Weird TV / music combos

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A couple of years ago I was watching Grandstand (as you do), and the showpiece of their transmission was World Championship Sailing, live from The Sea. Some genius at the BBC music department (who are, lets face it, probably the best at what they do, considering the constraints they're under) decided to bung The Pixies Velouria over the top of it.

What's the strangest soundtrack to a telly moment you've witnessed?

― Paul, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not strange but powerful as fuck: "Dedication" by Skitz (I know, I know, ILM's token English rap record) on the round-up at the end of the World Amateur Boxing Championships earlier this year. It was the way the footage of Carl Froche in slow motion taking bronze in the middleweights fit in so perfectly with the pace of the music and then: "They never knew about us English kids!"

Just thinking about that last night because the World Athletics Championships round-up was so dull. Basically when they were asking what the highlights of the tournament were I was just desperate for John Regis to go, "Erm, probably Cathy Freeman commentating with us. She's FUCKING MENTAL!"

― Greg, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That Radio 2 advert on tv with "Bert's Apple Crumble" over it. I shouldn't really be surprised, now that music departments all own "20 Greatest Northern Soul Stonkers" etc., yet I am. Maybe it's because I've been away but it seems like so much has changed now - and the people making those decisions are much more likely to be me, or someone like me, than ever before.

― Richard, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Definitely low-rent sub-network UPN's Chicago affiliate using a track from Niun Niggung for their very unambitious Married With Children ads. It is very, very obvious that some 20-year-old film student intern at the local affiliate was asked to slap together a 10-second bumper: "Just throw up a still picture and put some music over it. Whatever you want."

― Nitsuh, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Listening to Momus with headphones while watching Space Jam with the little cousins was pretty funny.

― Lyra, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nitsuh wins. Hands down. I think if I saw Bud Bundy overlaid with Disdusk my head would explode on contact.

― Jess, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I just heard Bob Mould's "See A Little Light" in a commercial for some new HBO sitcom. Caught me off guard.

Also, not a TV/music moment, but hearing an old Flaming Lips song in the supermarket while food shopping at 3:45 am.

― md, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I caught that one too, MD, except I'm pretty sure it was Showtime. I spent the first half of the commercial trying to place the song, and the second half trying to figure out how I knew the song so well, as I've never bought or even borrowed a Bob Mould record. Then I remembered: the second 120 Minutes comp.

― Nitsuh, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

John McEntire's remix of Tom Ze's "Defect 2: Curiosidade" during an ad for a Headline News financial program... it just really didn't fit at all and made me very confused. they are still running the ads... i saw this a few days ago.

i was surprised when i saw the ad that used the Buzzcocks' "What do i get" to sell a Sport Utility Vehicle for the first time.

― mike j, Friday, 17 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

seven years pass...

So, I came home from work, and there's some "nature" prog on CBBC and the kids watching. Presented by John Barrowman, as per the rules.

This one is about a herd of wildebeest type cattle fertilising ground, for the benefit of crop eating animals in the area.

So, there's lots of discussion in a jokey way about poo.

The soundtrack is Salt and Peppa's "Push it"

Except, the inference is clearly "Aaah! Poo Shit"

Does the Daily Mail know about this?

― Mark G, Tuesday, 16 June 2009 15:20 (sixteen years ago)

A few years ago, just after Waiting For The Sirens Call got released, CBS played bits of nearly every track as bumpers in and out of commercials during a golf tournament.

― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 16 June 2009 15:21 (sixteen years ago)

seinfeld

― meisenfek, Tuesday, 16 June 2009 22:29 (sixteen years ago)

Turner Movie Classics uses a draggy little acoustic guitar motif as an intro to their movie showings. Its ponderous stoner vibe goes against every association one would have with Classic Hollywood. No one made music like that in the old days! Makes as much sense as a Fred Astaire musical scored by Sebadoh .

― Josefa, Tuesday, 16 June 2009 22:58 (sixteen years ago)

Turner Classic Movies, that is.

― Josefa, Tuesday, 16 June 2009 22:58 (sixteen years ago)

I think TCM uses that stoner folk theme music in the intro to the movies because the theme from Gone with the Wind won't help get them the under 40 demo they gotta hope against hope for...

― iago g., Wednesday, 17 June 2009 02:02 (sixteen years ago)

Turner Movie Classics uses a draggy little acoustic guitar motif as an intro to their movie showings. Its ponderous stoner vibe goes against every association one would have with Classic Hollywood. No one made music like that in the old days!

I know that TCM used a track from Scenic (Bruce Licher's post-Savage Republic band) as bumper music during one of their (spaghetti)western marathons.

― Carroll Shelby Downard (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 17 June 2009 05:33 (sixteen years ago)

four months pass...

i was watching TMZ earlier this week, and they played the shaggs' "it's halloween" for their celeb-costume coverage. HELLO WTF THAT RULES

― 69, Thursday, 5 November 2009 19:14 (sixteen years ago)

The McDonald's commercials about a year ago with "A Minha Menina."

Also, I haven't seen the episode in question (or much of the show at all), but the episode of The Sopranos that used John Cooper Clarke's "Evidently Chickentown" over the end.

― More Butty In Your Pants (Telephone thing), Thursday, 5 November 2009 22:17 (sixteen years ago)

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