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Chris Higgins
Music Changes Everything
by Chris Higgins - April 22, 2009 - 7:20 AM

This morning I came across a link to “Disturbing Strokes”: it’s the “Diff’rent Strokes” credits sequence set to disturbing music…and the result is supremely creepy (Mr. Drummond’s intentions are, uh, questionable). It’s fascinating how much music can change a sequence, turning it from uplifting to completely scary. Have a look:

There are other examples of this practice out there. For example, “Shining” is a spoof re-edit of the trailer for Kubrick’s “The Shining,” in which light-hearted music and voiceover makes the movie seem like a family dramedy. Take a peek, after the jump.

In a film class in college, the professor showed us several versions of the opening credits to “The Shining” in which he had added different music. The music dramatically changes the viewer’s perception of the credit sequence. Here’s the original opening sequence:

And here’s one with happier music. Weird, right? The sequence now strikes me as the beginning to a romantic comedy/roadtrip movie.

Have You Ever Swapped the Soundtrack?

Have you ever changed the soundtrack for an existing video, or seen a great example of this? Share your finds in the comments (you can post links, just leave off the http:// part).

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Comments (5)

  1. I remeber taking a compostion class in collge, and one of our final projects was to compose for a student film. The film prof did a lecture on film music, and showed us a woody allen flick with different music, one classical, one jazz and then ultimately the original (Rhapsody in Blue) Music perception changed the entire sequence drastically – from light hearted to a feeling of depression and angst!!

    There is a youtube clip of someone mashing up Mary Poppins to some different music and making it out to be REALLY creepy – almost witchlike. Its all you favorite Poppins scenes, but the music makes you focus more on the supernatural a bit more.

    posted by Justin L on 4-22-2009 at 9:17 am

  2. Several years ago I replaced the Marriage of Figaro in Shawshank Redemption with N.W.A.’s F*ck tha Police. It worked really well, actually. Unfortunately, this was pre-YouTube and was lost in a hard drive crash.

    posted by Drew on 4-22-2009 at 9:28 am

  3. I don’t have the magic of an iPhone, does anyone know the name/artist of the song in the 2nd Shinning opening credit?

    posted by NateJ on 4-22-2009 at 2:53 pm

  4. It’s Feist – “1 2 3 4.”

    posted by Chris Higgins on 4-22-2009 at 2:54 pm

  5. Thanks Chris. I enjoyed the post, and now I’ll keep enjoying the song.

    posted by NateJ on 4-23-2009 at 7:12 pm

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