The Magic of Jeremy Zuckerman

in #article6 years ago (edited)


Happy Thursday, Steemit!

I won't bore you with the details but I've been away for a bit making a visit to Pismo Beach, CA. It was on my way down to Pismo that I was struck by the topic for my next non-fiction editorial as I listened to my playlist of cinematic and soundtrack music. So, today I want to share with you my thoughts about Jeremy Zuckerman's work as composer for the Nickelodeon show The Legend of Korra.

History

The Legend of Korra is set in the universe of Nickelodeon's hit original Avatar: The Last Airbender and follows protagonist Korra on her journey to becoming the Avatar: master of four styles of elemental manipulation called Bending (Air, Water, Earth and Fire). Where the original show was aimed for a young audience, it is praised for its willingness to dive deep into story-driven plot, the uniqueness of the world and excellent character development (culminating in one of the most significant redemption arcs of all time). The Legend of Korra knew its audience as the matured fans of The Last Airbender and so it met them with a comparably more mature plot and style.

Though The Legend of Korra never escaped the shadow of its predecessor, some of its strongest points were consistently complex villains, intentional exploration of moral and heroic values, and progressive themes. The Legend of Korra was one of the first mainstream stories on a major media source to openly and willingly portray a LGBT relationship on the screen, although that fact single-handedly caused its removal from broadcast television for its final season. The world of The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are far from dead, however, with comic books and a live-action The Last Airbender re-boot scheduled for release on Netflix in the coming years.

The Music

Jeremy Zuckerman composed the music for both shows, creating iconic themes and motifs that are woven through the very fabric of the experience that is watching either show. Fans of the show can often nearly-verbatim quote the opening narration from either show upon hearing the iconic Opening Suite. Mirroring the thematic elements of each show, his work on The Last Airbender was light and suited for less-dramatic situations while that in The Legend of Korra is dark, grand and epic. Because The Legend of Korra was less well-received however, the nuances of Zuckerman's work in the second show are easily lost.

There are three key elements that set apart Zuckerman's work.

  • Use of non-traditional score instruments and rhythm
  • Creation of a style of music to fit the world and period of the show
  • Use of music to tell a story parallel with the visual narrative
Non-Traditional Instruments

Because both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra's worlds have ties to real-world Asian culture, with each type of elemental Bending being rooted in a martial-art form, many of the instruments used in the composition of The Legend of Korra's soundtrack are traditional Western instruments like the Erhu and Guzheng. Understanding how to craft orchestral music together is difficult enough without throwing learning the nuances of new instruments on top of that but Zuckerman leveraged his time working on The Last Airbender well in The Legend of Korra, stepping up his game.

Additionally, Zuckerman composed tracks that were not locked to a single time-signature (an uncommon practice in modern film). It's highly noticeable on the track "Republic City Under Attack", where the rhythm alternates between 4/4 and 3/4 as the track progresses. Have a listen below.

Couple that with the first and what you have is a technically impressive musical score that highlights Zuckerman's skill as a composer. However, that's not all that sets Zuckerman's work apart.

Creation of a Style

The Legend of Korra's music is a mashup of traditional western sounds and what can be described as a vaudeville/early 20's style. The result is a sound that perfectly matches the industrial revolution that the world is undergoing during the time of the show. It's most prominent in some of the filler tracks from slower moments of the show, like Hittin' on All Sixes or Asami and Mako Dine.

The first two points come together to reinforce my final point.

Use of Music to Tell a Story

Non-traditional instruments from the world, an imagined and realized 'industrial revolution' style of music, ebb and flow to track that follows the action on screen. Jeremy Zuckerman didn't just write music to accompany a visual work, he wrote music to compliment and strengthen the visuals, an achievement that is increasingly rare in the film industry. With tracks being mass-produced using musical tropes and cliches, big-budget blockbusters don't have the time or concern for the nuances of music that film and TV labor-of-love works do. Every Marvel movie sounds the same when you get down to the nuts and bolts of the music (with the exception of Black Panther).

Conclusion

The Legend of Korra's soundtrack is phenomenal and you should listen to it. Additionally, if you haven't ever seen The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra, stop what you're doing, and go watch them.

Like, now.

Seriously.

While The Legend of Korra doesn't rise to the same level of quality of storytelling and worldbuilding as The Last Airbender, it still has its redeeming qualities and is a worthwhile watch. Make sure to keep a tuned ear out for the work of Jeremy Zuckerman in both shows, too, as you won't be disappointed.

That's all for now. Until next time!

~ Mako



Thanks for reading!

Check out my most recent posts here:
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Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by Mako from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

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Hi makowrites,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.

Hello. Some weeks ago I posted some content and you downvoted it, why?

The writing in that content was plagiarized from Wikipedia. Hence the downvote. Don't plagiarize.

~ Mako

"if you haven't ever seen The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra, stop what you're doing, and go watch them.

Like, now.

Seriously."

me, talking to my friends ... all the time hahahah
Just remembering the visual richness of "Beginnings pt. 1 and 2" makes me want to see it again. Being honest I don't remember much that I've been hooked with the sound, of course i was very small when I saw it, maybe now that I have a little more years on me I can appreciate it in all its aspects.

They're such excellent shows and a lot of people never watched them. I didn't grow up with them like proper fans, I'm late to the party by most counts but I think getting to watch them with a technical eye as an adult helped my experience along. They're so good.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Mako

So the bad news is that the youtube videos won't play for me. Might be where I'm currently at (I'm in New Zealand). The good news is that I was able to find the tracks on Spotify and DAMN have you got me pumped to watch this show. I've heard a lot about The Last Airbender and it's always good things but I've never seen it. Throwing it on tonight (if it's available on Netflix). The music has me pumped hahaha like I feel like I could work out to it or something. It's like warrior music. Republic City Under Attack is SOO dope. I just love it so much.

Jeremy Zuckerman has got some mad talent. Thank you so much for sharing this with me and everyone else. I'm stoked to have discovered it. It's such a cool mix of styles. I'm a big gamer and movie fan and it's got some fantastic stuff that I'd love to see played out visually.

Thanks again for sharing! Cheers!

You won't be disappointed in the shows. I'm over 40 and still like them, but I like anime and DragonBall as well. I think that they only have a Netflix live action of the Last Air Bender. I think they have both on Amazon video but they are not included with their prime membership. (We have bought them...)

Awesome. Well I'll be sure to figure out a way I can view them. I used to watch Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z with my brother. I'm a nerd and still love watching cartoons so I'm sure it'll be right up my alley. I'll snoop around and see where I can find it. Practically listened to the entire Legend of Korra soundtrack by now and I'm loving every song.

Hi @jocqua!

Definitely start with The Last Airbender! Unfortunately as @coinsandchains pointed out it's off of its Amazon Prime run, but it's well worth purchasing digitally or physically. Best to get the unadulterated version before they attempt the live-action Netflix reboot in a few years while you can.

The Legend of Korra is different than The Last Airbender, so keep a healthy mind going into it. While it follows The Last Airbender, it's an entirely different show with a different period and different problems. Less "world-ending, genuinely evil, voiced by Mark Hamill" bad guy and more "people who think they're doing the right thing" bad guy. Rather than seeing how Korra's going to impact the world's problems, watch the show for how the world's problems are going to impact her. It will make your viewing experience more positive.

Cheers to you!

~ Mako

Great suggestion, @makowrites! I'll keep that in mind as I go into it. I legitimately have been listening to the sound track on repeat though. I think it's really fantastic. And I love those 20's style songs you were talking about that pop up. They're so good!

Also available on iTunes! I just found out. Honestly I'm gonna check with my brother first because he might already own them hahaha He loves this kind of stuff. Thanks again!

lol, I love both shows. I'm probably a little old for them but I've always been a martial arts fan. My kids watched both shows as they were growing up, and you are right they knew their audience. To me the music was great in both shows, and Zuckerman seemed to mature with the kids and the shows.

Dang, I wish I would have read this earlier today, before I wrote the #steemusarandom post. I had to answer a question what book, movie or show would you want to live in. This would have probably been high on the list... Dude congrats on the Curie vote too, I just noticed it while I was typing... those are always nice.

Hey @coinsandchains, thanks for stopping by! I'm only 24, but my fiancé and I already know that our kids will grow up with a healthy love of Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph as well as Korra and her gang.

There are few animated shows that know their audience as well as ATLA and TLOK do (though I might do a piece on Star Wars: The Clone Wars in the future for that reason exactly). When I first watched Korra at 21 I didn't feel like it was below my level which was nice. The villains have motivation and complexity (except for Unalok, we don't talk about Unalok) and that makes each season compelling to watch unfold, even if the primary characters are overall relatively flat or static.

Cheers to you!

~ Mako

Well dang it, I guessed wrong on the photo.... I should have went with the gut...

Didn't know you had it in you to make such detailed reviews. I was under the impression your blogs were all about your post apocalyptic world ._.

You'd be surprised. If I know something, I can talk about it. Don't ever get me started on Halo!

~ Mako

Oh, please mako, do some Halo review! You write so good!

Perhaps sometime! If I did, what would you want me to write about?

~ Mako

Now you gave such an amazing review and I was so looking forward to watching the video AND it doesn't work :) Can you please check it? I was however able to find some videos on youtube and it's amazing! I can imagine this music easily in a big theater for a great play as well (I don't know which videos you shared but the ones that I've seen :))

I haven't heard of The Legend of Korra before but it might be because we don't have Nickelodeon :( My father in law loves the channel and I will ask him if he's heard about it.

I'm still listening to this music. It's fantastic! So very different to what I am used to. Thank you for introducing Jeremy Zuckerman to me! From now on I'll listen to his music very often :)

They’re region locked apparently, New Zealand can’t watch them and apparently there are other places too.

~ Mako

Oh, now I understand that. It's so silly that they lock it..

The legend of Korraaaaaaa, I loved that anime series, I think the villain gave a very interesting touch to the story for being incognito. I did not know who created the music in this series, now I know that his name is Jeremy Zuckerman. The melody with which she starts is fantastic, I remember having played her on guitar with my classmates at the music school. I loved this publication, thank you very much for this information.

Thanks for coming by!

~ Mako

Hi @makowrites, I saw the legend of korra.

i like the detail with which you have exposed the genius of zuckerman, in that sense you yourself have hit the nail on the head, the legend of korra is a jewel of modern television not only for its music but also in the style of animation which was with a palette of colors very different from that of avatar and effects equally. it adapted very much the times, the industrial revolution and the most ancient era, and there is the fabulous point for the composer. the composer. i like the detail with which you have exposed the genius of zuckerman, in that sense you have hit the nail, the legend of korra is a jewel of modern television not only for its music but also in the style of animation which was with a palette of colors very different from that of avatar and effects equally. it adapted very much the times, the industrial revolution and the most ancient era, and there is the fabulous point for the composer.

curious that the subject of the LGTB was spoken within the script and although it caused rejections, today it seems something more digestible. it would be interesting to study not only Korra for having played this subject but also to review other productions that did the same.

I liked very much the precise and technical way in which you have dealt with the subject of music, you are absolutely right to say that the X-men sound the same in all their films, not just them much of the cinema. it is as if they produce rushed to keep the market flooded with productions and neglect other technical details such as music. and the different lines of intensity that can generate in the viewer.

Thank you for sharing interesting musical advances.

greetings, peace and love

Hello @arrozymangophoto!

Thanks for stopping by, I'm glad you enjoyed the article.

Cheers!

~ Mako

Thank you for the review, I remember the time when Avatar cartoon came up in Nickelodeon my son was 5 that time and he loved it, it is amazing that with the years he grew, Avatar movie came up on screen and also the games. I remember how he and his friends were writing the other adventure for Avatar, like a continuation for next movie, that was when they were 8 y.o. As to Legends of Kora I have never heard it although myself I am not a fan of any computer games, but I also did not hear from my son. That sound track is really amazing, I love the traditional instruments, rich orchestra sounds and there is really something special, something vast, calling for adventure

Howdy there makowrites! This is such an interesting review, I've never seen a review about music producer for movies so this was very unique. I love the detail descriptions and explanations about the movies which the music was made for and they music itself, this was so well written!

Congratulations on the well deserved curie vote too! Are you doing more music reviews or perhaps movie reviews?

Hi @janton!

I’m not sure, I watch a lot of video essays on film so I don’t have a lot to say that hasn’t already been said somewhere. Music though, especially film and TV, though, that I can talk about. Games too. I’ve tossed around the idea of breaking down the Halo franchise and why the storytelling is excellent. I do hope you’ll stick around!

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Mako

howdy today makowrites! well I think your reviews will be great no matter what type you talk about!