Survivor essays

Survivor essays In David John Farinellas article, Scoring to Survive, it talks about making hit series music and how that affects a shows ratings. Farinella starts the article off by talking about composer Russ Landau and how he was chosen to right the theme song for CBS hit Survivor and how he knew that Richard was going to win the million dollars. He then talks about how Landau went about writing the theme song and all the trials and tribulations that are behind writing music. Landau first wrote 14 to 15 orchestra themes, but decided that the show needed something dramatic, serious, dangerous, and adventurous to represent it. Farinella explains that Landau finally came up with the theme from being on a ski vacation in Mammoth, California. Landau got some of his ideas from the Lord of the Flies and MTVs Real World. Landau then turned to folk singers Tamara Smyslova, Elena Sidorenko, and Masha Nefedova who sang Yippee Ki Yeah. Farinella states that there was lots of editing, composing, and cutting to make everything just right for the series. During the first season of Survivor they tried to make different themes for the characters themselves; Richard having a quirky theme, B.B. having a fun theme, Rudy having a loving theme, and Greg having a psycho-quirky theme, to name a few. Farinella discusses the new theme for Survivor 2 and how they replace the conch shell with a didgeridoo, which they recorded live from the Undara Lava Tubes. Farinella ends the article by questioning Landau about if he is worried about the theme song becoming something like Gilligans Island did? Landau states, Were writing pop music, and TV themes are part of the pop music lexicon, so that would never disturb me. If it has that longevity, then great, fantastic. When I started this article I was very interested in it. I watch Survivor every Thursday night and love it. I love the theme music behind t...