TV shows reusing movie songs

There's a special on science channel called "Super massive black holes" and it's reusing music from" The Black Hole, Star Trek, Predator and a few others. It's not the first time i've found shows on history and science channel reusing scifi movie soundtracks. I just thought it was interesting.

 

For some reason, they're able to get away with it on broadcast runs. I've seen the BBC do it many times on Top Gear, they'll have music on the live broadcast, but then when the same clip or episode is released online or on a DVD or something, completely different music cues throughout. I don't know what it is.

 

I think the studios might have sold the rights to the songs because there is also a song from Last Starfighter. It's always science shows though.

 

Licensing issues. It's one thing to license the rights to a song's use on the first broadcast, another entirely to get the rights for home media distribution. Sometimes if the fees are wildly disparate they pick different music.

Perfect example is "The Wonder Years." Because of all the music in the show they weren't able to release it on DVD because of issues with licensing the music. It's now available to steam on Netflix and some other service, but with a different cover of the theme song and certain music replaced because of the issues.

As for these science shows using movie songs, maybe it's they feel there will be crossover in the audience and they do it as a nod? It's certainly more interesting than using bland source music that costs nothing. I can't imagine that licensing music from Last Star Fighter costs near as much as something recognizable from Star Trek, and may be easier in the end then actually composing original music for a cable science program.

 

I was thinking if the channels buy the rights to use in a lot of shows maybe they get a discount lol. I know that Dark Skies hit dvd with all the vintage music taken out.

 

Of course, Top Gear's music cues add to the scene and its comedy. So playing incidental from "You Only Live Twice" while James May flies a Caravan airship out of a hangar adds to its James Bondesque design. Sometimes the music gets pretty overt, other times it is subtle. The most subtle one I recall was a few years ago when Clarkson was racing a Bugatti Veyron against James and Richard in a Cessna 182 from northern Italy to London. As Clarkson drove through Switzerland, the music being played was the theme from the 1960s TV series "The Champions" (probably because the organization the characters were part of was based in Geneva, Switzerland).

As such, whomever acts as the sound and music engineer for Top Gear certainly has a good ear for music that came before and knows when to use it.

 

I'm told "American Horror Story" does this, but I think it's an intentional homage.