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Behind the Music

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This article is about the television series. For the album by The Soundtrack of Our Lives, see Behind the Music (album).
Behind the Music
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes208
Production
Running time60-90 minutes
Production companiesGay Rosenthal Productions
VH1
Paramount Television (select episodes)
Viacom International
Original release
NetworkVH1
ReleaseAugust 17, 1997 –
present

Behind the Music is a television series on VH1. The series places its generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became successful and what hardships they undertook. On September 6, 2012, VH1 announced that the show's fifteenth season would premiere on Sunday, September 16 with an episode profiling band Train. Other new subjects include Toni Braxton, Carrie Underwood, Gym Class Heroes, Nicole Scherzinger, and Ne-Yo. T.I. and Pink will have their specials updated.[1]

Premise

Each show focuses on a musician or musical group, documenting both the successes of the musicians and the problems they faced during their careers. Except for the first two episodes (which focused on Milli Vanilli and M.C. Hammer), all programs are narrated by Jim Forbes. Forbes was later used to narrate the Milli Vanilli episode when it was modified to include the death of Rob Pilatus. The UK airings of the episodes focusing on Thin Lizzy and Genesis were narrated by Mary Anne Hobbs while Forbes narrated the US airings.

VH1's criterion for choosing the musicians who appear on the show is, in many cases, to profile those who are no longer in the music industry, or were moderately significant in rock history. This is as opposed to VH1's other biography show, VH1's Legends, which profiles musicians that have been very significant to the industry. However, there are some artists that were profiled on both Behind The Music and Legends, including Tina Turner, Elton John, The Who (although their Behind the Music exclusively focused on their drummer Keith Moon), John Lennon (although Behind The Music exclusively focused on the months and days leading to his murder in 1980) and Pink Floyd (although their Behind the Music was the U.S. airing of the BBC produced documentary Behind the Wall in June 2000). The Pink Floyd: Behind the Wall documentary focused mainly on the making of the band's 1979 album The Wall, the concert shows that went with it and the making of the Pink Floyd—The Wall movie and features no narrator.

Another episode of Behind the Music on KISS was re-christened KISS: Beyond the Makeup in July 2001 (which was 2 hours in length). This featured Matt Pinfield, formerly of MTV's 120 Minutes, as narrator instead of Jim Forbes.

Behind the Music came to be after Paul Gallagher and George Moll produced a one-hour special entitled Dying in Vein which first aired on VH1 in December 1996. While Dying in Vein was a magazine style show, its approach to storytelling served as the prototype for Behind the Music.

A short-lived half-hour spin-off series titled BTM2 (short for Behind the Music 2), chronicled the careers of newer upcoming artists.

Rap musician Vanilla Ice's episode is the highest rated to date.

A spin-off titled Behind the Music: Remastered on VH1 Classic airs the updated original episodes with new interviews, footage and the later half of the artist's career. Motörhead and Deep Purple are the only all-original Remastered episodes despite not having a Behind the Music episode.

Musicians

The following is a list of artists who have appeared in episodes of the series:

Other features

Other than musicians, some episodes were documentaries on musical events, films, and non-musicians who were influential on the music world. The following appeared in episodes of the series:

In film

  • In the movie Josie and the Pussycats, it is explained that Behind the Music was created as a result of how bands are "dealt with" if they discover the fact they are involved in the government's subliminal message program.

In music

In television

  • Adult Swim's Robot Chicken did a skit where the Muppet band, The Electric Mayhem, was profiled on Behind the Music.
  • In the made for television film A Diva's Christmas Carol starring Vanessa L. Williams, the character of Ebony Scrooge watches her own episode near the end. This episode, filling the role as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, chronicles the life and tragic death in an ominous manner to force Ebony to change her ways.
  • In the Duck Dodgers episode "In Space, No One Can Hear You Rock", Dodgers plays a recorded episode of "Behind The Metal" about Dave Mustaine which is a parody of the Megadeth episode of "Behind the Music".
  • In the Family Guy episode "The Thin White Line", Brian explains to his psychiatrist, "You wanna know how pathetic my life is?" I've seen that 'Behind the Music' with Leif Garrett eighteen times." A subsequent cutaway gag is shown with a briefly shown animated recreation of the episode, and then cuts to Brian on the couch lip-synching to the dialogue.
  • In the Friends episode "The One With The Joke", Chandler tells Joey, "Dude, you have got to turn on Behind The Music. The band Heart is having a really tough time, and I think they may break up."
  • An episode of The Man Show showed a parody of Behind the Music with the band Korn, called Beneath the Music. It showed the two hosts as ex-member of the band but later being kicked out because of their antics.
  • A late episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 features a skit parodying Behind the Music about an unnamed band featured in that episode's movie, "Track of the Moon Beast"; the writers christened them "The Band That Played 'California Lady'", after the apparent title of the song they performed in the film.
  • Saturday Night Live's "More cowbell" sketch was a fictitious episode profiling Blue Öyster Cult.
  • The show was parodied on the South Park episode "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow". As well as the episode "Chef Aid: Behind the Menu", which also featured Jim Forbes as narrator.
  • On the show Still Standing, Bill and his sister-in-law's new boyfriend sit in a bar and watch part of an episode of Behind The Music.
  • An episode of What's New, Scooby-Doo? had a spoof of the show, called Rewind the Music.
  • The Simpsons episode Behind the Laughter was done in the style of Behind the Music. It even used the show's theme music and narrator.
  • South Park episode Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow parodied Behind the music as Behind the Blow with a similar style of Behind the Music.
  • An episode of The Jamie Foxx Show Season 4, Episode 16 had a spoof of the show, called "Behind the Jingle"

Online

  • The show is also the base for the running parody Behind the Music that Sucks, which has been produced by Internet humor site Heavy.com since 1998.
  • The flash animation collaboration based on the Super Mario franchise, Bowser's Kingdom on Newgrounds.com parodied Behind the Music in the tenth episode Bowser's Kingdom: Behind the Kingdom.
  • In order to promote his full-length film, internet comedian Stuart Ashen released a parody called Behind the Tat.

See also

References

  1. ^ Black, Elizabeth. "Behind The Music Celebrates 15th Anniversary Season With 8 New Episodes Featuring Carrie Underwood, Toni Braxton, Train, And More". VH1. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  2. ^ Hibberd, James. "Lil' Wayne, Scott Weiland on Board for VH1's Revived 'Behind The Music'". billboard.com. March 19, 2009.
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