Music to your ears

Angela Grant over at News Videographer writes an interesting article about the use of music in news packages. I must say, I agree with her on almost all her points.

She also links to another useful piece on the subject.

I hope I can add to the discussion with some of my own points here:

1) My main objection to the use of music in a news item is that it's just plain distracting. If it doesn't add to a story, why use it? Well the reason most would use it would be because they cannot convey what they want, in terms of mood etc, using just words and pictures. That means the reporter is doing something wrong. As Angela writes, it's a crutch.

I don't need sad music to tell me a story is sad. I don't need happy music to tell me a story is a happy one. And if I do, then the reporter is not getting that across sufficiently in his or her script.

2) Using music also clashes uncomfortably with other items in a newscast. If no other stories are using music, then a piece with music that suddenly comes on will sound strange and out of place.

3) You rarely get time in a news item to allow the music to make sense. Most of us in the news world only have about 90 seconds to tell a story. A little snippet of music somewhere in such a short piece will just sound strange and confusing to the viewer.

5) However, music is ok on a fast-paced show with a constant music track. For example, Access Hollywood. There is no reason why you can't use music in a piece if there is a music bed playing all the time, even under anchor reads. It wont clash with the overall tone of the program.

6) A news story is about facts, not superficial appearance. Sure, you can use good production techniques to make a piece look smooth, but you just don't need to go as far as using music to achieve your results.

7) I agree that music is somewhat more acceptable in a longer feature, but it's still annoying. Rather, I would say, it is more suited to documentaries. You wouldn't think twice about hearing music on a Discovery Channel documentary. But you would if you heard it on the NBC Nightly News.

8) The use of ambient sounds and tones can be ok. I used some ambient tone to lay under some NASA animation in a story about the Kepler Space Telescope recently. I think in this case it sounded good under b-roll of the vast depths of space. It also sounded better than complete silence. I ran tones under must of the rest of the piece so it didn't jar too much with the nat sound.

But generally speaking, I would agree with others who have written on this issue. Stay away from music in news at all costs.