Loud TV Background Music – Boombox Audio

What’s going on with the LOUD background music? Are the TV audio engineers crack head hippies that grew up on boombox to me maximum next to their ear. Probably. They are now deaf and cannot hear anything unless its turned up to the max.

When is higher management producers with most of the current TV shows and movies going to realize that more and more of us are watching shows with closed caption ON or recording them on DVR and then watching them on CC and fast forward past all the commercials, just in a effort to eliminate the loud TV background music. If millions and millions of TV viewers start a trend of viewing TV in this manner the effectiveness of the commercials will start to decrease over time.

IMO I will not take this loud music any longer. Instead of watching TV and be abused with the loud music which drowns out the dialog of the show, I will read a book, rent a movie or watch PBS and other shows like Dog Whisperer. All this effort just to avoid loud TV background music. How many of the readers of this blog are going to join me?

Forums About Loud TV Background Music

Here is what KBob said on one of the forums about the TV Loud Music – ”

Agreed- I love the show “V” but I am going to have to start watching it with the “Caption” ON!!! Q: What is wrong with the audio engineer’s? Are they frequency deprived? Do they have low end hearing only? Turn down the music once the scene builds to the next speaking role!! This is ridiculous. An alien’s hearing is probably much better than ours but even they won’t watch this crap. It’s an audio mess.”

Read more: http://www.tvfanatic.com/forum/greys-anatomy/site-suggestion/background-music-during-episodes-are-too-loud/#ixzz1VxCD7xAe

There are many more like the one above and they are growing rapidly.

Loud TV background music is becoming more annoying each day.
When are the TV producers going to listen. Probably to late and it will cost them dearly and take years to recover, us the viewing public. I for one am not going to take it any more.There may be some settings to filter out the music but from all the information on the forms it appears that these settings are quite difficult to locate and configure. In my opinion I don’t believe there are any such setting available. Look at it logically, if the music audio is added latter in a editing process on a separate track, wouldn’t it be necessary to know the track on which the audio is recorded?

Does Loud TV Background Music have options?

One forum poster says “

Try changing your TV’s Audio setting from Stereo to Mono, this drops the music volume to an acceptable level, either that or set your surround sound setting to narrow, it depends on your TV, but most TVs have a setting that allows you to correct those issues yourself”.

Why would we have to do this? I wonder if the producers of shows ever view the shows that they produce. I don’t think so. WHY? Because if they did, they would realize that almost all the dialog is difficult or impossible to understand with the loud TV Background Music they insist to abuse us with.

 TV Background Music Spread Worldwide

Wonders of the Universeis produced by BBC – United Kingdom and on its initial airing, Professor Brian Cox explained how mankind can trace its descendence to the big bang and the birth of the cosmos. It is quite an intriging

Try It ~ It's Impossible

production but with the TV background music so loud it is impossible for hear what Professor Cox has to say.

It was revelatory stuff for people like me who never paid attention in science. The problem, I say again, was the volume level of the TV background music. It appears we were not the only one who noticed the annoying background music, as some viewers in the UK complained that the show’s TV background music was so loud and intrusive that it drowned out Cox entirely.

That is surely a triumph for viewers not only in the UK but also in the USA for those of us that have been annoyed by the almost 100% use of loud tv background music or noise and up until now have only complained to each other. Now it is time we make our voice heard louder and maybe the producers of these shows will get the message to either turn down the volume of music and/or noise on TV programs and movies or lose viewership.

People Are Not Happy With
TV Background Music

But not everyone is happy with our complaints. Cox himself weighed into the debate on Radio 4′s Start the Week, saying that the decision to turn down the volume of his series was wrong. He said: “We can sometimes be too responsive to the minority of people that complain,” he said. “It should be a cinematic experience – it’s a piece of film on television, not a lecture.” Well if we consider Professor Cox as correct then we don’t need his dialog during the presentation. Maybe it would suffice for Professor Cox just to stand there and say nothing while us viewers watch the scenery and listen to the TV background music. It not be necessary for Professor Cox to say anything as we couldn’t here him anyway. If you agree with this blog then leave us a comment.

The consensus of opinion is by the producers is that music in TV programs does seem to be increasingly invasive, I say downright annoying. In fact it irritates me so much I would rather turn off the program and read a book. Now it seems that maybe the current day TV and film producers have lost the original object of having TV background music, noise or some sound in the background. It’s not always connected to volume. In the film world, this should also hold true for TV productions, the accepted view is that if you have noticed the soundtrack then it hasn’t done its job – which is to drive you through a movie rather than distract you from it. In television it sometimes seems that the primary objective of the music is to hold your attention. Hold your attention to what – the annoying level of the volume which makes it impossible to understand what is being said.

TV Background Music Is A New Thing

A decade or two ago many programs didn’t have any music at all, and those that did used it sparingly. Why did the produces of the programs make the

Try to stop it~You Can't!

change? YouTube provides a quick demonstration of how things have evolved. Compare this David Attenborough nature series from 1979. The TV background music in Lost and 24 added to the energy of both shows but even there the volume was excessive over 60% of the time. There is some on another blog that questioned its volume.

This is not the first instance of loud TV TVbackground music, it has long been an issue and annoyance for TV viewers with hearing problems, and according to BBC1 controller Danny Cohen, the BBC has researched the issue in great depth, maybe our USA TV producers will take a hint from the BBC and consider the modification. In the case of Wonders of the Universe a minor battle appears to have been won – they lower the volume – perhaps it won’t be long before broadcasters such as the BBC bow to the public demand to lower the background music or sound effects.

But which would you watch? Would you prefer TV shows to come totally without  TV background music and only minor sound effects or do you think it’s a vital element of your viewing pleasure?

Is the Background Music to
LOUD for You?

Have you noticed in the last 15 or so years that the background music for most TV programs and movies has gotten to the point that it is difficult to understand the dialog of the actors. Sometime the music is so loud that it is impossible to hear anything that is being said in the program.

So my question is do you enjoy this background format that the TV producers have added to most of their programs?

As we develop this site we will add several surveys which will provide us information as to whether you are interested in making you comments know to these program producers.

Do YOU Want Background Music So Loud
You Can’t Hear the Dialog?

I am just a private person that has gotten to the point that when a program has loud background music I just move on to another program until I find one that I can sit back and relax and listen without interference to the plot or theme of the program. If I can’t find one, and it has become increasingly difficult to find a program without background music, I just turn the TV off and either read or search some things I am interested in on my personal computer.

So who loses in this action, not me. The program sponsors lose as they can no longer expose me to their product. Maybe it will take a massive loss of listeners like me that literally hate the background to watch TV less and less due to the music annoyance.

In doing research in Google, I found this quote. “My husband and I both are so disgusted with all the background (really up front, not background) music during television shows and movies. We miss a lot of what is being said due to the loud music. It happens on the majority of the shows we watch. It does not do any good to turn the volume up because it only increases the music. There was an article in the newspaper the other day that said this background music is for effects. Well, it has an effect on us – we hate it. I’m just wondering if this bothers anyone else ??” – Cynthia

If you follow this “Cynthia” link you will find many others that find this background music so annoying that they are turning off the TV as well as myself. Pinkris in NE Wisconsin has this to say “Grey’s Anatomy is one show that especially annoys my husband and I when it comes to loud “background” music. The lead character (Meredith) is narrating the “moral” of the story at the end of the show, but we can’t hear it because of the LOUD music!! Maybe it’s to cover up poor dialogue writing!!”

She might have a point. Now the TV program producers don’t have to hire expensive writers any longer as they can cover up poor writing with loud music. Just a thought. Leave a comment as to what you think.

People Speak Out About LOUD Background Music

An example of this issue is the following controversy.;

• Billie Page said:
  “It’s not the show, it’s ur TVs… LOL the music is fine… if your watching HD, that might be it too, but it’s more then likely your settings… it’s fine on mine, and every other TV i’ve watched it on… lol…”

  Posted 10/21/2010 8:23:26 PM #

• Then: ‘Guest Who’ said:

  “It’s not the show, it’s ur TVs…”  Are you KIDDING me?  It’s been a big problem with this show for a LONG TIME. It’s absolutely too loud, and extremely annoying. It’s irritating even when there’s no dialogue, but when characters are speaking, you have to strain to hear what they are saying. Horrible. People have been complaining about this for years, but the producers obviously don’t care.
  Read more: http://www.tvfanatic.com/forum/greys-anatomy/episodes/background-music-is-too-loud/page-2.html#ixzz1Uwu8fmBC

My comment is that Billie Page is out of touch, she doesn’t know what she is talking about. With each post I will list a couple of shows that have background music so loud you cannot hear the dialog of the actors. I humbly suggest we boycott these shows. If we can get 1 million to stop watching these and other shows with background the effect of the numbers will force the TV producers to stop adding LOUD music to TV shows due to economic reasons, i.e. loss of viewership and consequently loss of advertising revenue that supports those shows.I hope you bookmark this blog and leave non-spam comments. I will select the best ones and build a page of just comments for all to see.

For a sample, here are a couple of shows. For a full list CLICK HERE