What's the name for that 50's commercial type music?

[mobo85]

@Zeldar

Thanks, but that may be a bit too broad, whereas Production music - Wikipedia isn’t quite descriptive enough for the Wiki alone to solve the problem of the OP.

mobo85 satisfied my curiosity for the specific sound. If there’s a more descriptive name than “production music” for that particular sound, I’d like to know. But I mostly revived the thread to post that YouTube has examples of what I had tried to describe in the OP long ago.

Associated Production Music, one of the largest providers of production music in the United States, provides all styles of music, from parodies of well-known tunes and/or popular genres to indeed that stereotypical '50s style of music which is nowadays usually used in an ironic fashion in cartoons and comedy (most of which came from the British production house KPM). APM/KPM themselves refer to it as “archival” or “archive.” I don’t really know if you can get any more specific than that. “Production music” is indeed too vague a term, but I can’t think of anything else.

[Zeldar]

@salinqmind

What about that “Tip-Toeing Elf” music? The kind they play on Desperate Housewives, when Susan is, say, spying on Mike and about to fall and get a bucket stuck over her head?

I religiously don’t watch the show. Any samples of the music itself, maybe?

[ministryman]

Ummmm…bossa nova?

[Zeldar]

@ministryman

Ummmm…bossa nova?

Nope

[salinqmind]

Not just Desperate Housewives. You hear it all the time on TV and in movies when a character is bent on some mischief. It’s a ‘lighthearted’ plinking (violin?) music played when, say, someone is sneaking into a room. It’s sneaky music.

[Zeldar]

@salinqmind

Not just Desperate Housewives. You hear it all the time on TV and in movies when a character is bent on some mischief. It’s a ‘lighthearted’ plinking (violin?) music played when, say, someone is sneaking into a room. It’s sneaky music.

Would that be the same sort of music behind a Tom & Jerry or Roadrunner & Wile E. when one of them is sneaking up on the other?

If so, that’s the plinky sound, but in a much more sinister usage.

This ought to give the mood I’m trying to describe: Ren and Stimpy Soundtrack - Workaday World

Visualize this sort of thing behind a mother preparing lunches for the kids or getting ready for a Tupperware party or neutering a hog.

[SanibelMan]

Here’s the Soviet version. (YouTube link that will blow your mind)

[C.Montgomery_Burns]

Don’t know if I’m in the right neighborhood, but David Rose played music that sounded like this when he was the bandleader on the Red Skelton Show. Am I thinking of the right stuff?

[salinqmind]

@Zeldar

Would that be the same sort of music behind a Tom & Jerry or Roadrunner & Wile E. when one of them is sneaking up on the other?

If so, that’s the plinky sound, but in a much more sinister usage.

This ought to give the mood I’m trying to describe: Ren and Stimpy Soundtrack - Workaday World

Visualize this sort of thing behind a mother preparing lunches for the kids or getting ready for a Tupperware party or neutering a hog.

That’s in the ballpark, the plinking (that music sounds like “Holiday For Strings”). The sound I’m thinking of doesn’t follow any particular tune, but when you hear it, it signifies the scene in a farce or a comedy when someone is sneaking. Like, the heroine is having an affair with her neighbor Lulu’s husband, and she’s sitting in Lulu’s kitchen and realizes she left her bra in the neighbor’s bedroom. While Lulu is talking on the phone, the guilty heroine sneaks down the hall and into the bedroom to retrieve her bra. Plinka-plinka-plinka-plink… Maybe it did originate in cartoons, it’s pretty common.

[Zeldar]

@SanibelMan

Here’s the Soviet version. (YouTube link that will blow your mind)

This is not all that far off. I love those comments at YouTube. It’s a fun clip, no matter how near or far from the genre I’m trying to identify.

Nice work! How did you manage to zoom in on this clip?

[Zeldar]

@C.Montgomery_Burns

Don’t know if I’m in the right neighborhood, but David Rose played music that sounded like this when he was the bandleader on the Red Skelton Show. Am I thinking of the right stuff?

Quite so. “Holiday for Strings” is an excellent example of the type of sound.

Here’s a decent clip: Geoff Love Holiday For Strings

If this floats your boat, others are nearby.

[Zeldar]

@salinqmind

That’s in the ballpark, the plinking (that music sounds like “Holiday For Strings”). The sound I’m thinking of doesn’t follow any particular tune, but when you hear it, it signifies the scene in a farce or a comedy when someone is sneaking. Like, the heroine is having an affair with her neighbor Lulu’s husband, and she’s sitting in Lulu’s kitchen and realizes she left her bra in the neighbor’s bedroom. While Lulu is talking on the phone, the guilty heroine sneaks down the hall and into the bedroom to retrieve her bra. Plinka-plinka-plinka-plink… Maybe it did originate in cartoons, it’s pretty common.

I believe we’re on the same wavelength, especially with the “Holiday for Strings” connection.

[salinqmind]

@SanibelMan

Here’s the Soviet version. (YouTube link that will blow your mind)

:eek:

The winner of Russian Idol? lol…just kidding!

[Zeldar]

@salinqmind

:eek:

The winner of Russian Idol? lol…just kidding!

He reminded me of a cross between Ed Ames and one of those Old Navy mannequins. The corpse references seemed apropos, as well.

I’m very afraid I could wind up dreaming about this!

[Zeldar]

@mobo85

Associated Production Music, one of the largest providers of production music in the United States, provides all styles of music, from parodies of well-known tunes and/or popular genres to indeed that stereotypical '50s style of music which is nowadays usually used in an ironic fashion in cartoons and comedy (most of which came from the British production house KPM). APM/KPM themselves refer to it as “archival” or “archive.” I don’t really know if you can get any more specific than that. “Production music” is indeed too vague a term, but I can’t think of anything else.

Thanks again, mobo85. I had managed to locate this site earlier when I found the YouTube clips on the Ren & Stimpy goodies. It’s been quite some time since I found them and just today, when I was looking through my old threads looking for something else, that I saw this one still hadn’t been resolved completely. It occured to me to risk the dreaded zombie curse by thanking you for the help in locating them. Lots of good additional stuff has come in today, thanks to all of you.

APM looks like a real outfit! I played around with it a bit when I first located it.

[terentii]

@salinqmind

That’s in the ballpark, the plinking (that music sounds like “Holiday For Strings”). The sound I’m thinking of doesn’t follow any particular tune, but when you hear it, it signifies the scene in a farce or a comedy when someone is sneaking. Like, the heroine is having an affair with her neighbor Lulu’s husband, and she’s sitting in Lulu’s kitchen and realizes she left her bra in the neighbor’s bedroom. While Lulu is talking on the phone, the guilty heroine sneaks down the hall and into the bedroom to retrieve her bra. Plinka-plinka-plinka-plink… Maybe it did originate in cartoons, it’s pretty common.

FWIW, the musical term for this technique is pizzicato:

Pizzicato

[terentii]

This may be of interest to some: “Music for TV Dinners”

Enjoy!

[Elemenopy]

The Sims games by Maxis use this sort of music to great effect, though I believe most of it was original productions. So I imagine that they must have had a brief term for the genre in order to tell the music director what was required. Some of it I would characterize as very light Latin jazz/bossa nova. The first few songs on this clip definitely qualify.

[PatrickLondon]

In the UK, we have a category of “light music”, where the likes of Leroy Anderson would certainly belong, along with our own home-grown Eric Coates, Charles Williams or Ronald Binge, who had their heyday with pieces that became very popular when used as theme/signature tunes for radio programmes, as well as undemanding (for the audience) concert pieces.

These pieces are classical in style, without any deep technical musical development or emotional intensity: but they have a recognisable programme, structure and resolution, whereas a lot of the off-the-peg library music that’s slapped on top of documentaries these days sounds to me like relatively empty vamp-till-ready noodling.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@terentii

FWIW, the musical term for this technique is pizzicato:

Pizzicato - Wikipedia

Yes, and while it’s used in cartoons and soundtracks for a “tiptoe” effect, it’s also a legitimate technique used in serious concert music, such as in the second movement of Debussy’s String Quartet or the third movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #4.