Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2009 September 11

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September 11

Music Lisencing Issues

In the anime Speed Grapher, the original Japanese theme song was "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran. When the anime was brought over to America, for some reason they couldn't use the song. Now, obviously they had to lisence the song in Japan in order to use it, so why didnt that contract or whatever carry it over to the US? Or, how come they just couldn't reliscence the song? If they allowed it once, why not allow it to an audience that is more familiar with them? 134.126.192.188 (talk) 02:38, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

There are plenty of reasons why the parties involved might not have been able to come to an agreement. The obvious one is that they might not have been able to agree on the money. Whoever was producing the American version was not willing to pay what Duran Duran (or whoever owns the rights to the song) was asking. I don't know the details of this case though. Rckrone (talk) 04:22, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Another possibility is that the song had already been licenced in the US for some other purpose which precluded this usage: licenses and similar legal arrangements are often specific to defined territories or markets. Compare the way that the rights to publish a book are often sold by the author to one publisher for the UK and Commonwealth and a different and unconnected publisher for the USA. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 17:24, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

That makes sense. I guess that also explains why when they use a Japanese bands song as the theme they can use it over here because it hasnt been lisenced in the US. Thanks to both of you. 134.126.192.188 (talk) 03:29, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Al who?

From a slashdot MOTD: Al didn't smile for forty years. You've got to admire a man like that. -- from "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman". Who is Al? The only thing I can think of is Al Bundy but he was unhappy for only 11 seasons. 62.78.198.48 (talk) 16:32, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

It might help to know that Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was a television show; it's probably just a line from the show that somebody found amusing. --LarryMac | Talk 16:43, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Who sings The Simpsons theme?

In The Simpsons opening credits, who sings 'The Simpsons' right at the beginning? Sam 23:03, 11 September 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by SamUK (talk • contribs)

I couldn't find the names of the female studio musicians who sing "The Siiimpsons" in harmony. Interestingly the last consonant ("s" or "zzz") might have been "sung" by Matt Groening and Danny Elfman:

"“My voice is on every episode,” Groening said. “During the theme of the show, we had a chorus of women singing ‘The Simpsons’ and it sounded like ‘The Simpson’ -- just one woman doing it, so Danny Elfman and I went into the studio and did ‘zzz’ to make it sound like more than one woman doing it.”

From an interview at Comic-Con International [1]. ---Sluzzelin talk 13:24, 13 September 2009 (UTC)