Always very elaborate and sophisticated, series credits are now undermined by platforms and the “skip intro” button.
Of Friends To Stranger things Passing by Bowler hat and leather bootsthe credits of series may be threatened by the “skip the intro” function of the platforms, they remain inseparable from a genre and a source of new outlets for musicians.
Which series starts with “so no one told you life was gonna be this way?”. Without even answering, a young woman claps her hands, mimicking the introduction of Friends.
She takes part in a quiz for the “Don’t skip” exhibition, organized in Lille as part of the Séries Mania festival to retrace the history of credits, “art in art” with which the public maintains “an intimate relationship “, according to Olivier Joyard, his artistic adviser and author of a documentary on the subject.
“At the end of the 1940s, many of them served as a presentation by the sponsor of the episode to come”, reminds AFP the journalist of Inrocks, citing “the soap manufacturers” who gave their name to the “soap operas”.
“A paradoxical moment”
Ten years later, the series Alfred Hitchcock presents et The fourth dimension came to revolutionize the genre, paving the way for the mythical credits of the 1960s, characteristic of the explosion of pop culture such as Mission impossible et Bowler hat and leather boots.
Then in the 2010s came the reign of specialized agencies such as the Elastic studio, at the origin of the credits of Game of thrones et The Crown.
“We are at a paradoxical moment: the credits are both sophisticated and highlighted”, explains Olivier Joyard. “On the other hand”, they tend to shorten or disappear, thanks in particular to the button introduced by Netflix ten years ago, to skip the introduction.
“One of the first functions of the credits was to remind people of dates” by acting “almost like an alarm clock that starts ringing in our body, our head” with the “joyfulness of reunion”.
But it is undermined with “binge-watching”, which consists of watching series for hours.
“Three Finger Snaps”
“Nobody can whistle the credits composed by Danny Elfman (The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives) for Netflix’s latest hit, Wednesday“, taken from the universe of the Addams family, notes series critic Benoit Lagane.
On the other hand, “if I do three finger snaps, we know, we sing the credits of the old sitcom of the 60s”.
The genre is not buried for all that, especially as production increases and broadcasters tend to understand the importance of credits for the identity of a series, according to Olivier Joyard.
In France, a country which invented for Dallas a sung credits, the musicians, in particular electro, are more and more solicited, like Thylacine, author of the original soundtrack ofUFOs (Canal+), or Rebeka Warrior, recruited for Split (Slash).
“I am offered four series for a film at the moment”, confirms to AFP Yuksek, composer of the success of Arte ‘In therapy’ and ‘Irresistible’ (Disney +).
“A new mode of expression”
“It’s always very good news for creators when a new mode of expression arrives” such as platforms, abounds Thibaud Fouet, director of members at Sacem (Society of authors, composers and music publishers). Especially since their global strike force “can allow them to be noticed overnight”.
“We are embarking on these projects for several reasons, not necessarily financial”, the budgets not being “not very high”, specifies Olivia Merilahti, former member of the group The Dø, delighted to have returned to “rather punk references Riot Grrrl” at the request of the director of “Aspergirl” (OCS).
Proof of the intimate springs at work, Yuksek received a lot of messages after the broadcast ofIn therapywhich he watched himself and whose credits “did something to him”: “It’s limited what I’m talking about the most right now so”.
