So I’m reading Nodwick by Aaron Williams and on his little blog he brings up a point that made me go “huh?”
And I quote from his site:
(talking about a scene from the series “Heroes”)
So I thought I’d bring this up. What music is used by movies/shows filmed outside of the US to indicate “american-ness”? Anyone?
Doesn’t hold, cause that’s an American trying to sell to Americans. I’m talking about NON Americans applying a music of one sort or another to audibly “show” this is in the US.
Interesting question. When you want to establish that you’re in France, you play accordion music. In Germany you have tubas playing oompah music. In England you just play “Rule Britannia”. In China or Japan you play flutes and gongs. In India you hear sitar.
Yeah, it’s hard to be objective… I attribute different music to different parts of the country.
I do remember a long lost episode of “A bit of Frye and Laurie” that featured a song called “Kickin’ Ass.” I’m guessing a lot of people around the world would choose that one if there was a vote.
There’s this music-song - I believe is called “Banjos that Duel”? That’s America!
…but seriously, I think it depends. Urban Amwerica is usually signalled by Hip-Hop nowadays, everything else is Country.
In most cases, it’s done with visual rather than musical cliches (Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, cactus-filled desert, etc.) Musical choices are also a bit more location-specific: bluegrass, sure, if you’re somewhere rural and (by stereotypical implication) backward. If the scene’s in Los Angeles or Manhattan, bland inoffensive rap is called for. New Orleans certainly gets jazz, and until CSI got popular you’d probably still have gotten away with Sinatra for Vegas. And so on.