Name that Tune was a quiz that had a long life on radio and
television. It first began as a show on NBC radio in America in 1952. In
Britain, it was first known as Spot that
Tune, which ran between 1956 and 1962
on Granada Television. It was next seen between 1976 and 1983 as ‘Name that
Tune’, a segment of the Thames Television show London Night Out, hosted by Tom O’Connor. After that, it became a
standalone quiz, hosted by Lionel Blair from 1983 to 1988. It was then revived on Channel 5 for a show
hosted by Jools Holland in 1997 and 1998. The most recent version was witnessed
in 2007, as part of ITV’s Gameshow
Marathon, helmed by Vernon Kay.
The premise was simple. Contestants would
compete to name popular tunes in as few notes as possible (‘I’ll name that tune
in seven’, ‘I’ll name that tune in five’ etc.). Rather than playing a record,
the tune would be played live by musicians in the broadcasting studio. If singers
were featured, they would replace the words to the song with ‘la la las’. The
show was dependent on a shared knowledge of popular hit songs. It would not
work effectively unless the contestants’ musical expertise found an echo in
that of the viewers and listeners at home. The quick familiarity of melodies
could be startling.
Melody is not our speediest musical recall,
however. We’re much faster with timbre, particularly the timbre of recordings. If
I switch on the radio and a record I know is playing, I can name that sound
within microseconds. The same is true if I’m in a club or a bar, and the DJ has
cued up a familiar record. I will know it and I can name it immediately. I’m not alone in this ability. Most of us are
startlingly fast.
One of the few times that this ability
has been captured on screen is in T2:
Trainspotting. Early in the movie, the main character, Renton, returns to
his childhood home and puts a record on the turntable. From the label we can
guess that it is Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust for Life’. He plays a tiny burst of the
record before snatching it from the turntable as he is haunted by the memories it conjures.
What is brilliant about this scene is that the filmmakers have the
confidence, not only that the cinemagoers will recognize ‘Lust for Life’ from this
brief excerpt, but also that it will take them back to the more extended use of
the same record in the original Trainspotting
movie, where it soundtracks a scene in which Renton is chased through the
streets of Edinburgh. (There is also a neat joke. In the first film the use of ‘Lust
for Life’ is non-diegetic, meaning that Renton will not have heard it himself. Somehow,
though, the record and its associations have seeped into his consciousness by
the time of the second film.)
We need more of these moments on
screen. How about a very brief quiz show called Name that Timbre? And how about pitting it against Name that Tune? The timbral contestants
would surely be quicker than the tuneful ones.
As well as being entertaining, this could help us think again about
musical hierarchies. Melody is prioritised in the law and in value
judgements generally. One of the reasons why classical music maintains its
elevated status is because it is melodically and harmonically rich in
comparison with much popular music. But popular music wins on timbre. What
then, if it is revealed that timbre is the fastest, most resonant and deeply
penetrating musical quality of all?
