Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Do Japanese TV Shows Use So Much Anime Music?
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mrsatan
 Posts: 909 Location: Olympia, WA, USA |
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Yes, I remember watching some dull Japanese talk show and they were using music from the rather obscure Beast Wars II.
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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There is a surprising statistic, considering how most anime is relegated to late-night slots and thus occupies a relative niche in its own country. Is it normal for special interest televised material to exist in volumes disproportionate to its popularity? |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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This labyrinth of rights and organizations must pose an even greater obstacle to translations. I've always thought that's why we never see subtitled lyrics at Crunchyroll. It's just not worth it to them to invest the effort and funds required to get the various rightsholders to sign off.
When a foreign licensor like CR makes a deal for a show, do they need only deal with a single agent, like the representative of the production committee, or do they need to get other organizations like the music companies to license their rights separately as well? Is the music treated as "work-for-hire?" |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2417 Location: Germany |
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Hard to argue with Justin´s points as 150+ tv anime a year will lead to a staggering amount of content that can theoretically be reused, but there is another reason. TV dramas very cheap productions that came as they go and licensing random stuff is a great way to keep the budget down. Use the whole buffalo, specially if there is already a connection due to the stations involved.
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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Justin specified scripted programming - however (AIUI) Japan is different than the West (particularly America) in that a great deal of it's mainstream TV is unscripted programming (talk shows, game shows, etc...). This makes anime stand out by comparison. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3879 |
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I remember actually hearing Late Night with David Letterman playing a BGM from Macross Do You Remember Love? during one of the Top Ten lists! To this day, I still wonder how or even if they somehow got the rights to use that particular piece of music!
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Sparvid
Posts: 240 |
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One thing that surprises me about Japanese TV shows is when they suddenly play some Michael Jackson or Stones or something in the background for less than 10 seconds. It's not like those songs had any specific connection to what was shown, so are those kind of artists just as cheap for the broadcaster to licence as any other generic song?
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belvadeer
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Sounds like music thievery to me. |
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ANIMENIAC78
Posts: 2 |
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This! No way Japanese variety shows, on their cheap budgets, license the James Bond theme song or full songs from The Beatles. And it's not just 10 seconds in cases either, they'll be playing full songs in the background during segments. Also, there's the case of totally ripping of rhythms, like RADIO FISH ripping off PSY. Justin, please do a follow-up to this article that discusses Japanese shows using foreign music, and whether they actually license the music. |
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ChibiGoku
Posts: 676 |
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Reminds me of something. One of the Japanese news broadcasts on the Bootleg Disney World in China, the track, "Y.R.P., Fight! No. 1" from Final Fantasy X-2, was used in the background showing shots of the various rides there.
To this day, that example sticks out in my mind, despite hearing plenty of game and anime music in news, variety show, etc., broadcasts. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Of course, we've gotten increasing amounts of reality series over the past decade or so. Whether or not that's also scripted is a matter of semantics, but what isn't is that it's really cheap to make. I'm guessing that's why Japanese TV has so much unscripted TV too. Then again, the trend is reversing here in America, with high-budget shows like Game of Thrones, Westworld, (Fear the) The Walking Dead, and Designated Survivor becoming really popular. I wonder why Japanese live action has never really caught on. I mean, single-room sitcoms don't need much money at all and can be huge hits. UK television (outside of Doctor Who) pretty much runs on low-budget sitcoms (and low-budget dramas, to a lesser extent). I always had the impression that music rights is supremely expensive though. Is that another difference between Japan and the United States then, or have I just been hearing a distorted view point of horror stories involving paying for music rights and people getting in trouble for overstepping the rights they received?
Reminds me of a Korean infomercial for a nutritive drink powder, their equivalent to Aojiru, where one shot had someone stirring the powder into a glass of hot water. During this shot, they played "Tank!," the Cowboy Bebop opening theme. Considering it was the only audio for that shot, and the entire length of the song played (the shot was just them stirring the cup for however long the song was with the camera directly overhead), I am certain the infomercial staff stole the song outright knowing next to no one would recognize it or care enough to talk about it. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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And the only reason the current incarnation of Doctor Who isn't a low budget effort (as it previously was) is because it's really a world-wide phenomena. |
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Apashi
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This was one of the things that really surprised me when was in Japan. Same as the first comment, I heard bgm from a very obscure anime that I loved during a random news story. I was floored to hear it anywhere haha. I didn't think the rights to play it were so complicated, but I'm glad such a thing exists. I guess we can't do that here since our tv is so different. I'm not sure Simpsons music would work well in Dateline.
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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One somewhat famous example is the use of "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes in an episode of Monster. This is one of the most valuable properties in all of popular music. A mobster in Monster nicknamed "The Baby" plays a recording of this song. When Monster was licensed by Viz, the number was axed and replaced with irrelevant background music since the rights in the US would have been astronomical for an anime series. |
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ChibiGoku
Posts: 676 |
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Actually, it just wasn't the track that got changed: The entire OST was re-arranged. I seemed to have recall the.. possibly the director, made a comment about them producing an International version. I, honestly, had no idea that meant almost entirely re-arranging the OST (on both tracks). Some tracks didn't get re-arranged, but a number of them, however, did. Really strange case, either way. Regardless, this is a bit off topic, so I'll end this here. |
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