Setting the mood (Part 2 of 2)

A few days ago, I started a discussion about the shows and their opening credits, particularly the music themes that we’ve come to associate with them.

This is by no means a new topic, since the great and unfortunately late website World of Soap Themes (WoST) comprehensively collected and featured themes from radio and TV soaps.

But I specifically wanted to think about them in terms of how the shows use the openings to set the mood – and to define the identity of a show. In some cases, as a soap has gone through an identity crisis, so has its opening.

Setting the mood (Part 1 of 2)

As you may have noticed, A Thousand Other Worlds recently got a bit of a makeover. It now has a new blog theme.

As I was making that change, I started thinking about how themes set the mood for the shows on the air.  Music has always elicited an emotional response for me, so it’s no surprise that theme music would set the tone for many viewers.