Brief History of Music for Television

In 1940 the television had just become available to the American public. Shortly after, it came to be more affordable and in consequence its popularity grew unstoppably.

Music has been used in television in many ways until finally settling down to what it is today.

The history of television music could be divided in four stages that extended along;

1.- Pre-Broadcasting Period (1925-48) This period consisted mainly of programs that "served as exhibition and curiosities for demonstrations private and public" (Oxford Music). Close-harmony singing group "The Boswell Sisters" were one of the musical groups showed on CBS's New York City station (c. 1931)

Other artists that appeared on CBS were Kate Smith, aka "The First Lady of Radio", an American contralto,

or George Gershwin, an American composer and pianist.

Video: A great example of the music in this period are the compositions for The Little Rascals (1929-1938)

2.- Radiophonic Period (1948-55) in which the television borrowed music from theater, vaudeville and radio while experimenting with new forms of presentation.

Video: Phantom Valley. Columbia, 1948.

Video: The CBS Identification playing what appears to be "open curtain" theatrical music in the background, 1949

3.- The Cinematic Period (1955-80) was marked by improved production and broadcasting practices of extradiegetic and intradiegetic music.

Video: Though "The Mission", John William's TV news music package for NBC, wasn't composed until 1985, this theme song is a fantastic example of extradiegetic music (more of this music in upcoming articles) and serves as a great example of the changes of TV music in that era.

The influence and involvement of film studios in the production of TV shows, and the inclusion of Hollywood’s film scoring style.

Video: Charlie's Angels (1976-1981) theme irradiates the Hollywood film scoring style.

4.- Televideo Period (from 1981) characterized by the introduction of popular songs in TV production

Video: George Michael's "Careless Whisper" song has been widely used on TV and cinema. You can find a list here http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0584117/

as well as the commercialization of music via online digital music stores or CD / DVD.