# Scene noise in a music video **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869 "2018-05-09T16:54:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/1 "2018-05-09T16:54:06Z")
Sometimes a music video has a scene going on, and the song’s volume will be reduced at some point and there will be dialogue and/or sound effects over the song. Is there a word designating this? Is it typically done to actually sell more copies of the unmodified song, or is it usually an artistic decision? Finally, list music videos like that: Lady Gaga “Telephone” Tenacious D “Tribute” Michael Jackson “Thriller” Tove Lo “Disco Tits” Metallica “One” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/2 "2018-05-09T16:59:42Z")
Another one: A Perfect Circle “The Outsider” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/3 "2018-05-09T17:25:52Z")
Daft Punk “One More Time” ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/4 "2018-05-09T21:20:10Z")
Yes, the term you are looking for is “ducking” or “audio ducking.” It’s quite common. MST3K would often duck the movie sound during their comments. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/5 "2018-05-09T22:19:30Z")
Philip Bailey & Phil Collins “Easy Lover” Megadeth “Peace Sells” _(“I want to watch the news.” / “This is the news!”)_ ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/6 "2018-05-10T02:26:23Z")
> [@Jim\_Peebles](#): > > Sometimes a music video has a scene going on, and the song’s volume will be reduced at some point and there will be dialogue and/or sound effects over the song. Is there a word designating this? Is it typically done to actually sell more copies of the unmodified song, or is it usually an artistic decision? Considering that it’s a technique that has long predated striping audio from YouTube videos, I’m going with it’s an artistic decision to make the video more “cinematic”. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/7 "2018-05-11T13:16:42Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Philip Bailey & Phil Collins “Easy Lover” > Megadeth “Peace Sells” _(“I want to watch the news.” / “This is the news!”)_ Thanks, I never watched either before. “Easy Lover” wins “best ducking editing” of the songs mentioned so far. It’s a great song, but I could see how the music video would have seemed boring without the ducking. The Phils must have sang while shooting footage for the video, and I guess someone got creative in the editing by mixing it in, to salvage the music video. Have any other music videos copied this formula? I dislodged two more from my memory, not very good songs, and the ducking makes them worse. Here I suspect the motivation for the ducking was “to sell more copies”: Taylor Swift “New Romantics” Britney Spears “Make Me…” I thought this thread would have caught on like wildfire. I am surprised at the low number of responses. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/8 "2018-05-11T14:04:52Z")
> [@Jim\_Peebles](#): > > Daft Punk “One More Time” One More Time is kind of a special case, as the video wasn’t really meant as a music video on the traditional sense - it’s part of a movie, Interstella 5555, which used Discovery as its soundtrack. (The first few videos from the album are the first few segments of I5555…the full movie was released a couple years later, alongside Daft Club.) Daft Punk also have another special case, a couple years earlier, in Da Funk, where the song doesn’t just occasionally fade back - it’s basically background music to a scene of a dude (who happens to be an anthropomorphic bloodhound, for no discernible reason) wandering around and talking to people. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scene-noise-in-a-music-video/813869/9 "2018-05-11T14:56:49Z")
Til Tuesday - Voices Carry Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield