Chapter 274: Behind-the-Songs
It was not the Feige-led Marvel showcase of the future with wall-wide screens and masterful organizing but... Alexander felt that it was already good given what they had.
This was still the mid-80s but they were still able to achieve somewhat of the same effect, given what they had.
As the onlooking crowd reeled and processed these continuous streams of emotion-tuggers and mindblowing reveals, Alexander just observed everything with interest.
It has pretty much what he's been doing this whole time... aside from thoughtful Comic-Con takeaways and catering to Milla's questions with answers.
Of course, this theme song reveals had been the prime reason as to why he had taken a trip to San Diego in the first place.
If it was just market research and product observations, then he could have left that job to these Creed staff on sight and he would just read a compiled report in the comfort of HQ.
However, the introduction of Creed's music and animation was quite important... and hands-on spectating is the best option that Alexander could go for.
In any case, he had a lot of involvement in the making and crafting of these songs, so seeing how it goes became higher in his priorities.
Of course, while others call it making and crafting... it is plundering and re-creating for Alexander.
Re-drafting images for the visual component was just a more complicated version of making a comic book story.
He had done this type of plundering a lot of times and he mostly just relegated the Miyazaki-trained animation team to do the rest.
Music was a completely different beast and way too complex to plunder though
It’s just a matter of his enhanced memory and lyrical intuition to plunder the lyrics and the way those lyrics are sung.
However, the notes, the scores, and the instrumentals were completely different matters. Alexander knew codes and commands… but not a lot about time signatures, timings, and whatnot.
He may have fooled everyone with his "music acumen" by being able to "master basics after one seating"... but that doesn't necessarily translate to being able to make the song.
Simply put, he knows the lyrics and it could be said that he knows the song but he didn't know the nuances that would truly make it.
Fortunately, some professionals can cover that part.
It was a good thing that his grandfather hired the necessary experts and that is what led up to everything in this Comic-Con theme song showcase.
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A TMNT opening theme from plundering TMNT 2012's version. Considered by many as a cut above the rest, including Alexander. It may be filled with rappy hip and hop from the 2010s but it should fit well enough compared to the other TMNT songs he had come across.
For TMNT's closing theme, he plundered the cleaner 1980s version that was made for the later seasons. This is also a throwback to the classic itself but he didn't like the campiness of the 'true' original, so he went with the other oldy iteration.
A blend of classic nostalgia and modern was what Alexander was going for… and if everything goes well… these songs would be synonymous with the entire TMNT franchise.
Of course, to further his creative involvement in all of this... he had actually lent his untrained vocals for it. In all honesty, he had jumped the trail on this one since a little music career shouldn’t be that bad. It’s a matter of seeing where everything would move forward from there though… as he still wasn’t fully on board.
The whole exposure thing wasn’t what he wants but there are examples of musicians being able to keep their anonymity. The possibilities may have opened up.
Still, theme songs for animation shows are acceptable for now.
Granted, Alexander wasn’t exactly singing alone in this one as the Turtles' corresponding VAs provided their accompanying singing voices. The TMNT theme songs have a band-like, ninja group-like, team-like feel to them, so that’s what they went with.
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Of course, given that he was Goku's VA... he took all the singing mantle for Mystical Adventure.
As opposed as he was to being a VA... singing songs was clearly much more intriguing for him.
In any case, the plundering of this Dragonball theme was also another something to single out.
It mostly had to do with how to deal with Japanese properties.
Mystical Adventure may have an English version that he knew... but Marafushigi Adventure was it's original.
This leads to an interesting thought on how he'd go about plundering the theme songs of the Japan-based properties he has Americanized.
Still, the essence of the Japanese originals can't be discounted. Too bad that Alexander never really learned Japanese and just skipped anime openings and closings when he can.
Fortunately, he had gone down the rabbit hole of typing [English version] to every anime song he had come across in the past timeline and should have enough memory of those translated song covers to access.
Through a wicked twist of fate, perhaps the Japanese originals of the old timeline would the ones that become translated iterations in this timeline. Oh, how the tables have turned.
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Granted, there was still one Dragonball song to cover in his thoughts... but that thing mostly involved little Milica Jovovich.
Of course, to his side was a little girl who was wiping the teardrops that traced her cheeks. The reason for her tears is most probably being swept by the motions and the emotions.
Although, the most probable reason should be the fact that she sang the last song.
Alexander had been the one to suggest a singing career for her and 'I'll Give You Romance' was what resulted from that.
He had been quite ambivalent when it came to this though. Milla had been the one going to singing lessons, however, he was actually the one that was able to spearhead 3 out of the 4 songs.
If he wanted, he could have let her sing all of them... but the integrity and man-theme of the other songs would be compromised if she were to sing them.
Of course, if he were to go with integrity more… Cocky Cox should have been the one to sing ‘I’ll Give You Romance’ since she’s the Bulma VA and the accompanying VA is Bulma-themed. However, it also works out as well since the song’s romanticism was reflective of Bulma’s girly side, and having a girl voice was more than enough.
In any case, while the TMNT opening/closing and Dragonball's Mystical Adventure were acceptable as animations bops, her song still stood at a higher quality due to Milla’s singing skills and well-worth singing lessons.
Seeing that she was still tearing up, Alexander asked. "Milla, are you okay?"
"It's nothing." She sniffled her nose. "The song you gave me... it means a lot."
Her star dreams were finally taking shape. Of course, with her newfound appreciation of it.
It had to be said that this dream of hers has mostly been from the urging and following the footsteps of her mother. She could even say that it was spurned from seeing Alex always busy, so she was being jealously spiteful or even competitive about it.
However, seeing hundreds of people react to the song she sang seems to have a pretty profound impact on her.
She can't really explain it but it felt good to see people enjoy her work. Maybe this was what being a star was all about?
In any case, the way the crowd reveled in the meaning of the songs got her thinking as well.
When she got the song lyrics, she was just ecstatic to memorize and sing it. She was just a little naive girl that didn't go in-depth with it.
Why doesn't she do what they're doing as well? She could probably do better since she's the one that truly sang the song.
"I'll give you romance. I'll give you paradise. Liberate the "you" that you keep inside."
As she hummed these lyrical excerpts, she ruminated and somehow related it to how Alex made it specifically for her.
"Romance. Isn't that love?" Milla was enlightened. "Liberating the "you" that you keep inside, doesn't that connect to how Alex is always keeping his emotions to himself?"
"The song truly means a lot. I was just stupid to see it." Milla turned to the boy beside her for clarification. "Doesn't that mean love will set you free from the cold and bland robot that you are? Is that what you were trying to tell me when you wrote the song?”
“Oh my gosh!” Milla seems to have stars in her eyes as she hurriedly asked. “Does that mean you..."
"Yeah, it's a no to whatever you're going for." Alexander had to stop her before it gets weird. He had just about enough of his plundered works being overblown with deep assumptions.
He literally just plundered that song because it is what it is. It's the classic closing for the classic Dragonball show and that's it.
The Japanese originals must have some Toriyama depths there but Alexander didn't really care as long as he had an Americanized placeholder song to close every episode off.
Granted, these deep overthinking does raise the value of something superficial but he found that it leads to misunderstandings such as this.
Milla felt slumped and stumped but she still asked. "Then, what is it about then?"
"It's just a song about romance and adventure." Alexander took that from One Piece's Romance Dawn. It is said that Oda's prior identification with romance has been the love for adventure after all.
"If there's something that you want to think deeply about, then I suggest you look into TMNT video's moon and Dragonball's sun." Alexander had much more interest in the coincidence of that.
"The sun and the moon." He uttered as he thought about the solar eclipse and the fascination of his ancestry with it.
Creed Entertainment has been built from the interest of fostering a family legacy and it was great to see projects that call back to whatever fascination the Creeds of old had with the phenomena.
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Behind every song, there are different stories and meanings to take away from it. The road to creation and craft is a journey after all.
As it turns out, aside from the blatant plagiarism behind it, these Creed music videos and theme songs were rife with “behind-the-song” stuff as well.