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Lexicon: OST

The music used in a show. This includes background music, mood music, and opening and ending theme music. For longer TV series, there is often too much music to release on a single media (CD), so several OSTs will be released often called, or referred to as, OST1, OST2, and so on...

Typically, shows only use a portion of any particular piece of music, however the OST generally will contain the entire piece, giving fans an opportunity to listen to the music in its entirety.

Often times a show only uses a portion of a song, a typical song lasts 3 to 5 minutes, however the a show might only need to use 60 seconds of that, the OST release offers people a chance to hear the entire songs.

I don't actually colelct or extensively listen to OSTs, someone was just telling me that they typicly contain half of a piece of music, not the entire piece.

The music used in a show. This includes background music, mood music, and opening and ending theme music. For longer TV series, there is often too much music to release on a single media (CD), so several OSTs will be released often called, or referred to as, OST1, OST2, and so on...

Typically, due to time restrictions, shows only use a portion of any particular piece of music, however the OST generally will contain the entire piece, giving fans an opportunity to listen to the music in its entirety.

Image Albums contain music composed on the basis of screenplay, long before anime production begins. The composer reads through the outline of the story, and composes music based on his / her feeling and imagination. Many scores from Image Albums will be incorporated into OST after being revised to match the animation.

Anime OSTs and Image Albums have long been very heavilly bootlegged. Up until recently, very few OSTs were licensed in North America, and imports from Japan are quite expensive. Demand, resulting from the growing popularity of anime, and the lack of a legitimate, affordable supply, resulted in a market that was very attractive and open to bootlegging. Even now (2004) the majority of anime OSTs are not licensed in North America and illegal copies of the Japanese OST releases continue to be widely available.

Just a small suggestion: Could you put (BGM) after background music in the second line? It's a fairly common abbreviation and might help those that don't know what BGM means without giving it its own entry.

tempest wrote:

I don't actually colelct or extensively listen to OSTs, someone was just telling me that they typicly contain half of a piece of music, not the entire piece.

A typical OP / ED theme for a half hour TV series is 90 seconds, so most songs have to be cut short.

Right, and could we also please make mention of incidental music (IM)? Hmm...I've seen IM called "featured songs", too - but that's not really common.

- abunai

abunai wrote:

Right, and could we also please make mention of incidental music (IM)? Hmm...I've seen IM called "featured songs", too - but that's not really common. - abunai

Hmm, I'm actually not familiar with IMs myself. Would this be music that is featured on a soundtrack without actually being in a show or movie? Or are these like the bonus albums that are made solely for the show without actually being in the show, like the Ranma 1/2 Song Calendar and what not?

Emerje

You mean insert songs? That's what I call them, anyway. Yes, .hack//SIGN is full of them. I like to categorize this more as a vocal piece that one can hear during the course of an episode, rather than comparing them to full version opening and ending theme songs.

But to add on to what you're saying, abunai, "insert" songs that I can point out from //SIGN include:

"Key of the Twilight"
"Fake Wings"
"Aura"
"Open Your Heart"
(etc.)

Songs of that nature, right?

The music used in a show. This includes background music, mood music, incidental music and opening and ending theme music. For longer TV series, there is often too much music to release on a single media (CD), so several OSTs will be released often called, or referred to as, OST1, OST2, and so on...

Typically, due to time restrictions, shows only use a portion of any particular piece of music, however the OST generally will contain the entire piece, giving fans an opportunity to listen to the music in its entirety.

There are however exceptiosn, some OSTs only contain "TV-size potions" of the music, and some OSTs don't contain certain pieces of music, including on occasion, the theme songs. Lack of the theme song generally has to do with licensing restrictions.

Image Albums contain music composed on the basis of screenplay, long before anime production begins. The composer reads through the outline of the story, and composes music based on his / her feeling and imagination. Many scores from Image Albums will be incorporated into OST after being revised to match the animation.

Anime OSTs and Image Albums have long been very heavilly bootlegged. Up until recently, very few OSTs were licensed in North America, and imports from Japan are quite expensive. Demand, resulting from the growing popularity of anime, and the lack of a legitimate, affordable supply, resulted in a market that was very attractive and open to bootlegging. Even now (2004) the majority of anime OSTs are not licensed in North America and illegal copies of the Japanese OST releases continue to be widely available.


Theme Music: Insertt definition here

Background Music (BGM): Insertt definition here

Incidental Music (IM): Insertt definition here

It really doesn't matter whether we call them one or the other ("incidental music", "insert songs", "featured songs" or whatever), just so long as we agree on an acceptable abbreviation for the term, to match OP and ED and BGM. That being the case, I've actually seen the IM abbreviation in use on many occasions, so I suggest that we stick with that one, unless you know of a common usage for abbreviating "insert songs".

What exactly would be the difference between IM and BGM?

I take it the IM is more "featured" , and not just something that happens in the background?

tempest wrote:

What exactly would be the difference between IM and BGM?

Well, if you want to go by the definition I gave for Incidental/Insert Music, I guess you could say it's more featured than BGM. A majority of IM is usually vocal or lyrical, whereas most BGM is just instrumental.