Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Sound of Music: Podcast Themes

For a random sidebar...

What are some favourite podcast themes? No, not the content per se, but the catchy bumpers at the beginning and end of the casts.

Some thoughts on podcasts on my playlist:

  • I'm a guitar fan so the theme at Software Engineering is a winner, and the inspiration for this post. The music is punchy, upbeat, and they always seem to fade it in and out just right. By the way, this week's guest is Anders Hejlsberg.
  • I really like the end theme/outro for Java Posse. The retro synthesized voice is delightful. The famous opener is sufficiently catchy and irritating to burrow deep into your consciousness, which is really the point.
  • Man, the band phoned it in for CNet's Buzz Out Loud. The theme is musically bankrupt, and they barely let it play, which may be merciful. However, I'm always suckered in by Molly Wood's brisk whirl through the subtitle "podcasts of indeterminate length". Nice.
  • For the Google Developer Podcast, the immediate opening isn't for me: it's punchy but something is not quite there. But when the wah guitar kicks and the woman begins to sing, I'm completely on board. Great voice and a cool vibe. The fade in is very erratic in terms of length, but at least they give the tune lots of space as the outro.
Yours?

1 comment:

phil varner said...

Now I'm going to have "java, java, java java jing jing jing" stuck in my head all night.