Hi,
Continuing with the 1980s electronic music theme and with appreciation of the great stash of videos at Dailymotion, this post is about the Miami Vice TV show and the music featured in it.
So, the story I've heard about the origin of the Miami Vice TV show was that back in the mid 80s, a clever TV executive at NBC named Brandon Tartikoff came up with the idea to do a hip and cool show about cops, selling it as "MTv Cops". As you may know, it went on to become a big hit show, and aside from the look and style of it, the popular music of the times was prominently featured in it. One thing that was memorable about the style of the show was that the two stars of the show wore some slick suits and outfits, often in light and pastel colors, in line with the tropical setting of the show in Miami. I distinctly remember one day back in the 8th grade when two of my classmates both came into school wearing pastel colored suits a la Miami Vice. Not only that, one of them was Caucasian and one was African American, echoing the ethnicities of two stars of the show, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. It's such a hoot to think that they may have each already had clothes like that and then planned to come in together like that. So 80s!
So, but back to the music, to my mind, there are two songs in particular that are synonymous with the show and what follow are some musing about them. The first song is the shows' opening theme song by Jan Hammer, kind of an obvious choice. There might be a guitar on the recording but otherwise I think it was created entirely from synthesized sounds. The recording may in fact be the highpoint in the life of that uniquely 80s musical instrument, the keytar. The keytar is a keyboard with a strap, worn like guitar, instead of being placed on a stand, thus giving the player the mobility to move around. From looking at the second video below it looks like Jan used it in a way that sounds more like a guitar than a keyboard.
I've got two clips for this theme song, the first being the TV shows' memorable opening credits montage, and the second being the full length version of the theme song that features Jan and clips from the show. Being that I was like 12 or 13 when I first saw the show, I must also admit that part of what makes the opening credits clip so memorable is that clip that is a close up of the chest of a woman in the bikini top walking past with a bit of bounce in her step that syncs up with the tom-tom drum fill in the music. Nothing like a breast shot to catch a horny teenager's eye!!
Regarding the second song, if you watched the show, you'll probably guess that the second song I'm going to present is In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins. I'm pretty sure Phil did not write this with Miami Vice in mind, but it's use in the show set against Crockett and Tubbs driving through the streets of Miami at night as they prepare to face the bad guys is pretty iconic. I know the director Michael Mann was involved in the shows back then, so I'm guessing he may been behind these scenes because they seem very much in his style.
I also want to mention that In The Air Tonight also makes heavy use of synthesizers and was a notable recording to feature the recording studio technique of recording the drum part used gated reverb. Gated reverb was a very popular technique to record drums parts back in the 80s, and basically it means that the drums are recorded in such as way as to sound punchy when first hit but then rapidly cut off as the sound fades.
Hope you enjoy.
Opening credits for the Miami Vice TV show
Full length music video for the theme song
Clip from the show featuring In The Air Tonight
Full length music video for In The Air Tonight
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