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Incidental Music Fan

I was listening to a PBS special the other day, Lewis & Clark – The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. It’s an accurate enough look at their travels through the then newly purchased Louisiana Territory all the way to the West coast, and back again. However, I did find myself at times arguing at the screen whenever historian Stephen Ambrose appeared to provide his take on events, my anger arising primarily from all the light being shed on his writing, or inherent lack thereof…

Anyway, for the most part I was not watching and barking, but listening, as I had the television turned on behind me while I was here — that is, in front of my computer keyboard, working on a previous Blurried Musing article. So there I am, or was, listening to the television in the background, typing away as I hummed along to the old tunes used in the program for atmosphere in the story. And that’s when I realized I’m a fan of incidental music.

This came as a bit of a shock. I’ve always been among the first to rise to the attack of crappy piped-in music (you should see and hear my impression of an elevator ride to Hell with a short Muzak version of Girl from Ipanema playing). Whenever the instrumental heart strings swell badly in a particularly moving moment of a film, I can be found chuckling over the unintended triteness of it (and subsequently being shushed). But I think I’m OK here, since both these reactions still occur quite regularly and with their original vigor.

Now that I know this about myself, I can see where important incidental music has popped up. I recall a song fragment from a commercial that caught my interest deep enough for me to look up it’s title and lyrics online. There was a musical loop from a video game that stuck in my mind long after the program was deleted off my hard drive. And nothing short of a lobotomy will let me forget the few notes from an unknown ditty my grandfather used to unconsciously sing. Seems it runs in the family.

I liked a song clip so much, one of the Shona people of Zimbabwe I discovered in an encyclopedia software package, I hunted down the specific file in the application’s directories and made a copy so I could play it whenever I desired. And though I hate to admit it, I start up the Windows XP Introductory Tour animation from time to time because it includes this short musical track I enjoy.

Kind of sad? Perhaps. But I can’t help myself. Incidental music hooks into us in so many ways and from so many places while we go about our lives. Strange I’ve only recently caught onto the fact. And I don’t mind it at all… except for the Muzak; I want to make that very clear.

By the way, when I say “incidental music”, I’m not talking about Incidental Music. True, there’s something intriguing and above the norm for a site that starts off by saying “congratulations on spelling “incidental” correctly,” but it’s still not what I meant.