On Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at 5:33:52 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> Okay, so we all know that Transformers and G.I. Joe had a number of shared musical background themes. The music in both shows was composed by the same guys, both shows were Marvel Productions, so it made sense for them to share resources.
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> I always had sort of a vague idea of which themes were reused, and approximately when it started, but now that I've been digging through both shows to build clean sound files for the virtual soundtrack, several interesting things have availed themselves to me.
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> For one, it wasn't until the beginning of the 1985 television season that the shared music came into play. This was the second season of Transformers and the third year for G.I. Joe (episodes 1-5 aired in 1983; episodes 6-11 aired in 1984; the new music began with the 1985 episodes, but for some reason numerous online resources lump all three years together as "season one"). For some reason I had always thought that somebody had taken all the G..I. Joe music that did not specifically sound like it belonged on that show (i.e., nothing with the "Real American Hero" melody) and borrowed it for Transformers. Turns out this isn't the case at all. (There do seem to be two instances of a very G.I. Joe-centric theme showing up in Transformers. One of them was the "wrong" commercial bumper theme in "The Insecticon Syndrome," which was likely included accidentally, or perhaps as a joke. The other is the military drum beat we hear during the rocket base speech in "Autobot Spike," which I think would have continued with a familiar G.I. Joe melody if it had been allowed to continue for more than a few seconds.)
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> Most of the new music made its debut on G.I. Joe in September 1985, but it would show up in Transformers that same month. The television season for G.I. Joe only began one week before Transformers did that year (September 16th for G.I. Joe; September 23rd for Transformers) so it's really only "G.I.. Joe music" by merit of beating Transformers by seven days. All of these episodes were being written, recorded, and animated concurrently. It would be one thing if Transformers didn't start using the new themes until many weeks or months down the road. If the scheduling had been tweaked just slightly, it could easily have gone the other way around.
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> So, it's clear to me now that Sunbow likely requested a shared library of music from the start, one which was always intended to be used for both shows. There are at least three dozen shared themes; very little of the music introduced in Transformers season two was unique to that series. (Oddly, G..I. Joe also borrows some music from Transformers season one.)
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> Then of course there's the matter of G.I. Joe: the Movie, which uses older music from the television series but also a slew of newer themes that were also used in Transformers season three. I always tend to think that the music was written for G.I. Joe and appropriated for Transformers, but I don't really have any proof of this. Actually, the third season of Transformers started using the new music in October 1986 and G.I. Joe: the Movie wasn't released to home video until April 1987 (it was never in theaters), so if anything, it's "really" Transformers music that was used for G.I. Joe. I feel very strongly that the new music was composed for G.I. Joe: the Movie first, though, especially considering there are a lot of themes heard exclusively in the movie that were never heard in Transformers. Also, G.I. Joe: the Movie was *intended* as a theatrical release, but things like Hasbro interfering with Duke's death scene, Zarana's nude scene (did you know there was an official animation model for naked Zarana?!), and the eventual shift to a home video release, might have delayed things considerably.
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> There are some G.I. Joe episodes from 1985 that don't use the shared music at all. I think the episodes were probably be produced out of order, with many of them being pieced together simultaneously, and these were probably the earliest ones finished, before the shared music library was available. This is similar to how some late Transformers third-season episodes don't use any of the G.I. Joe: the Movie music (like "Fight or Flee," a Sandstorm introduction that we got long after Sandstorm's first animated appearance, and "Only Human"). I expect these were episodes that were started early on, but production delays resulted in them being aired late in the season.
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> You know what I'm having fun with right now? I play a DVD episode on the computer while I call up one of the "wrong" music tracks and play it on Windows Media Player at the same time. For instance, the fifth televised season (narrated by Puppetmaster Prime) used all the 1980's synthesizer music during their new storytelling segments, even for first-season episodes like "More Than Meets the Eye." It's a weird juxtaposition. Right now we're trying to figure out the logistics of how Jimbo is going to send me 200GB of sound files, but they should include every audio channel for each episode, dialogue and sound effects and music included. I really want to piece together some "wrong" episodes because they're so crazy. Like, what "Five Faces of Darkness" would have sounded like if they'd had the new third-season music available. Or, conversely, what "Webworld" would have sounded like with all first-season music. Or what The Transformers: the Movie would have sounded like with a television music soundtrack!
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> Before I have too much fun with that, of course, I would have to get cracking on putting together the rest of the soundtrack. Jimbo is basically done with season one but I'll be responsible for assembling the missing tracks for seasons two and three. It's gonna be a long summer!
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> Zob
question is why did they take so long to reveal

On Sunday, July 23, 2023 at 12:42:27 PM UTC-6, Adam wrote:

> question is why did they take so long to reveal

Not really sure what you're asking. Why did it take so long for the second season to start using new music? Or the third season? Why did it take us so long to release the music tracks? I don't understand your question.

Zob (when in doubt, I like to blame the government)

Thread necromancy, but this is an interesting one. I remember when I lived in the States as a child from 1987-1989, and every weekday morning was watching a block of Sunbow shows, Transformers, G I Joe, My Little Pony and Jem (plus MASK). I picked up on a lot of commonalities over those two years but I don't recall noticing the music overlaps.

My Little Pony really *is* dreadful, btw. It was pitched at a younger audience, so it's kind of like an entire series of the most dumbed down G1 episodes, but it does have a stellar crew of writers and I'll always value it for being the one show that had a female ensemble on a par with TF (including a lot of the same character-types). Jem didn't, because the same dolls could be sold year after year in different outfits. Jem also used professional singers for the songs, so MLP is one of the best places to hear G1 actors singing (Mostly Sue Blue, Charlie Adler and Michael Bell, but Frank Welker and Peter Cullen popped up regularly as well--I just don't remember them being in songs outside of the Movie). Because it was for a different age setting, I wouldn't have expected it to have the same music, but it's definitely possible.

Is there an easy place online to listen to the show's soundtrack? My ear is pretty awful, but I could maybe go through some of the pony episodes and listen out for the background music.

On Monday, July 24, 2023 at 2:49:25 AM UTC-6, Velvet Glove wrote:

> My Little Pony really *is* dreadful, btw.

I tried. I tried so hard to watch it. But, at the time I was already screening the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, plus Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, AND the Jem cartoon. I actually liked Jem. But I just couldn't sit through My Little Pony. I couldn't do it.

> Is there an easy place online to listen to the show's soundtrack? My ear is pretty awful, but I could maybe go through some of the pony episodes and listen out for the background music.

http://www.thetfcog.com/ has all the Transformers music that we worked on available for download. You are a much braver person than I if you dare to venture forth into the acursed pony lands.

Zob (bought Moss Man today and, true to form, he does indeed smell like Christmas trees)