The most fascinating aspect about the production of a telenovela, to me, is the music. Before our lecture in class about this topic, I had not really put too much thought into how much of a vital ingredient the music is for a telenovela to be successful. Of course the musical theme at the entrada has to be chosen carefully since it is played daily. Just as telenovelas become a part of people's daily routines, so does the song that plays at the beginning of each episode. The incidental music, on the other hand, may go a little unnoticed by most viewers. However, as we learned in class from some of Dr. A's behind the scenes videos, without the incidental music an otherwise passionate and sensual scene becomes plain awkward. The relationship between telenovelas and incidental music, then, is quite interesting. Alone, incidental music is pretty cheesy, and without music, scenes in novelas are completely awkward. Somehow, when the two come together, however, it works!
I know I've talked about the music in the entrada of Hasta Que La Plata Nos Separe in more than one blog post. After our lecture of the music in telenovelas, I decided to pay closer attention to the incidental music in the episodes. Whenever there is any kind of romantic moment between the protagonists, the song from the entrada plays but in a version that is much slower. Another part that stood out to me was the music used in the subplots. For example, Alejandra's (the protagonist) assistant, Susana has her own love affair going on at the moment with a guy from the office. Susana is a very spiritual character, she is a vegetarian and is into meditation and a lot of other Eastern practices. Whenever there is a romantic scene between her and her coworker, the incidental music has an oriental tone to it. That is just one example, but I've noticed the variations in the music depending on each character.
Overall, the production of telenovelas is utterly fascinating, yet completely overwhelming at the same time. There are so many people and factors involved in the making of just one episode. I had no idea how much hard work went into each episode, and it's hard to believe that these production teams are able to prepare episodes to air 5 nights a week!
This is a class blog run by Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and her students in the course "Telenovelas, Culture and Society" at the University of Georgia during Fall 2013
I agree; the scenes we watched from Dr. A's videos were really awkward without the incidental music! I didn't realize how important the incidental music was until it wasn't there anymore. I also really liked that video we watched that demonstrated the different types of incidental music. It was interesting because they're so important, but I hadn't really given them much thought until they were explained to me. The different types of incidental music for each scene and the different character themes were all so cool to learn about. And I feel the same way, I have such a hard time grasping the fact that this intense production happens on a daily basis!
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