I am not a part of the consumer that this terrible Netflix Producer has in mind.
Pizzicato - sneaky steps. Big horns - action sequence. Echoing piano notes - sadness. Sudden guitar riff - enter the rebel. Accelerating orchestral music - scientist on a breakthrough. Drawn out Cello - medieval battle formation. African ryhthm music - africa. Indian flute - yoga in an aashram. Cymbal crash and quivering piccolo - samurai in a field.
Can we also just spend a moment to just hear me say "Desaturating an image is visual Auto-sad". It's honestly got to the point where it actually ruins the suspension of disbelief in a show when I see it employed and I feel compelled to rebel against the feeling it's trying to give me.
@@bluebaby30 Like those "how clean is your house" before and after shots of the same room where it's not even trying to be subtle about the saturation filters.
@asdrubale bisanzio You're thinking of Wales specifically I feel. But honestly, you can just do the reverse and crank up the saturation for the happy shots and it'll be fine.
That whole section! "I'm not willing to change" _conflict music_ "I wish he'd change" _sad music_ "Are you willing to change?" _tension music_ "Yes I'll change" _happy music_
It could be joked: “In Soviet Russia music changes you” but here we are. Also, maybe what we’re actually witnessing are the thousand lost souls of composers and editors screaming towards us in desperation to end this madness.
your perspective on animals’ framing is so SO important. I literally could not agree with you more, as someone who adores animals and values empathising with them to the greatest possible extent
As someone who was featured on a reality show once, it genuinely amazed me how they just took one aspect of your character and ran with it, often editing in bits of filler talking head that were totally unrelated to fit the narrative. It wasn't just some people being made to look like dicks, there were people who got the absolute rub of the green in terms of an edit and were made to look like really wholesome great people, who in reality weren't.
@@george_yassington Basically just means good luck, usually used with the connotation that "the powers that be" have given you favour. Believe it comes from golf although there are cricket version of the same phrase.
Man whenever I watch docs with my mates, I'm always saying how ridiculously manipulative the music is. They looked at me like I was crazy, so to illustrate my point, I put the documentary on mute it and played some funk fusion. Suddenly the scary great white shark started looking pretty slick and sexy.
That was by far the greatest call to action I've ever seen on RUclips. Magnificent! Sorry about the Cancer/cholera/aids situation, and all the death. Just know that we are here for you with our emotionally supportive button clicking and bell ringing.
You've summed it up beautifully. As a music lover *and* former video editor, I had some heated discussions with producers over this kind of music abuse.
Holy shit I hate pop nature documentaries. "This lion caught her husband cheating on her and now she's SO MAD" -unrelated footage of lioness looking to the right of the camera- Comments: omg you can see the heartbreak and betrayal on her face animals really do feel emotions 😭
@@regularnick Oh no, I'm not complaining about the "animals have emotions" part. It's the humanization I have a problem with. Erasing the behaviors and experiences of animals and insisting that they're feeling something the viewer will find more relatable. Common irl example is people forcing animals to swim because they find it fun and want the animal to experience it, even though the animal is upset or harmed by it.
I feel like BBC documentaries are pretty good about this sort of thing. Presenting the animals as they are, and describing their behaviours as they are, with minimal intrusive editing to "spice things up". Anything with David Attenborough presenting is an especially safe bet, in that regard.
Animals do absolutely feel emotions and are a lot *more* humanlike than we usually imagine but yeah. I've heard some nature documentaries head out with the script already written and just find footage to match with it
Filming a narative with just one wild animal is practically impossible. You film as much footage of these animals as you can (bigger budgets means more oppotunities generally) then splice together what makes a realistic compelling story, a probable example of many animals lives. Wild animals don't redo a shot if the cameraman slips up or the lens got dirty. They must do what they can with what they've got. Filming is very prone to Murphy's law: What can go wrong, will.
I can’t get over the meta in this: SO GOOD! Notice how his own editing mocks and becomes what he’s criticizing. By calling attention to “smart guy tells you things” discovery channel trope in the beginning, the hammed up “reclaim your brain!” becomes a way of saying “see! Look how it’s done! Now you know.”
I found the "meta" extremely distracting and confusing, and found it to detract from the content. It was difficult to discriminate between the narrative and the topic, and more importantly, the lack of contrast detracted from the subject matter. Bad move, IMO....
@@viscountrainbows6452 So irony (humorous or otherwise) is more important than clarity? I think not. Point would have been much better made with pure silence behind the narration, then flipping to the various examples where the manipulative music was "on". All he did was muddy the waters...
Yes, and what of the ridiculous music throughout THIS video?! I found it very ironic that @Tantacrul felt the need to "spice up" his own documentary with the same droll pseudo-music that he was critiquing.
Yeah honestly. I've never met the guy of course, but the personality he conveys in shows like Kitchen Nightmares is inaccurate to his whole being. He's being as "reduced" as any of the restauranteurs he interacts with. Sure, he's a passionate man with feelings boiling on the surface, and sure he's a bit more partial to cussing than the average person, but those are parts of a greater whole. From what others say, and from what candid things I hear about him, he's pretty darn conscious of this reductiveness
I showed this video to my mom, in response to when she showed me "Old Enough" on Netflix. It's amazing how you were able to dance around her patience fuse in such a way that every time she said "Okay! Move on!" the video essay actually does.
For nature documentaries, I consider the meme "watching a hawk eat a frog in a documentary about hawks vs watching a hawk eat a frog in a documentary about frogs", the music really can be necessary to remind us that from the perspective of the animal we're following, their perception of the cute n fuzzy thing is impending doom
100% agreed on everything here, thank you for expressing this sense of "this makes me feel stupid and manipulated" that i often get watching tv. Also, reducing an animal or person to "cute" is somethings i am increasingly aware is actually disrespecting it. When you judge someone as cute, you're likely to call their opinions or wishes also "cute", i.e. not really important. I especially can't stand it when old people or toddlers are called cute/adorable while their wishes are being ignored or downplayed. Also the thing you start out with "oh, that's biscuit music" makes me so very sad when it happens to pieces of classical music that have such a deep history/context. The opposite is also annoying.. how often the Pirates of the Caribbean tune is abused to indicate adventure/courage. That was a good score, but I can't enjoy it anymore.
Yeah, in Poland we had a fucking vegetable oil ad that used some sort of folk song. I don't even know what it's called, when I hear it I just think "Oh yeah Kujawski vegetable oil" My music teacher in primary school complained a lot about it.
I had this happen with a song in Minecraft written for Minecraft. One of the youtubers i watched used it as his outro music for a series and i didn't realize the song was ingame until like 20-40 episodes had gone by of me associating this song as outro music and it felt like such insane cognitive dissonance to hear it in any other context. (The song was Otherside and its a music disc you have to actively find and play) I also feel like this effect is similar to how different jingles get stuck in your head so thoroughly. I have several radio add from kindergarten locked in my brain that i will forget after i forget my own name.
Same! :) It's so weird to think that it's so ubiquitous now. Like, why? I remember seeing Inception in the cinema twice or maybe even three times when it was out, because I liked the experience so much, and being pretty impressed with the way the sound design accentuated the story and the nail biting tension, but why did it become the ubiquitous movie trailer and "oh no something's bad coming up" sound ?.. Whyyyyy?
@@Feamelwen IMO It's kind of like "volume" The more dramatic it is, the more attention idiots pay to it (idiots willing to pay to watch it), and then the less dramatic trailers get left in the dust, so it's been a race to the most dramatic. Why do you think all movie trailers nowadays have crazy big explosions and battles and insanely dramatic music? IHE (I hate everything) made a video about it several years ago that if you have time to burn and are *really* interested about this you can watch. I don't remember the name, it's been a long time.
@@ComputersVirtualMachinesAndMor Hey, I actually found that video (from 2015, which is basically prehistoric times in internet years) and watched it. Thanks for the recommendation!
I'm very stoic by nature, but the auto generated happy and auto sad made me lost it. I've seen plenty of RUclips comments of people saying they 'lost it' but always just thought it was an exaduration, but this actually achieved such from me. A fantastic pay off to the whole video.
You've done an excellent job describing why reality tv is unwatchable for me. It's nothing but constant emotional manipulation. I don't want tv to tell me how to feel. Present reality to me and let me feel for myself. Ironic how "reality tv" has become anything but reality.
Another depressing thing is... Some people want to be "manipulated" per se, They don't know how to feel when watching stuff like that sometimes and adding that layer of emotions keeps them from going away from screen to see what will happen next. They get emotionaly invested which is what the shows are trying to do.
@@adonas3903 Meanwhile people like me see the manipulation and it pushes us away. Like, I don't want to watch The Voice for sob stories, I want to watch it for amazing singing. It's meant to be a talent contest, but people who don't have stories don't get onto the show no matter how talented they are.
@@JohnDCrafton But we are the silent minorities aren't we? unless we turn loud nothing will change, and even after few years things change they will just figure out better ways to manipulate mentally. Trust me it's already happening and we aren't prepared for it.
The worst part of this is that it is so insidious. It's hard to notice until you really look for it, which is why this video is so important (and brilliantly made too). It is just so desensitising and superficial. We just detach from empathy and the things people go through which are sometimes genuinely tragic, and it's just reduced down to 'person is sad.' And we don't even realise it happening. It almost feels condescending and mocking, both to the person on TV and ourselves.
"I was diagnosed with cancer." Me: (actually thinking he's serious) "...and then cholera and then aids." Me: "Oh, it's a joke." "Then my wife and kids died-"
I remember a YT comment once on a Kitchen Nightmares video saying something like "Why are they yelling at each other while complex string music is playing?" Pretty much sums it up.
I wanted to add True Crime Documentary to this discussion. The best of the genre use music subtly and sparingly to set the tone, usually playing it over factual text narration while getting quiet for interview or raw footage. The good shows/films present real people's perspectives without the filter of loud, incomprehensible music. This is especially important in this kind of documentary because at its best it is a search for the truth and sometimes interviewees might be lying or evading. The garbage shows rely on lots of loud stingers and feature interview footage butchered in editing to match the score. These shows act like they expect their audience to wander away if they don't drop a *stunning revelation* paired with a stinger every 12 seconds. And of course they don't have that many to drop, so they come off like: "In this quiet suburb (building horror strings) this housewife was MURDERED. (horror movie stinger) In her own BEDROOM. (DUN DUN DUN stinger). Could the murderer be...(horror string climax) HER OWN HUSBAND?! (stinger)" It just feels so disrespectful to the people impacted by crime.
I know what you mean! A few years ago I started to feel really disturbed by reality TV and true crime shows because my housemates watched them constantly, and something about it just felt so inhumane and off. It really stood out to me when I heard the incriminating, dark music drop over footage of teens or young adults talking about their mental illness or struggles with addiction and it just felt like these shows were trying to mock them and turn really serious things in people's lives into a joke. In a related vein I feel increasingly uncomfortable with how many movies and TV shows are made mythologizing the lives of people who aren't even dead yet. Why is an entire drama being made about Elizabeth Holmes? It's creepy if you ask me. I don't know if we should be dramatizing the lives of real people whatsoever, unless they died at least a century ago and even that is controversial.
I agree with this, it's one thing to apply this style to a show about someone's failing restaurant or whatever but when it's about somebody's murdered loved one it's so inappropriate and icky to me. I hate true crime as a whole genre tbh, way worse than reality TV
I'm not from the US and haven't watched TV in a while. Last I remember from TV here, it was dramatic but not _this_ bad. I watched Kitchen Nightmares because everyone was talking abt it and MAN, the sensory overload. I felt like I was going crazy.
What's sad is that when the Sad/Happy segment came up, my immediate reaction wasn't "that's ridiculous, no one would ever watch that." It was "I bet you could make a successful RUclips channel out of that."
Strangely, what is commonly accepted (expected) in "reality" TV is often criticized in the comments of YT videos that choose to have background music. It seems there is a different standard and expectation for instructional YT vs "reality" TV.
I want an episode of Kitchen Nightmares or something similar where the owner of the restaurant has a dog and the editing is more interested in the dog than anything else
My favourite part of any reality show about restaurants, or house buying programmes or whatever are where they have an establishing shot of the property and there's a cat wandering around outside. It's just a tiny break from the manufactured emotion, to have a brief moment of honesty: "we chose this shot because aww kitty"
Amazing insights. This clarifies and puts into words a lot of the frustration I’ve felt about reality television and documentaries, and addresses a disturbing problem that only seems to be getting worse as you showed in the video. For some reason I’m not as bothered by the nature video stereotypes, but to be honest I haven’t really thought much about it. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to it, but I don’t mind the stereotypical inserts and over-dramatization of predators, etc 😂 but I will certainly think about this the next time I’m watching….
Glad you liked it 😊 I think the sound/music choices of nature documentaries vary massively depending on the publisher. To be very simplistic: National Geographic are generally ‘cinematic’. They like to use music you’d hear in movies. BBC are broadly more creative and focused on education. The lines are very blurred though.
I actually find the animal ones quite sad... The tone they set can really affect the way humans view animals, and even take them out of the context that they're in. Jaws, while a horror movie, set the tone for how sharks are depicted in media and people's nightmares as well, and you can see that nature documentaries also use music similar to the jaws theme -- the suspense of watching a predator prey IS a real thing, but it connects the fictional depiction of the shark in jaws with a depiction that is presented and thought of as a more realistic medium. Many docus however, don't mention how rare it is actually for sharks to attack humans, so this connection the music creates between the two ends up with some people not being able to let go of the shark = evil human-killers stereotype and it actively harms sharks in real life, cause humans react to them violently. So while the music can make the documentaries more engaging for the viewer, I think there's also something to be said about the way they create or enforce stereotypes that may affect animal populations as people irrationally react to them. Not claiming that sound design in documentaries is THE driving factor in it all, and surely many people will understand that predators catching prey is just part of the circle of life, though.
@@sparkypikachu7776 Haha yeah I'm not here to fight! Just wanted to add my 2 cents (as concisely as possible) as someone who cares a lot about sharks and has also watched a lot of nature documentaries! The topic of music shaping tropes and our perceptions of things is super interesting and I'm sure would have a lot more nuance if it wasn't in an online comment section :D
Its interesting that depression and anxiety are at their highest ever recorded levels amongst the general population, but we also experience psychological manipulation from just about every entertainment source available. Social media, TV, Youtue, netflix recommendations, spotify shuffle algorithms, its all designed to get you to keep glued to the source for as long as possible and quite frankly its debilitating and disgusting.
@@DylanVole Its those damn monorhythmic piano chords making the kids all sad! No seriously though, you do bring up a good point. Millions engage with the same types of content, and if stuff like reality tv is being emotionally reduced like this, a correlation can definitely be made.
@@DylanVole iirc social media has been known to fuck with the mood of the people that partake Browse twitter for a bit and find the inevitable concerning news/political unrest thread, and then realize ruining your day was not worth it just for a thought experiment
@@DylanVole I remember when people did studies on technology and depression rate, and found out it had no effect. At NO point did any news article reporting on this mention the simple fact that this has nothing to do with the content that's usually distributed on technology.
This explains so much about why my abusive parent liked reality TV and contest shows so much. She craved that emotional simplicity and straightforwardness.
I thought I was the only one that saw the link between my abusive narcissistic stepmom and scripted reality/soap opera TV programs. Always had a bad taste in my mouth whenever I kept seeing the same dramatic story rehashed and dramatized to feed into biases.
I'm here too. A middle-aged man. My mother is also totally into reality TV and contest shows. A female friend of mine once said that my mother seems to hallucinate me and interact with that hallucination. But the other alternative is that she scripts and directs me like one of those one-dimensional characters. I'm a super talented, super intelligent, super fragile and super lazy character who could accomplish anything and impress everybody but always chooses to do nothing. I must choose between my incredible unused superpowers or deal with a totally unlived life in actual reality. No wonder I end up doing nothing.
@@mannperson324 Because abusers want puppets, not humans. They seem to enjoy reality TV because the people portrayed in these shows are simple, one-dimensional, easy to understand characters. This is why it is often said that narcissists want to be around simple yes-men and get angry once the people they interact with show the authentic complexity that humans possess. Here, it is the same logic.
🔥That intro is absolutely epic 🤣 Edit: the whole video is incredible. Brilliant work. But as there was no clearly signposted soundtrack I don't know how to feel about it. RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN!
One thought: have background music when delivering medical news. clogged artery: sad That wasnˋt a heart attack: happy Dangerous, but hopeful diagnosis: hopeful
Everything he said about kitchen nightmares, articulates everything I love about the show, once you watch while actively focusing on the sound cues it’s hilarious.
I don't think it's funny that Ramsey is yelling at and devaluing real people. Those are real people. Not characters. Some people forget that and start viewing reality tv people as characters.
@@user-gu9yq5sj7c If Ramsey yells at you, it's because he sees you as a capable of greater things than you are achieving. It is precisely the opposite of devaluing; he thinks you are undervaluing yourself.
i've been binge watching your videos, and i absolutely love how whenever you put the fake sad music, you always go with the "here at shell, we are sad" piano, it's a great running gag
That was pure gold. This level of critical thinking is precisely what the world needs , and it's the most difficult to find nowadays. Thank you Tantacrul for articulating the problems of today's modernity, one video at a time.
I think we should switch the context for pizzicato and auto-sad piano in reality TV. When someone is meant to be seen as foolish, use the sad piano. When someone is sharing an exaggerated or fabricated sob story, use the pizzicato
Okay I know I’m late but I have to say: using the finale to Shostakovich’s 7th symphony at the end of this video is complete genius. It’s a work so full of ambiguity, musical trope subversions, and double meaning that it’s the perfect contrast to the banality of reality TV music and I love that it was included.
In Finland, there is one quite funny (or sad, depends on how you look at it) instance of reification. We have a pain killer named "Burana", and in early 2000's they used Beethoven's "Für Elise" in their TV and radio commercials (and I think they're still using it). Guess which piece was known as the "Burana song" for years to come.
@@SlyHikari03 The ads are actually kinda decent because they never play the piece as it’s written, it’s always reharmonized or played in the style of a different genre
Yeah, too bad it's so engrained in me, too. I especially like how it's used on Kurzgesagt to establish a playful feel. I don't think I can listen to a pizzicato anymore without being toyish or a secret agent.
I would love to see a meta reality show, where the contestants are video editors, and they compete by serving up different cuts of a (separate) reality show. So we still as viewers get to see the happy/sad creations of the editors, but the competition itself, between the editors, is the focus and is more genuine.
Hey everyone! If you liked this video and want to see more like it, I'd be very grateful if you'd consider becoming a Patron. www.patreon.com/Tantacrul. These videos take an enormous amount of time to create and my patrons are the reason I can do it at all! (Both my Eurovision videos which were taken down 2 years ago are Patreon perks by the way)
Discord: t.co/a3oYi1Rbnc?amp=1
May the cringe be with you.(￣^￣)ゞ
We all know you made this to justify fanatically watching 'the bachelor'
Awesome production! Thanks!
One way to really get a handle on how awful this manipulation is is to watch similar shows in a language you don't understand. The music is so much more obvious in its purpose, and annoying in its execution, because it's all you can understand, and it makes you far more aware of what it's doing when you go back to shows in your own language. Most mainstream commercial TV is pretty hard to take at this point.
@@joking6096 yeah it's pretty horrible subtitles. I hope all his videos aren't like this
As a former tv editor, i am also guilty of this music destruction. But holy shit i laughed like crazy at the happy sad hornblasts
you left the cancer though, so props to you
did you get paid well or was it the usual abuse?
You should be arrested on the spot but I like your honesty haha
@@Blacktronics you'd better believe it was severe abuse
I bet Vil is a good person as are most individuals who collude to make the most egregious productions. People I've met briefly like Ryan Seacrest and Rush Limbaugh's producer Kit Carson are immediately personable and not conspiratorial or evil in any way, while some I know better like Alex Jones are predictably complex. Its when the pressure is on that a production, like a corporation or a street mob, can turn dark and vile.
@@Blacktronics Well at least he changed.
"I'm tired of being judged" - goes onto a show with actual judges
6 months later: Tantacrul given complete control of soundtracking a revamped Animal Planet.
Side note, it's not just the music that is so ridiculous. The woman in the white top at 16:07 who is presented as a shy single mom was actually already an accomplished professional singer.
Before appearing on America's Got Talent, she had CD and DVD deals, a couple of top40 hits and she had performed (more than once) at the largest venues in the Netherlands.
Never let facts stand in the way of a good story.
I'm not saying some performers can't act fake but performers or anyone can still be shy. It's like struggling with depression or anxiety. Doesn't mean they can't work or do life. Some people stereotype mentally ill people can't too. Have you seen Johnny Depp interviews? He says he's shy. By the way he acts, I think he kinda is. There's some performers who live very private lives. They don't do interviews or have photos of them online. Cause they like being private, or are shy or introverts.
Some artists just like art, not performing or dealing with people. Some performers have anxiety cause of being bullied by the public or the industry and the public putting very high standards on them. Some performers quit cause they can't handle it or personal problems. Like Mars Argo. She's a singer who suddenly disappeared and stopped performing. There was a uproar with people asking where she was.
The lady in question recently even beat up supermarket employees for daring to tell her son to stop vaping in the store. Its been all over the Dutch news, career probably ruined
And AGT is gonna be blamed for her success.
she also assaulted a minor in a supermarket
I'm not even a sound guy, i'm a VFX guy, but when i walk through the living room while my mom is watching TV i can often call out what's gonna happen next in the show or who the bad guy is despite not knowing anything about the show and its characters, just deducing from cinematographic language and the music used.
All those series are built on the same blueprint, i swear. Anyone claiming AIs will never be able to replace artists working on those needs to take another look at their production, because you wouldn't even need an actual AI to get a computer to mimic it easily.
Cue: Disney
Honestly it's Chekhov's gun on steroids
yeah I can basically tell whats happening/gonna happen from across the house
A formula is a step away from an algorithm
@@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse yeah, I think Disney fed the script of Star Wars: A New Hope to an AI program, then the AI wrote The Force Awakens.
The autosad+inceptihorn AI it's probably one of the best shitposting ideas I've ever heard
Exactly.
Popular meme but it’s sad
Also, that inception horn thing reminds me of 21st second humor.
I can't wait for TV to be AI generated formalist shitposting in 10 years time
Yes!
I don't even think this would be too hard to create, as least the inception horn portion, just have a program that tracks increased motion or a total pause in it and BAMN inception.
Honestly random footage with the inception horn constantly going off and changing the footage sounds like peak postmodern humor.
Oh look, the "21 century/genz humor" memes! xd
@@_tomatty I mean I guess? I do honestly believe humor is generally becoming more surreal/meaningless.
It legit made me laugh
I'd watch sad/happy, but personally I prefer what America's Got Talent becomes, good/bad
His argument is on point tho hahaha
As someone who grew up in Florida, where there are alligators (a type of crocodile) in like every lake, the horror music over the crocodile was really funny. They spend 95% of their time lazily floating around, 4% looking like giant dumb dogs abovewater and 1% biting things that practically walk into their mouths because they're so lazy that prey animals just assume they're safe.
Florida man writes a RUclips comment.
@@berdyking7967 True but so was everything I said.
That might be true but if I ever see an alligator up close you bet I'm going to run away in the opposite direction like Satan himself was chasing me
Ok
Alligators aren’t a type of crocodile, but yeah as a fellow Floridian I can confirm they are lazy af and barely ever move lol.
The bird eating the worm. * Ominous music starts* ... this was brilliant.
Made me ribl **role in mah bed laughing**
I had a similar experience watching March of the Penguins in a theatre.
At some point in the doc, some birds of prey try to eat some of the young penguins, and someone in the seat behind me audibly gasped. But if we had been following *those* birds for an hour, we’d want them to feed their young as well 😅
@@Epinardscaramel i guess. Crazy how perspective changes things.
Definitely
@@funkylentil6966 how did you spell it so wrong XD
Wouldn't be a Tantacrul video if it didn’t descend into a surrealist nightmare at some point. I love it.
I know, I always feel like he's found some way to give us LSD virtually...
I still get chills from thinking about that Sibelius video...
I first see a typo then i see it gone and now i am wondering if the surrealist nightmare cost me my sanity or if someone has the simple yet powerful thought to correct simply corrected flaws simply because its possible
@@ιθκ-κ4ο The eldritch "edit" button is a force not to be trifled with
We all thought it and you put it in to words.
Who's that handsome chap you're standing with in the intro, and why hasn't anyone noticed him yet?
I did ❤️ Very handsome indeed ☺️
So that wasn't Martin Scorsese?
Repetition... does it legitimize?
@@biancuzzo-vgm451 I taught him everything he knows about eyebrow maintenance.
Ah yes... *more*
The dog part really had me cracking up man! You said “we totally missed the part where the dog can READ AND TALK!”
Simons face and the broken keyboard music will be forever be engraved into my consciousness
Pausing the video to say: asking naive questions is exactly what you SHOULD do in a problem-solving session. The music in that Apprentice scene is not only prompting us to judge the contestants unfairly, it’s also training viewers to hold back in those situations so we don’t look stupid.
(Also-also: I would totally wear a “Pizzicato = Stupid” tee shirt...)
Yep, fully agreed. I routinely ask stupid questions and still sometimes cringe at them (especially when the question was answered 10 seconds ago and I was zoned out) but it enhances my learning so much. Nobody is going to remember those stupid questions, but if you watch this pornographic depiction of business/problem solving you might think that looking stupid is actually something to worry about.
@@murtaza6464 **pizzicato** 😬😬😬😬😬😬
this thread reminds me of a thing. ya know how everyone was shitting on trump for "telling" people to inject themselves with bleach? the media left off the part where he was literally sitting right next to an actual medical professional and was asking "stupid questions" in order to try to get the professional to say something to the people about covid that wasn't just "sit at home and wait to die"
@@bloodyhell8201 there really was no need for that
I get you’re joking but still
Someone should develop a dating show where all of the contestants are composers who have to write a leitmotif (with specified instrumentation) to follow them around, giving everyone the ability to establish their own vibe.
I could see myself getting into that. "Wow, this baroque pipe organ number is a bold choice for a character theme. I like this person and hope that they end up getting together with that bland nothing person they're inexplicably pursuing."
Honestly, I think that would be an absolutely interesting idea.
Would the contestants' compatability be decided on how well their personal leitmotifs work together/sound when played over each other?
@@jett3474 I think it'd be more fun if they're thrown into a studio in pairs and tasked with creating a coherent song that incorporates both themes, forcing them to collaborate and compromise their original idea on the road to a shared artistic vision and determine compatibility that way.
@@227 That idea has legs!
Yea
As someone trained to be a sound designer, i can't watch a lot of TV, and specially shows like apprentice and such. I know all the tricks used in the sound design and i just can not stand it. It is SO shoddy storytelling and manipulative. I get irrationally angry at them. What i yearn is being genuine and honest. Which is why i spend by far most of the time watching those youtubers that offer me factual, honest content.
“Factual honest content”
🤣
I remember the days of the American version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." Their "question" music was so tense and elevated, my heart would start pounding. I would hate to have a heart attack just so I could hear "the Rachel."
@@saxo689 most of the time, anyway
I think most of us have this experience honestly. Getting irritated at seemingly meaningless musical/audio design shit is just something everyone around me has to bear
The stock sound effect that gets me all the time - and Kitchen Nightmares is a big offender in this regard - is that ramp-up cymbal sound effect. The sheer rate and volume they use it at honestly sucks the life out of me.
As someone who works in this industry, the music composer is ALWAYS the last step and often times rushed and given either little or too much direction. It’s not easy by any means. A lot of the time, the director will ask for vague styles and use non musical terms to describe what they want such as “epic” or “dramatic” and then rush the composer to finish the entire score in very short periods of times. It’s not the composers fault.
I feel like most people here would agree, in that pretty much every person involved with the creation of this schlock is suffering somehow except for the folks at the tippy top
and it's all largely unnecessary
They're kinda selling their soul though! Imagine wanting to live for your art, then ending up scoring The Bachelor instead. Ouch.
@@Pr0HoN I think it says a lot about society mate
@@Pr0HoNWell, the rent must be paid I guess...
Music in reality TV is bad, but sad/happy in *both* comic sans and papyrus is a crime against humanity.
Good eye!
But it's an accurate analogy.
@S Undertale didn't invent the fonts?
Undertale
@S
They're both terrible fonts to use in a word document
The first time I ever saw the UK version of kitchen nightmares after watching so much of the US version I was shocked on how much I got to relax during the episode. No crazy constant bad sound effects and compressed audio, even on the illegally uploaded botched-ish youtube videos. Honestly I hate shows that force in sound effects and no room to breathe constantly. It’s like having to listen to the low health pokemon music for 45 minutes straight
Both US and UK episodes claim to help the restaurant owners, but only the UK episodes actually carry that emotion. Although it's not only the music and editing, albeit it that they play a major part here. Every single argument that probably was resolved in less than two minutes gets exaggerated with music and editing, the story telling and narration being complicit.
I feel that Kitchen Nightmares USA to the UK version is like fast food is to a proper restaurant meal.
Yeah the UK kitchen nightmares is practically ASMR compared to the US version
You know I've never thought about it that way but it explains why my childhood memories of evenings at home where my aunt or granmother would watch reality tv shows has such a discomforting element of sensory overload
As a brit I have noticed that US documentaries and reality TV is so hard to watch in general compared to UK ones. The ultra-dramatic nature of American docs and the sound effects and voices is just too much! UK television doesnt have this problem so much. The dystopian view of TV dumbing people down etc feels very real when watching American docs
This video is absolutely stellar. I am so glad you mentioned the complex lives of animals and how often we miss the chance to consider their sentient experience!
Hi ben
I dunno, I'm pretty sure that crocodile had a gun.
@@rainbowkrampus yeah man he looked dodgy
Also, don't forget how tasty they are! So many dimensions of pure taste bud joy.
@@bernadettetreual it's a relevant joke because it also requires removing the enormous complexity of animal experience and reducing it down, in this case to how they taste, which is ironic because this video literally criticises that pattern of thought
I’ve always thought that The Bachelor + it’s spin-offs were basically just the equivalent of harem anime for boomers 💀
Fun fact: There is a show titled The Bachelor: Japan which is pretty much what it is.
Ans it definitely feels like a harem anime.
This is something I realized a few years ago, when you really pay attention to the background music in reality tv instead of just mindlessly absorbing it, you start to realize that it's often comically dramatic compared to what's actually going on in the show.
Exactly. Exadurated emotions. Which for the mindless is like a hook.
@@adonas3903 *Someone places a plate on a table* BAM BAM BAM BAM DADADA!!!!
@@roryreviewer6598 HOLY, DID HE JUST PUT A PLATE... ON A TABLE!? I don't think my heart can take this anymore... *dies*
@@roryreviewer6598 THE PLATE-ON-TABLE-INATOR!
DUM DUM DADADA
Don't forget the shaky camera
i love the obligatory descent into raw fucking madness before the conclusion in each video its SO good
The word Tantacrul has now been reified in my brain to mean psychedelic analyses of jankiness, jajaja.
"the crocodile is a cold blooded monster..." the crocodile that just doesn't want to die: ok...
Saltwater crocodiles are the only animals, nay, monsters, that I'm genuinely afraid of; their child-eating reptilian beasts whose suffocate their pray in the mud. In some places, such as estuaries in Borneo, there is a the fear of your dog, child or grandma dying in a deathroll.
@@LazarusWilhelm To paraphrase tommaso - they just not die.
Imagine if aliens made a documentary on the human species and put a showcase of our worst atrocities. What kind of music would they choose?
'Monster' is questionable. But crocodiles ARE apparently cold-blooded.
Do crocodiles kill for fun?
I actually remember when I was little, nature documentaries being almost devoid of music - the narrator would be providing commentary on what was happening, maybe embellish a little to set a certain mood, but you were basically left to just digest the behavior without emotional herding towards a particular interpretation.
Marlon (from the wraparound porch with julep in hand): I’m here back at the house with my shotgun while Jim’s enjoying the dugout canoe with his slingshot.
Jim (paddling a log around the bayou): argh argh glug glug glug
Alligator: mmmmm…. Jimmmm… mmmmm
Marlon: Jim? Jim who?? Never heard of the guy. Buy life insurance from Mutual of Omaha!
so, basically, music in reality TV is just like laugh tracks in sitcoms
In the sense that it cues you up, sure. I think there are some interesting distinctions between the two though. Laughing tracks are very very strange for another reason... that they almost laugh for you... to remove the need for you to do it. Laughing tracks are horrific.
@@Tantacrul
> they almost laugh for you...
right, it's not the same thing, if anything, the editing has to actually be made with more breaks to leave room for the tracks, instead of being "quicker" to fit the music…?
but yeah, they're horrific. glad we're past that
How good laugh tracks are depends on how good the joke accompanying it is and since comedy is subjective canned laughter is neither bad or good.
Auto-tune, Auto-Sad and Auto-Happy 😂
@@ephjaymusic Ren & Stimpy springs to mind...
"The guy's a police officer, and the dog's a dog"
Absolute
Gold
Absolute
Dog
”Reminds me of that cliché that psychopaths show more compassion for animals than they do for humans” 😂😂😂
And that concludes our extensive three-week course
the dog-getting-knived animation killed me :D
@@sontrajamfemininegaze145 You just know that thousands of introverts wondered whether they were psychopaths at that.
good to know musescore aren't holding you hostage until you fix their design problems
ALL HAIL OPEN SOURCE
I mean, I think it needs a complete redesign. It needs a new interface, new features... basically, it needs a New All.
@@edderiofer new all lmaoooo
@@edderiofer still sad that the New All button was removed
Haha
My ex-girlfriend is a victim of this editting. Her views of romance and how the world operates are almost entirely based around the plot elements of Love Island/The Bachelor/etc, and I can recall countless times where we watched movies or shows that didn’t use this manipulative editting, and she lost interest within 5 minutes, using my appreciation of the work as her sole reason to “suffer through it.”
that little “creepy creaky door string” sound that happens when there is anything at all ever which even slightly resembles conflict
Yeah. It is such an overused effect.
guys where did my water bottle go *HELLS KITCHEN WATERPHONE EFFECT*
i...i took the water... *thunderclap*
YOU WHAT??? *reverse cymbal*
_tense 16th notes spiccato strings_ can u believe this flippin guy? he took my frickin water....
The worst one is those cymbal rolls. They absolutely drive me up the wall and destroy any semblance of immersion
I first heard that sound in the game Dragon Age Origins, now it's in every reality show.
its called a waterphone iirc
Not knowing anything about music I always called this "Music doing the acting for the actor"
OH ABSOLUTELY YES!
If only they were actual actors ...
That’s good man
yeah, thats the reason I avoid using music on stage when I direct something. Music works, but it cheapens the acting.
They *are* "actual actors"...
In nature documentaries, when dolphins or seals are hunting for fish, it's whimsical and charming. When a wolf pack hunts a fawn, it's stressful and scary. Like, the former can turn into a gigantic massacre of several dozens of fish, but their struggle for survival is lesser, because of Bambi I guess? Who knows.
dolphins are rapey assholes of the ocean and should get waay more bad rep, but cute i guess.
@asdrubale bisanzio well yeah but isn’t the point of nature documentaries to empathize with and observe the lives of animals? Who cares what a dolphin means to a human, for the fish and dolphin involved it’s a live or death situation, not a game.
Lmao, back in the day when I was watching Animal Planet, there were always only two types of ads for their documentaries.
1) *furball puppies running around with whimsical music* tune in next Wednesday to see our cute and cuddly friends, romp around in the meadows. 2) *cue orchestral drums and horns* FEAR THE SHARKS, AND THEIR MERCILESS COLD BLOODED JAWS, IN THE CHILLING NEXT INSTALLMENT OF *MYSTIC MONSTERS* THIS THURSDAY
NOTHING in between, it was honestly hilarious.
@@jamzam9807 See, that is exactly wrong. It's not about the animals in the documentary, it's about how the animals make *you* feel. It's not about the action on screen but how it relates to the generic experience everyone has heard.
It’s kind of context and direction based though. If you watch a documentary about zebras then the zebra being hunted brings on the scary music. If you watch one about lions then you get the triumphant music when the lion gets the zebra.
The usage of music in this video was fantastic. That "the dog can read and talk" hit me like a train because you used happy music and a simple explanation of their backstory. Really got me to get how the trick works
dude have you seen Tik Tok? We're ALREADY at sad/happy NOW, I don't even wanna think about what's next
oh god oh fuck
Viewer sad now :(
It did occur to me that Sad/Happy was not amazingly far fetched. I tried to add an extra layer of randomness to it.
Tantacrul you should see a 21st century humour video, that's what internet humour has become lol
Tbf there’s a lot of good stuff on Tik Tok. Moreso I think than on reality TV
I was a chef's apprentice for a short time. The archetype of the tyrant head chef has made an ugly mark on the industry. My chef had a habit of completely withdrawing from the operation for weeks at a time because she thought we should make it on our own and it wasn't her job to babysit us. This was always followed by a dramatic return characterized by yelling, losing her mind over small issues, insults, and "tough love". She never lowered herself to helping me in the moment, instead silently gathering my mistakes to use in a rant. She literally told me "you have to be a bitch in this industry", and that I could "cry if I wanted to, then suck it up". We essentially lost and replaced nearly the entirety of our staff three times, over the four/five months I was there. All the long term staff quit eventually, including the apprentices. She appearently jumped ship the day after I quit, and the restaurant shuttered.
Ah yes, people mistaking "being a bitch" with being a leader. Also when people mistake tough love, that is being honest about a person's shortcomings and working on how to fix them, even when they themselves don't necessarily want to, with just criticizing someone at every turn and leaving them with no idea what to do next.
@@AirLancer THIS! 👏
You're supposed to "be a bitch" when it comes to surviving in an industry, not when it comes to raising talent. That's like a lion treating its cubs the same way it treats the other adult lions its competing with. So fucking stupid.
When people like this say they're doing this for their own good; they're lying. It's just a convenient way for them to vent stress and make you feel responsible for it. Absolutely sociopathic behavior, usually inevitable in career-obsessed insects who don't have a family.
@@elooflskhu5358 Oh, believe me, some of those people do have families. What you’re describing is also how a lot of abusive parents are. They may perceive themselves or be perceived by others as strict, but there really are no rules, just excuses to be mean that are enforced whenever they feel like it.
@@meowtherainbowx4163 True; I meant that the example in which they take out their stress on their coworkers or subordinates is exclusive to those without families. To those with families, they take it out on their family members instead, so that they can maintain a pristine reputation in the workplace. Usually, they have vastly inflated egos that aren't suited to their actual station in life, while simultaneously (and paradoxically) being cowardly rats, so whenever they encounter something demeaning or degrading in the workplace (boss treating them like shit, coworkers gossiping, etc.), they suck it up, lick it off the floor, hold it in until they get home, and then spit it out onto the one person who's powerless to impact their work life; their child. That way, they can feel powerful without ever having to put themselves at risk.
Source: personal experience.
Georg Lukács, the creator of Sctar Warcs
Tsar Warcs
Ah yes, the hit film Csilag Haboruk. Featuring notable characters like Hadnagyur Kenobagy, Lukacs Legsetalo, and Sotet Fater.
SRAR WALS
Did I just hit... *a hungarian comment thread*
@@thelazywanderer_jt Igen
One reason I think meme culture is so fascinating (and very much a double edge sword sometimes) is how quickly it can turn cultural dead-ends into something completely new, on such a grand scale due to the internet. This is a great vid!!
Imagine being an author dedicating your life to portray the complex nature of the human condition, or a composer trying to do the same in a piece of music, just to have these people completely bastardise everything you live for
viva la revolucion!
What people think composers do: extensive symphonies using advanced compositional techniques to portray complex emotions
What composers actually do: “Girl Next Door,” “The Fighter,” “Sad Piano,”
Well, a composer by the name of "The Caretaker" finished in 2019 a 6 hour long experimental album called "Everywhere at the end of time" that is meant as an audible voyage through the slow mental decline of a person with dementia. its terrifying, soul-crushing, tragic and truly amazing in the way how music can portray complex emotions and the woe of mental conditions. I'd recommend you give it a listen but it may leave u a lil depressed for a while.
@@giacomoriva9842 nah i truly felt like that. It fucked me over for like 2 days. Really, dont listen to EATEOT if you're in a particularly vulnerable state
@@giacomoriva9842 i really feel like it. stuff these days just becomes super popular for a month before people call it "a dead meme" and you're not allowed to like it anymore. such a shame.
As an American who is very easily manipulated by television music... this was an emotional rollercoaster. Also, my wife was kind of half-watching in the background, and she said "I've never even noticed any of this." Which is hilarious. I've told her before that I can't watch reality TV because of the editing and music, and I don't think she even listened. I was probably interrupting her episode of "Rock of Love". If you really want to look at reality TV music, that show is a rabbit hole you won't want to go down. Its truly... something.
Marriage .. but with music in the background .. now that’s reality
Imagine just walking around town and you start hearing a pizzicato piece following you.
XD
"... Shit what did I do wrong this time???"
And if you're fat stewie follows with you with a tuba
That's when you know you've lost your keys or something lol
"wtf did i forgot my taxes or 5h1t"
* insert jpeg of a smeer face. *
“… and the dog’s a dog”
I must admit I laughed far too much at this joke than I had any right.
The inception horn blasts over random footage is literally the memes my zoomer little brother shows me. We're already at that point lmao
Cue auto sad music 😔
At the same time, I think turning it into a meme is an L for the corporate because they lose that influence. Cause now it’s just “hahaha funny *BOOM* *eyebrow raise*”
LMAO it actually is
@@Masked_SVincent Corpos 0 : 1 Zoomers
@@Masked_SVincent Honestly sounds like a pretty good idea.
Turn their emotional manipulations to post-ironic shitposts that they lose all meaning and thus become useless as a way to convey emotions in a way that can manipulate the audience.
Damn, the corporate music he made is turning into a leitmotif for corporate music. How convenient!
He complains about reification, and still uses it to good effect!
_[quietly to self] bo-ba-whay... bo-ba-whay..._
@@pikksen7905 as soon as those two chords hit I started chanting and laughing.
Holy fuck, the segment where you predict the future of reality tv shows literally had me laughing so hard I was in tears. Incredible.
I know, and my rational brain was thinking, All these videos are showing really bad accidents and stuff, people are probably getting hurt...this is not supposed to be funny, stop laughing you jerk. Meanwhile I'm laughing hysterically. Just more evidence supporting Tantacrul's thesis I suppose.
*Inception bwooong intensifies*
i was honestly kindof disturbed. this episode of tantacrul is so Black Mirror it's unreal, and the worst part is sad/happy is probably definitely going to be pitched to an entrepreneur at some point.
Just look at your average TikTok it’s the sad/happy thing but unironically
look up “21st century humor” on youtube. it’s basically that
I read an interview with a Netflix producer. She claimed that emotions are shown so explicitly due to how we consume shows, series and movies: probably on a smart phone sitting in a crowded metro. The implications are exactly as you have stated: art should challenge us, in this way it doesn't. However this problem is not only with tv-shows and the like. Like this producer designing shows for smart phone watching: yt, insta and spotify have their own implicit rules you should abide to if being popular is your goal. Anyway, cool video!
I never ever watch tv shows in my smart phone, and absolutely watch movies or series on a smartphone in the metro or any other crowded place... The only time when I watch something like that is in my television or in my laptop in the comfort of my own home, usually during the evenings. The same apply with youtube videos. ... I guess I am not a part of the consumer that this terrible Netflix Producer has in mind.
Pizzicato - sneaky steps.
Big horns - action sequence.
Echoing piano notes - sadness.
Sudden guitar riff - enter the rebel.
Accelerating orchestral music - scientist on a breakthrough.
Drawn out Cello - medieval battle formation.
African ryhthm music - africa.
Indian flute - yoga in an aashram.
Cymbal crash and quivering piccolo - samurai in a field.
The African rhythm one kills me, anything to do with Africa (cue the African drums)
@@victorokeahialam8925 imagine if there was a sound effect for America
@@AllonKirtchik Fiddles. I feel like fiddles feel like unique America sound. Lol imagine that being plastered over every American culture though lol.
@@AllonKirtchik screaming children punctuated by gunfire?
@@AllonKirtchik ruclips.net/video/wifZPeMWim8/видео.html&ab_channel=GianniMatragrano
There you go
Can we also just spend a moment to just hear me say "Desaturating an image is visual Auto-sad". It's honestly got to the point where it actually ruins the suspension of disbelief in a show when I see it employed and I feel compelled to rebel against the feeling it's trying to give me.
I can already picture it in my head, desaturation, slow zoom in and a slow anticlockwise rotation
@@bluebaby30 Like those "how clean is your house" before and after shots of the same room where it's not even trying to be subtle about the saturation filters.
@asdrubale bisanzio You're thinking of Wales specifically I feel. But honestly, you can just do the reverse and crank up the saturation for the happy shots and it'll be fine.
Many a time, when a sad scene is as saturated as the happy scenes, it actually ends up coming off as sadder because of the contrast.
Lol Zack Snyder movies.
I am not willing to change
*Music changes*
I am willing to change
That whole section!
"I'm not willing to change" _conflict music_
"I wish he'd change" _sad music_
"Are you willing to change?" _tension music_
"Yes I'll change" _happy music_
It could be joked: “In Soviet Russia music changes you” but here we are.
Also, maybe what we’re actually witnessing are the thousand lost souls of composers and editors screaming towards us in desperation to end this madness.
your perspective on animals’ framing is so SO important. I literally could not agree with you more, as someone who adores animals and values empathising with them to the greatest possible extent
“The AIDS cancelled out the Cholera”
Tea spluttered all over my screen.
"The tea cancelled out the laptop"
In my head, I heard the Inception horn blast.
I hope your laptop is fine and it will be in good health one day
( sad music plays while I speak this slowly )
timestamp
With every passing video, Tantacrul becomes more and more like a BBC documentary host.
Inauthentic and annoying?
With every video he becomes more like Brian Griffin...
@@Sk0lzky why are you here then?
With every video he becomes more like the thing he hates? He either becomes a hero or stays in the business long enough to become a villain!
@@dumpc because I like watching Tantacrul
As someone who was featured on a reality show once, it genuinely amazed me how they just took one aspect of your character and ran with it, often editing in bits of filler talking head that were totally unrelated to fit the narrative. It wasn't just some people being made to look like dicks, there were people who got the absolute rub of the green in terms of an edit and were made to look like really wholesome great people, who in reality weren't.
Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you, but what does "Rub of the Green" mean in this context? I googled it and only found information golf
@@george_yassington I found "good luck in an activity or sport" on Collins Dictionary
@@george_yassington Basically just means good luck, usually used with the connotation that "the powers that be" have given you favour. Believe it comes from golf although there are cricket version of the same phrase.
Man whenever I watch docs with my mates, I'm always saying how ridiculously manipulative the music is. They looked at me like I was crazy, so to illustrate my point, I put the documentary on mute it and played some funk fusion. Suddenly the scary great white shark started looking pretty slick and sexy.
In Germany, we have a lot of these shows so that we call this genre officially "Scripted Reality".
It’s funny how “scripted reality” is actually a more accurate name than just “reality”
@@avidagamegerl1081 How very German lol
That's definitely better, though I think that's still giving too much credit with the word "reality", heheheh.
That was by far the greatest call to action I've ever seen on RUclips. Magnificent! Sorry about the Cancer/cholera/aids situation, and all the death. Just know that we are here for you with our emotionally supportive button clicking and bell ringing.
*clicks the like on this comment emotionally supportively*
"1 like... = 1 prayer 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭"
I'm already cackling at "Tantariffic"
You've summed it up beautifully. As a music lover *and* former video editor, I had some heated discussions with producers over this kind of music abuse.
Holy shit I hate pop nature documentaries.
"This lion caught her husband cheating on her and now she's SO MAD" -unrelated footage of lioness looking to the right of the camera-
Comments: omg you can see the heartbreak and betrayal on her face animals really do feel emotions 😭
i mean they can, but it's no "human" emotions, i guess
@@regularnick Oh no, I'm not complaining about the "animals have emotions" part. It's the humanization I have a problem with. Erasing the behaviors and experiences of animals and insisting that they're feeling something the viewer will find more relatable.
Common irl example is people forcing animals to swim because they find it fun and want the animal to experience it, even though the animal is upset or harmed by it.
I feel like BBC documentaries are pretty good about this sort of thing. Presenting the animals as they are, and describing their behaviours as they are, with minimal intrusive editing to "spice things up". Anything with David Attenborough presenting is an especially safe bet, in that regard.
Animals do absolutely feel emotions and are a lot *more* humanlike than we usually imagine but yeah.
I've heard some nature documentaries head out with the script already written and just find footage to match with it
Filming a narative with just one wild animal is practically impossible. You film as much footage of these animals as you can (bigger budgets means more oppotunities generally) then splice together what makes a realistic compelling story, a probable example of many animals lives. Wild animals don't redo a shot if the cameraman slips up or the lens got dirty. They must do what they can with what they've got. Filming is very prone to Murphy's law: What can go wrong, will.
"Turns out, the guy's a police officer and the dog's a dog." This was way too funny to me.
I'm here to chew gum and crash Sibelius, and I'm all out of gum.
Hahaha
Sibelius stole his gum
Best comment
is this a reference to john carpenter’s they live?
tantacrul really predicted ai generated brainrot content with the autosad gag, I wasn't ready for that future to come so soon :(
I can’t get over the meta in this: SO GOOD! Notice how his own editing mocks and becomes what he’s criticizing. By calling attention to “smart guy tells you things” discovery channel trope in the beginning, the hammed up “reclaim your brain!” becomes a way of saying “see! Look how it’s done! Now you know.”
Thank you! :)
Heavy meta
My favourite weight of it.
I found the "meta" extremely distracting and confusing, and found it to detract from the content. It was difficult to discriminate between the narrative and the topic, and more importantly, the lack of contrast detracted from the subject matter. Bad move, IMO....
@@axe2grind911a That was the whole point, though?
@@viscountrainbows6452 So irony (humorous or otherwise) is more important than clarity? I think not. Point would have been much better made with pure silence behind the narration, then flipping to the various examples where the manipulative music was "on". All he did was muddy the waters...
If Gordan watched this analysis of the ridiculous music going through his programs, he'd probably agree with you.
Yes, and what of the ridiculous music throughout THIS video?! I found it very ironic that @Tantacrul felt the need to "spice up" his own documentary with the same droll pseudo-music that he was critiquing.
@@axe2grind911a that's the joke, someone else pointed it out in another comment lol
@@devilex121 Not funny, only confusing.
Yeah honestly. I've never met the guy of course, but the personality he conveys in shows like Kitchen Nightmares is inaccurate to his whole being. He's being as "reduced" as any of the restauranteurs he interacts with. Sure, he's a passionate man with feelings boiling on the surface, and sure he's a bit more partial to cussing than the average person, but those are parts of a greater whole.
From what others say, and from what candid things I hear about him, he's pretty darn conscious of this reductiveness
Probably
16:04
-"I'm tired of being judged"
- Goes to a reality where she will be judged
"I don't want people to know who I am." "I want everyone to know who I am."
To be perfectly fair it is a different kind of judging, and I think it’s easy enough to tell what the woman means, but it’s still quite funny
It's like going on a worldwide privacy tour.
@@tanto64like that one South Park episode? The one that was clearly about prince harry?
@@fauxpolecat3456 The very same
I showed this video to my mom, in response to when she showed me "Old Enough" on Netflix. It's amazing how you were able to dance around her patience fuse in such a way that every time she said "Okay! Move on!" the video essay actually does.
My mother usually falls asleep if I show her a documentary.
sad/happy is a genius hyper-reality show idea
“They think that by citing a famous psychoanalyst that their work will sound less pathetic” that was a freaking ROAST
It had amazing delivery too, which I find to be one of the hardest roasts of all time
For nature documentaries, I consider the meme "watching a hawk eat a frog in a documentary about hawks vs watching a hawk eat a frog in a documentary about frogs", the music really can be necessary to remind us that from the perspective of the animal we're following, their perception of the cute n fuzzy thing is impending doom
So the whole trouble of killing and dying. And all people get to take away from it is either one of two canned and manufactured emotions.
i almost had a seizure trying to read this
@@starchaser777, he was trying to say that nothing is real, everything is just perspective.
100% agreed on everything here, thank you for expressing this sense of "this makes me feel stupid and manipulated" that i often get watching tv. Also, reducing an animal or person to "cute" is somethings i am increasingly aware is actually disrespecting it. When you judge someone as cute, you're likely to call their opinions or wishes also "cute", i.e. not really important. I especially can't stand it when old people or toddlers are called cute/adorable while their wishes are being ignored or downplayed. Also the thing you start out with "oh, that's biscuit music" makes me so very sad when it happens to pieces of classical music that have such a deep history/context. The opposite is also annoying.. how often the Pirates of the Caribbean tune is abused to indicate adventure/courage. That was a good score, but I can't enjoy it anymore.
Yeah, in Poland we had a fucking vegetable oil ad that used some sort of folk song. I don't even know what it's called, when I hear it I just think "Oh yeah Kujawski vegetable oil" My music teacher in primary school complained a lot about it.
I had this happen with a song in Minecraft written for Minecraft. One of the youtubers i watched used it as his outro music for a series and i didn't realize the song was ingame until like 20-40 episodes had gone by of me associating this song as outro music and it felt like such insane cognitive dissonance to hear it in any other context. (The song was Otherside and its a music disc you have to actively find and play)
I also feel like this effect is similar to how different jingles get stuck in your head so thoroughly. I have several radio add from kindergarten locked in my brain that i will forget after i forget my own name.
NGL, the "Inception horn blast" sequence had me laughing like an idiot.
Same! :)
It's so weird to think that it's so ubiquitous now. Like, why? I remember seeing Inception in the cinema twice or maybe even three times when it was out, because I liked the experience so much, and being pretty impressed with the way the sound design accentuated the story and the nail biting tension, but why did it become the ubiquitous movie trailer and "oh no something's bad coming up" sound ?.. Whyyyyy?
@@Feamelwen IMO It's kind of like "volume" The more dramatic it is, the more attention idiots pay to it (idiots willing to pay to watch it), and then the less dramatic trailers get left in the dust, so it's been a race to the most dramatic. Why do you think all movie trailers nowadays have crazy big explosions and battles and insanely dramatic music? IHE (I hate everything) made a video about it several years ago that if you have time to burn and are *really* interested about this you can watch. I don't remember the name, it's been a long time.
I, for one, welcome our AI Reality TV overlords.
@@ComputersVirtualMachinesAndMor Hey, I actually found that video (from 2015, which is basically prehistoric times in internet years) and watched it. Thanks for the recommendation!
I've just rewatched again and bwaaaaaa lol!!
I'm very stoic by nature, but the auto generated happy and auto sad made me lost it. I've seen plenty of RUclips comments of people saying they 'lost it' but always just thought it was an exaduration, but this actually achieved such from me. A fantastic pay off to the whole video.
That happy/sad show was genuinely hilarious. I am worried that im not sure how much of that is ironic or unironic though.
*exaggerating
@@barry3351 it's *exajuration stoopid
cringe asl
You've done an excellent job describing why reality tv is unwatchable for me. It's nothing but constant emotional manipulation.
I don't want tv to tell me how to feel. Present reality to me and let me feel for myself.
Ironic how "reality tv" has become anything but reality.
Another depressing thing is... Some people want to be "manipulated" per se, They don't know how to feel when watching stuff like that sometimes and adding that layer of emotions keeps them from going away from screen to see what will happen next. They get emotionaly invested which is what the shows are trying to do.
@@adonas3903 Meanwhile people like me see the manipulation and it pushes us away. Like, I don't want to watch The Voice for sob stories, I want to watch it for amazing singing. It's meant to be a talent contest, but people who don't have stories don't get onto the show no matter how talented they are.
@@JohnDCrafton But we are the silent minorities aren't we? unless we turn loud nothing will change, and even after few years things change they will just figure out better ways to manipulate mentally. Trust me it's already happening and we aren't prepared for it.
We're progressing, just backwards.
@@mfaizsyahmi Devo was right!
The worst part of this is that it is so insidious. It's hard to notice until you really look for it, which is why this video is so important (and brilliantly made too). It is just so desensitising and superficial. We just detach from empathy and the things people go through which are sometimes genuinely tragic, and it's just reduced down to 'person is sad.' And we don't even realise it happening. It almost feels condescending and mocking, both to the person on TV and ourselves.
"The Bachelor. A show I really can only describe as a cultural wound."
Oh my GOD you are relentless. 10/10
Oh my goodness he actually shot the intro WITH HIS FACE in it...
TANTARIFFIC!
@@ThePixelPolygon I definitely didn't replay that part at least five times in a row nor did I screenshot that picture of him with the thumbs up....
@@scusachannel1682 And you definitely didn't apply radial zoom blur on it and make the result your desktop wallpaper.
It's a promo for a new show, "Men standing around in woods wearing scarves, staring into the distance."
"I was diagnosed with cancer."
Me: (actually thinking he's serious)
"...and then cholera and then aids."
Me: "Oh, it's a joke."
"Then my wife and kids died-"
With the intentionally shitty photoshop of his face onto a stock family image - it's beautiful
It's that easy to lie and create an illusion. The music maked you already think that you are supposed to feel sad about something very serious.
I actually feel bad for laughing when he started crossing out the woman's and kid's faces from that bad photoshop image... :(
He didn't mention it but his house actually burnt down while flooded and he lost his vision, hearing, and sense of smell.
@@wohlhabendermanager That shit sent me ngl hahahaha
Videos like this should be required in school. Refining media comprehension is such a critical skill in life
I remember a YT comment once on a Kitchen Nightmares video saying something like "Why are they yelling at each other while complex string music is playing?" Pretty much sums it up.
I wanted to add True Crime Documentary to this discussion. The best of the genre use music subtly and sparingly to set the tone, usually playing it over factual text narration while getting quiet for interview or raw footage. The good shows/films present real people's perspectives without the filter of loud, incomprehensible music. This is especially important in this kind of documentary because at its best it is a search for the truth and sometimes interviewees might be lying or evading.
The garbage shows rely on lots of loud stingers and feature interview footage butchered in editing to match the score. These shows act like they expect their audience to wander away if they don't drop a *stunning revelation* paired with a stinger every 12 seconds. And of course they don't have that many to drop, so they come off like: "In this quiet suburb (building horror strings) this housewife was MURDERED. (horror movie stinger) In her own BEDROOM. (DUN DUN DUN stinger). Could the murderer be...(horror string climax) HER OWN HUSBAND?! (stinger)" It just feels so disrespectful to the people impacted by crime.
I know what you mean! A few years ago I started to feel really disturbed by reality TV and true crime shows because my housemates watched them constantly, and something about it just felt so inhumane and off. It really stood out to me when I heard the incriminating, dark music drop over footage of teens or young adults talking about their mental illness or struggles with addiction and it just felt like these shows were trying to mock them and turn really serious things in people's lives into a joke. In a related vein I feel increasingly uncomfortable with how many movies and TV shows are made mythologizing the lives of people who aren't even dead yet. Why is an entire drama being made about Elizabeth Holmes? It's creepy if you ask me. I don't know if we should be dramatizing the lives of real people whatsoever, unless they died at least a century ago and even that is controversial.
@@internetexplorer6304 are you talking about buzzfeed unsolved?
Ah I miss JCS
@@arcticfox037 jcs just put out a full video
I agree with this, it's one thing to apply this style to a show about someone's failing restaurant or whatever but when it's about somebody's murdered loved one it's so inappropriate and icky to me. I hate true crime as a whole genre tbh, way worse than reality TV
Tantacrul's videos are a wonderful mix of tragedy and comedy. I never know whether to laugh or cry during them.
If only we could be given musical cues in 15 second increments to make our brains remind us that it's happy or sad time!
I guess you could say you don’t know if you should happy/sad
happy/sad at its best
I'm not from the US and haven't watched TV in a while. Last I remember from TV here, it was dramatic but not _this_ bad. I watched Kitchen Nightmares because everyone was talking abt it and MAN, the sensory overload. I felt like I was going crazy.
What's sad is that when the Sad/Happy segment came up, my immediate reaction wasn't "that's ridiculous, no one would ever watch that." It was "I bet you could make a successful RUclips channel out of that."
It's truly ironically funny.
Strangely, what is commonly accepted (expected) in "reality" TV is often criticized in the comments of YT videos that choose to have background music. It seems there is a different standard and expectation for instructional YT vs "reality" TV.
And thus was born the popular RUclips channel, "Ow My Balls!", fulfilling the prophecy of Idiocracy.
I want an episode of Kitchen Nightmares or something similar where the owner of the restaurant has a dog and the editing is more interested in the dog than anything else
As it should be
What episode?
try the "grandpa" episode of "high maintenance"
My favourite part of any reality show about restaurants, or house buying programmes or whatever are where they have an establishing shot of the property and there's a cat wandering around outside. It's just a tiny break from the manufactured emotion, to have a brief moment of honesty: "we chose this shot because aww kitty"
"It is revealed that the dog is a dog."
MON DIEU!
Amazing insights. This clarifies and puts into words a lot of the frustration I’ve felt about reality television and documentaries, and addresses a disturbing problem that only seems to be getting worse as you showed in the video.
For some reason I’m not as bothered by the nature video stereotypes, but to be honest I haven’t really thought much about it. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to it, but I don’t mind the stereotypical inserts and over-dramatization of predators, etc 😂 but I will certainly think about this the next time I’m watching….
Glad you liked it 😊
I think the sound/music choices of nature documentaries vary massively depending on the publisher. To be very simplistic: National Geographic are generally ‘cinematic’. They like to use music you’d hear in movies. BBC are broadly more creative and focused on education. The lines are very blurred though.
I actually find the animal ones quite sad...
The tone they set can really affect the way humans view animals, and even take them out of the context that they're in. Jaws, while a horror movie, set the tone for how sharks are depicted in media and people's nightmares as well, and you can see that nature documentaries also use music similar to the jaws theme -- the suspense of watching a predator prey IS a real thing, but it connects the fictional depiction of the shark in jaws with a depiction that is presented and thought of as a more realistic medium. Many docus however, don't mention how rare it is actually for sharks to attack humans, so this connection the music creates between the two ends up with some people not being able to let go of the shark = evil human-killers stereotype and it actively harms sharks in real life, cause humans react to them violently.
So while the music can make the documentaries more engaging for the viewer, I think there's also something to be said about the way they create or enforce stereotypes that may affect animal populations as people irrationally react to them. Not claiming that sound design in documentaries is THE driving factor in it all, and surely many people will understand that predators catching prey is just part of the circle of life, though.
@@stinks7065 wow, that was put in a respectful and insightful way, I agree, more or less
@@sparkypikachu7776 Haha yeah I'm not here to fight! Just wanted to add my 2 cents (as concisely as possible) as someone who cares a lot about sharks and has also watched a lot of nature documentaries! The topic of music shaping tropes and our perceptions of things is super interesting and I'm sure would have a lot more nuance if it wasn't in an online comment section :D
Its interesting that depression and anxiety are at their highest ever recorded levels amongst the general population, but we also experience psychological manipulation from just about every entertainment source available. Social media, TV, Youtue, netflix recommendations, spotify shuffle algorithms, its all designed to get you to keep glued to the source for as long as possible and quite frankly its debilitating and disgusting.
Makes one think how media influences the depression rate.
@@DylanVole Its those damn monorhythmic piano chords making the kids all sad!
No seriously though, you do bring up a good point. Millions engage with the same types of content, and if stuff like reality tv is being emotionally reduced like this, a correlation can definitely be made.
@@DylanVole iirc social media has been known to fuck with the mood of the people that partake
Browse twitter for a bit and find the inevitable concerning news/political unrest thread, and then realize ruining your day was not worth it just for a thought experiment
@@DylanVole I remember when people did studies on technology and depression rate, and found out it had no effect. At NO point did any news article reporting on this mention the simple fact that this has nothing to do with the content that's usually distributed on technology.
@@JacobKinsley "Your telling me that just standing next to a phone has no effect whatsoever?! Amazing!"
When you were talking about the Carl Jung archetypes I could only think of that Wendy's ad that had "the Memer" in it.
Oh god. I don't even know about that. I don't want to know :(
@@Tantacrul, you are blessed for not knowing
Eats spicy goodness
BOTTOM TEXT
@@sewerrats7433 EAT SPICY GOODNESS
WOMEN AND MINORITIES
"Im here cause im tired of being judged" So she goes on a show to be judged. My head hurts
This explains so much about why my abusive parent liked reality TV and contest shows so much. She craved that emotional simplicity and straightforwardness.
I thought I was the only one that saw the link between my abusive narcissistic stepmom and scripted reality/soap opera TV programs.
Always had a bad taste in my mouth whenever I kept seeing the same dramatic story rehashed and dramatized to feed into biases.
I'm here too. A middle-aged man. My mother is also totally into reality TV and contest shows. A female friend of mine once said that my mother seems to hallucinate me and interact with that hallucination. But the other alternative is that she scripts and directs me like one of those one-dimensional characters. I'm a super talented, super intelligent, super fragile and super lazy character who could accomplish anything and impress everybody but always chooses to do nothing. I must choose between my incredible unused superpowers or deal with a totally unlived life in actual reality. No wonder I end up doing nothing.
Why would an abusive person like it more then an average person though?
@@mannperson324
Because abusers want puppets, not humans. They seem to enjoy reality TV because the people portrayed in these shows are simple, one-dimensional, easy to understand characters.
This is why it is often said that narcissists want to be around simple yes-men and get angry once the people they interact with show the authentic complexity that humans possess. Here, it is the same logic.
🔥That intro is absolutely epic 🤣
Edit: the whole video is incredible. Brilliant work. But as there was no clearly signposted soundtrack I don't know how to feel about it. RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN!
Thanks 😅
Woah, crossover?
One thought: have background music when delivering medical news.
clogged artery: sad
That wasnˋt a heart attack: happy
Dangerous, but hopeful diagnosis: hopeful
Didn't expect to see you here! 😂
I'm now just binging your channel...
Everything he said about kitchen nightmares, articulates everything I love about the show, once you watch while actively focusing on the sound cues it’s hilarious.
I like to play a drinking game called "take a drink everytime they use the squeaky gate sound"
@@St_Rizla nyyyyyyoooom
I don't think it's funny that Ramsey is yelling at and devaluing real people. Those are real people. Not characters. Some people forget that and start viewing reality tv people as characters.
@@user-gu9yq5sj7c In all honesty I think 90% of people in productioction and on set know he has to fling some good ol slures for the TV.
@@user-gu9yq5sj7c If Ramsey yells at you, it's because he sees you as a capable of greater things than you are achieving. It is precisely the opposite of devaluing; he thinks you are undervaluing yourself.
tantacrul: sad piano music
my brain: bo-ba whey, bo-ba whey
bo-ba-way, bo-ba-way, bo-ba-way, bo-ba-way, bo-ba-way, bo-ba-way, bo-ba-way, bo-ba-way.
Bo ba way ahaaaah
Here at Shill, we are *saaaad* ...
i've been binge watching your videos, and i absolutely love how whenever you put the fake sad music, you always go with the "here at shell, we are sad" piano, it's a great running gag
That was pure gold. This level of critical thinking is precisely what the world needs , and it's the most difficult to find nowadays. Thank you Tantacrul for articulating the problems of today's modernity, one video at a time.
I think we should switch the context for pizzicato and auto-sad piano in reality TV. When someone is meant to be seen as foolish, use the sad piano. When someone is sharing an exaggerated or fabricated sob story, use the pizzicato
Sad/happy is LITERALLY just 21st century humor I"M DYING
well then it'd be "situation/out of nowhere punchline" which is basically already here
...sauce?
Basically what "amogus" is
@MoolsDogTwo I feel cheated
90% of 21st century humor is making fun of TV so it makes sense
Okay I know I’m late but I have to say: using the finale to Shostakovich’s 7th symphony at the end of this video is complete genius. It’s a work so full of ambiguity, musical trope subversions, and double meaning that it’s the perfect contrast to the banality of reality TV music and I love that it was included.
In Finland, there is one quite funny (or sad, depends on how you look at it) instance of reification. We have a pain killer named "Burana", and in early 2000's they used Beethoven's "Für Elise" in their TV and radio commercials (and I think they're still using it). Guess which piece was known as the "Burana song" for years to come.
I feel bad for Finland
@@SlyHikari03 The ads are actually kinda decent because they never play the piece as it’s written, it’s always reharmonized or played in the style of a different genre
"Claire de Lune" was 'the song from Ocean's Eleven' for a long time.
Why didn't they use one of the Carmina Burana?!?
@@sarielle85 Orff is the kind of music that gives you headaches rather than takes them away :D
I personally love the timbre of pizzacato strings. It's really unfortunate that it ends up sounding kinda gimmicky because of how it tends to be used.
Yeah, too bad it's so engrained in me, too.
I especially like how it's used on Kurzgesagt to establish a playful feel. I don't think I can listen to a pizzicato anymore without being toyish or a secret agent.
hey look on the bright side - I haven't watched reality TV in years and pizzicato has gone back to nornal in my brain
I would love to see a meta reality show, where the contestants are video editors, and they compete by serving up different cuts of a (separate) reality show. So we still as viewers get to see the happy/sad creations of the editors, but the competition itself, between the editors, is the focus and is more genuine.