Music The Background Music Thread

[JapaneseVersionFan22]

4Kids kept the entire soundtrack for M04-M08. And seasons 4-8 use more Japanese tracks than TPCI has for the last 5 years.

They kept almost all game tracks but replaced almost ALL of the anime and movie exclusive tracks.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

They kept almost all game tracks but replaced almost ALL of the anime and movie exclusive tracks.

And so did TPCi, except worse, from Seasons 16-20, even game tracks aren't safe now on occasion, which were usually always safe under 4Kids. "Treasure Hunt, Akala Style" recently, even replaced the Alola trainer battle theme, for instance (we got a nice 1/XX btw there).

Going to Latios from Movie 5 was kept in several AG dub episodes, Gelarden's Theme from Movie 2 in Address Unown, Crazy Bike Ride (M30) in Candid Camerupt, A Tail with a Twist, etc. in addition to Escape from Movie 2 being kept in Gulpin' It Down among a myriad of other non-game related themes 4Kids kept in the dubs of mid Johto-early BF before they got canned, there are some exceptions.

Seasons 4-8 dubbed are not comparable to the guff we get now from Seasons 16-20 dubbed in terms of not being even close to as bad on keeping OST.

We've been more 1/XX'd in Season 20 than we were in the entire 4Kids dub under TPCi, as well, consider that for a moment- it's much worse now.

 

[Pkmndub]

And so did TPCi, except worse, from Seasons 16-20, even game tracks aren't safe now on occasion, which were usually always safe under 4Kids. "Treasure Hunt, Akala Style" recently, even replaced the Alola trainer battle theme, for instance (we got a nice 1/XX btw there).

Going to Latios from Movie 5 was kept in several AG dub episodes, Gelarden's Theme from Movie 2 in Address Unown, Crazy Bike Ride (M30) in Candid Camerupt, A Tail with a Twist, etc. in addition to Escape from Movie 2 being kept in Gulpin' It Down among a myriad of other non-game related themes 4Kids kept in the dubs of mid Johto-early BF before they got canned, there are some exceptions.

Seasons 4-8 dubbed are not comparable to the guff we get now from Seasons 16-20 dubbed in terms of not being even close to as bad on keeping OST.

We've been more 1/XX'd in Season 20 than we were in the entire 4Kids dub under TPCi, as well, consider that for a moment- it's much worse now.

However, that doesn't mean the dub is bad. The music is one factor out of many

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

However, that doesn't mean the dub is bad. The music is one factor out of many

Oh, I know, I'm just saying that this cannot be denied.

 

[Pkmndub]

Oh, I know, I'm just saying that this cannot be denied.

Besides, I think more people are mad over it being replaced than the music. The music itself is really good, and for the complaint that the same music is played over and over, that's the Sound Director, not Ed

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

Besides, I think more people are mad over it being replaced than the music. The music itself is really good, and for the complaint that the same music is played over and over, that's the Sound Director, not Ed

I disagree that the music itself is good, but each to their own, I'm not going to bash you for liking it.

And I agree Gopal is the bigger problem but I have had my gripes with Goldfarb's own compositions being unfitting to me at times, hope it makes sense where I'm coming from.

 

[kantoskies]

I will admit that there have been a few dub pieces, both from 4Kids and TPCi, that have actually been pretty good. The piano piece at the end of XY014 and a battle piece during AG031 are both examples of this. But out of principle I still don't like them being in the episode. Pretty much every dub change (excluding completely untranslatable jokes, game localization stuff, and outright dialogue errors in the original like misidentifying a Pokemon-- but those are rare cases) basically gives a middle finger to the original show. It's like the dub companies are saying "well we like your product enough to release it overseas but also everything about it sucks and we can do it much better, artistic integrity be damned".

Like if Shinji Miyazaki is a complete hack and makes this dull, repetitive music and the dub sound mixer just knows that this exciting battle scene will be improved by playing slow synth stuff over it, why doesn't he just make his own show? If the Japanese Rocket trio is just *so* unfunny and Carter Cathcart/Billy Beach is just so talented at writing dialogue that The Youth™ will respond to, why doesn't he just write for his own show? I get that dub voice actors may play the characters differently because there's no way you could get Rica Matsumoto to play Ash Ketchum in the english dub, and stuff like Roulega's original design and things network censors frown upon like EP018 and EP035 are different cases. But there's no excuse to be replacing stuff like music and easily-translatable jokes and dialogue that can perfectly be shown to a foreign audience. This isn't even me saying "the original is always superior" because there have been a few times both dubs have improved over the original, but I still think those changes should not have happened because they're bastardizing another artist's work.

A dubbing company's job is not to "fix" the original product. Their job is to translate the audio so a foreign market can consume the same product as the native country. If a scene was scored poorly in the original version, the dub should still be scored poorly.

 

[JapaneseVersionFan22]

Well sorry, I'm definitely waiting for the subs. I'm not going that far to get Goldfarb'd but I would like to know the opinions of those who watch the dub of the 20th movie.

 

[ii kanji]

I would like to know the opinions of those who watch the dub of the 20th movie.

Well what to say? The music was shit.

 

[Pkmndub]

Ed Goldfarb, Akhil Gopal, and the newest recruit who did additonal orchestration
It is amaze

 

[Gabo2oo]

A bit better than the main series; still really bad.

 

[Gligarman]

Well what to say? The music was shit.

I can only describe the PMCi music in the movie as Sunday morning educational cartoon BGM. I can't blame the composer though because I'm willing to bet their music budget is a fraction of the Japanese version. Shinji Miyazaki's original score was phenomenal as always so I was really upset that they changed it. In fact, I originally wasn't going to see the dub in theaters at all because of that but I winded up with a free ticket and admittedly I wanted that Pikachu with the hat.

 

[JapaneseVersionFan22]

It might sound offensive to children or to please the parents?

 

[Gligarman]

It might sound offensive to children or to please the parents?

I'd like to think it's some sort of licensing issue but how could that be a thing when the localization company is owned by Nintendo?

 

[kantoskies]

The theory I've been buying for awhile is it's a revenue thing. The English dub is the "main" dub for western countries-- dubs like the Spanish and Italian are based on the English dub rather than the original Japanese version. Paint edits, name changes, and most notably music changes are retained for these dubs. TPCi/4Kids can collect revenue for every piece of BGM (and I assume openings?) they produce, whereas they can't for any piece of music composed by Shinji Miyazaki or sections of silence, which explains why they hardly ever leave a scene silent.

Oh sure, the dub companies probably *do* think their music is better and kids prefer wall-to-wall music and all that other bs, but at the end of the day it's primarily a financial decision. I've seen someone suggest that some contract requires the dub company to retain some original BGM, the amount could have varied over the years (which explains why seasons 1, 2, 3, 13, and 14 keep so much more than say season 7, 8, or 19), but I'm still confused about the films. Maybe Miramax taking over distribution starting with the Celebi movie played some role but I'm not sure how that all works.

 

[Gabo2oo]

Could there be a possibility that TPCI replaces the music because it might sound offensive to children or to please the parents?

I'm really interested in how could someone reach to such a conclusion, to be honest.

 

[Cookiefication]

I'm somewhat sure the whole music replacement issue is less "we think our music is better" and more along the lines of "give us dat money."

That said, I genuinely always wonder: why are they keeping any original music at all? I don't get it. Why not go all in?

 

[Pkmndub]

By the way, the reason @martianmister didn't get a reply is this

View: https://twitter.com/edgoldfarbmusic/status/927747464328708096

Ed Goldfarb most likely has an NDA telling the official reason why they replace music. I am going to go with the general consensus and say it was royalties

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Or he's using it as a pretext. Whatever the case, if they don't give any real answers, I'll go and think the worst: They want to get money from dubs based on their version.

 

[Drakon]

The original series had some truly memorable background music like the hard-charging and hard rocking "Burning Battlefield"; the triumphantly epic "I Got a Victory Badge" and "Fighting Spirit"; and the tense "Raid!"

The current series doesn't have any truly memorable background music. To be honest, I have to wonder if Shinji Miyazaki is still composing or if he's lost the flair.