1980's - The Theme Tune Golden Years

I may well be a child of the 80's and what I am about to say is tempered by the fact that I lived through a decade of excess, dodgy music, outlandish fashion statements and technological advancements such as portable Donkey Kong and the Casio calculator watch - all of which I fell prey to and adopted as my own personal style. So, maybe not the best person to comment on the best and worst the decade had to offer.

This said though, wasn't the music on TV better than it is now.

We downloaded a load of old 80's theme tunes the other day at work and there were some real gems in there. In fact we had to try hard to find some theme tunes which were duff.

Why are TV theme tunes these days so bland and unremarkable. Wasn't an integral part of the Saturday evening viewing sitting down in time to hear the theme tune to Knight Rider or Magnum PI. When we used to play in the woods near our house it was a straight red card for jumping out of a tree or charging the enemy base camp without singing the A-Team at full volume. No apache war cries - just that well known fanfare.

If I were to list a number of 80's shows, I bet anyone between the ages of 25-35 could hum them on the spot. For example, the aforementioned A-Team, Knight Rider and Magnum stand out as does The Fall Guy, Dallas, Airwolf, Dangermouse, Only Fools and Horses, Mysterious Cities of Gold, Ulysses, Cheers, Different Strokes, Grange Hill and so on.

Now take the best and most popular of modern television. Can anyone hum the theme tunes to Prison Break, 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives etc. The Soprano's and Sex in the City stand out as theme tunes I can remember on the spot but they are hardly classics when compared to the list from the 80's.

In fact, while I'm on a roll, let's look at classic film scores. I'll need to go back to the late 70's for this one but if you take movies released from 1977 through to the end of the 80's you'll see the point I'm making.

Hum the following theme tunes; Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jaws. Easy enough. Now try humming Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park or Titanic (and not the Celine Dion's appalling attempt at a ballad). It's not so easy is it?

I think the facts speak for themselves - the music that accompanies both films and tv shows these days does not distinguish itself enough to be truly memorable. I can speculate why this might be and would probably guess with the big name actors and actresses taking the lion's share of the budget, the soundtracks and themes have become marginalised and are not of the same importance as they used to be.

The fact remains though that I can't remember the last film I saw with an original soundtrack that I can hum as I write this piece.