Stage & Screen  •  Television Music

Cartoon Music

The history of Cartoon Music centers primarily around the work of composer/arranger Carl Stalling, who served as the musical director at the famed Warner Bros. animation studios for two decades. Frenzied and impassioned, Stalling's work broke new ground by following the visual trajectory of the on-screen action instead of the accepted rules of composition. The result -- a technique not anchored in conventional senses of time, rhythm, or thematic development -- was unprecedented in its extremism, as melody, style, and form crashed together in a glorious pile-up of sound and image perfectly attuned to the crazed imagery it underscored. Stalling's WB music created the basic formula which cartoon scores continue to follow even today, although from the rock era onward, more conventional pop songs have also played a key role in animated productions as well. Many series (like Josie & the Pussycats and Jabberjaw) have focused on fictional rock bands, while latter-day Disney productions have featured scores by pop stars including Elton John and Phil Collins.