Did you watch any online videos today? Anything on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram? How about television? The news? A reality show? If the answer to any of these is yes, you’re more familiar with “sync music” than you realize. But that’s not the same as knowing anything about it; for that, Ryan Francis Bradley takes you down the rabbit hole, and into the part of the music industry that’s as massive as it is hidden.
Sync, it’s called. Once it was known as library music; sometimes it’s called production music. It’s not really a genre. It’s a category, defined by its function: This is music that exists to be paired — synced — with video. That’s why it’s so ubiquitous. Modern American life is absolutely steeped in video, which follows us, at every hour, from TV screens to smartphones to laptops, from movies to social media rants to workplace anti-harassment training modules. The soundtrack to most of it is some form of sync. This is partly because sync tends to be the cheapest and easiest option. But it’s also because sync is specifically crafted to be cut to video — and in a time when more and more of human communication involves editing video, this stuff is rapidly becoming our dominant form of music.
More picks about musicians
Night Knowledge
“What I learned at the club.”
Jeff Mills Loves to Forget
“How techno’s most vaunted architect is still building sonic futures.”
The Ballad of Ollie Jackson
“How the baddest man int he St. Louis underworld failed to become a folk hero.”
25 Years of iPod Brain
“Changed for good.”
Ain’t It a Cold, Cold World?
“The collected stories of Blaze Foley.”
The Dude Ranch Above the Sea
“Steely Dan conjured a sealed-in-amber studio perfection—a sound that could alienate listeners as easily as seduce them.”
