Television idents are hidden in plain sight. Their creativity is often undervalued by
industry practitioners and viewers alike, designated a ‘hidden art form’ by creative
executive Charlie Mawer (2020). The sound worlds of idents are doubly overlooked,
often ignored in visually-centric discourse on idents in industry journals and in media
and cultural studies. In the production process, composers are often peripheral to the
project, involved only towards the end. This thesis inverts such hierarchies and adopts
a sound-oriented perspective towards idents. The approach brings together previously
disparate strands across musicology, art and design history, and media studies,
aiming to highlight the value of sound in idents as well as the hitherto-neglected
creative labour of composers in the promotion of television channels. The scope is
confined mainly to the UK, examining idents produced for broadcasters and streaming
platforms between 1982 and 2022.
This thesis addresses a central question: What is the value of music and sound in
television idents? To answer this question, it combines textual analyses of idents with
evidence from practitioner interviews. Musicological concepts and theories are
employed in the analysis of idents, highlighting the aesthetic character and functions
of the music and sounds. The method of reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) applied to
the interviews produced new insights into the working environments of the composers
and their creative colleagues, exploring themes of identity, collaboration, creative
process, and artistic value.
The first three chapters set out the aim of this thesis, academic contexts, and
methodological approach respectively. Chapter 4 contains a musicological analysis of
idents, tracing transformations in the aesthetic character and roles of sound in
connection with the changing experience of watching television between 1982 and
2022. Chapter 5 expands on the arguments set out in Chapter 4 by focussing on
production contexts, unpacking themes derived from the qualitative analysis of the
interviews. Chapter 6 synthesises the conclusions and findings from Chapters 4 and
5 and discusses the commercial, artistic, and cultural value of the music and sound of
idents. This thesis culminates with an exploration of future avenues of research and
the implications of this research for practitioners and educators. In sum, this thesis
argues that the artistic labour of ident production and the valuable role of musical
creativity within this commercial and temporally constraining context deserve greater
recognition and attention
