Logarithmic History and the Music of “The Simpsons”
Durrell Bowman, Ph.D.; IASPM-US, 2006

The animated-and often satirical-television show “The Simpsons” emerged as a half-hour weekly series in December of 1989. Its highly differentiated characters and storylines provide a wealth of source material for addressing various worldviews and situations. The show has won numerous awards, while also garnering a fairly heavy amount of scholarly attention-including books on philosophy, religion, ideology, and sociology. However, “The Simpsons” also provides a very rich site for potentially developing the musical/cultural literacy of its viewers. Over the course of about 365 episodes, the creative team of “The Simpsons” has used music in five primary ways: (1) over 700 references to existing, “external” music; (2) about 250 uses of original songs and/or lyrics (including brief fragments); (3) several dozen opening- and end-title variations of the show’s main theme, (4) probably at least 5,000 background instrumental music cues, and (5) over 100 musicians as special guests. On page 2 of the handout (included at the end of this version of the paper), I list these musicians-who comprise a substantial 28% of the show’s guests. However, to stress an irreverent attitude to the music industry, the show has lambasted the Grammy Awards a number of times.

Music in “The Simpsons” inscribes an update of the way music functioned culturally in the classic short cartoons of the 1940s, ’50s, and early ’60s. Millions of people heard pop song standards, jazz, opera, and/or classical music for the first time when these cartoons appeared on television in the 1970s and ’80s. In the 1990s and 2000s, a similar number of people heard certain types of music for the first time on “The Simpsons.” The show has facilitated a broad exposure to music. However, I am less certain about the extent to which most of the show’s viewers would necessarily understand the majority of its extremely wide uses of-and contexts for-music.

The show’s music includes Danny Elfman’s quirky, largely-orchestral theme from 1989. It channels the style of classic, 1960s’ “fun” themes for primetime animated TV shows-such as “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons.” However, it also relates to his own past of elaborate compositional arrangements as leader of the Los Angeles-based group Oingo Boingo. Here’s an excerpt from Boingo’s 1981 “new wave” rock song “Nasty Habits,” written and sung by Elfman. The song’s modal, gestural, and orchestrational aspects strongly suggest that he had already fully formed his style by the very early 1980s-and that he later only re-applied it to television and film music. [play] Elfman’s “Simpsons” theme, though ubiquitous, is his sole contribution to the music of “The Simpsons.” However, you may remember the show’s similar continuity with earlier television music from such episodes as 1993’s “Marge vs. the Monorail.” It includes an homage to the 1960 opening-titles theme of “The Flintstones.” [play] Similarly, the 1997 episode “Lisa’s Sax” includes an homage to the 1970 opening-titles theme of the TV sitcom “All in the Family.” Specifically, it transfers Archie and Edith’s nostalgia for the 1930s and ’40s from the point-of-view of the 1970s to Homer and Marge’s nostalgia for the 1970s from the point-of-view of the 1990s. Their personalities and voices also fit perfectly. [Read the entire article here.]

Durrell Bowman
Ph.D. in Musicology (UCLA, 2003)
Lecturer in Musicology (UCLA, 2007-08)
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