The First Transformers Theme Was WILDLY Confusing

[@CharlesCornellStudios]

In celebration of the randomly awesome success of this video, we're running a MASSIVE 50% discount on ALL of our courses!! Just use code TRANSFORMERS50 at checkout!! cornellmusicacademy.teachable.com/

[@howtokdj]

@@jpshy1130 Please don't let them start a family...we don't need more bot accounts!

[@Mignuke]

Can you please cover the intro song to the children’s show, “bear in the big blue house?”

[@masonsherman5451]

Hey how about some foo fighters? in memory of taylor hawkins…

[@corygumminger6349]

What type of individual is the course best suited for? Rather, what is the baseline level of proficiency one should have with harmony to understand the course, and how much proficiency may be too much to derive appropriate value from it?

[@cee_yarr]

How about doing a video on the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers theme?

[@President_Starscream]

Humans will just never understand the intricacies of Cybertronian music.

[@salvatronprime9882]

EXACTLY

[@jimmybob5541]

This is bad comedy!

[@apreviousseagle836]

I bow down to your musical genius, sir.

[@timdahl]

It's Prog AF.

[@RealRexRiplash]

Voting for you in 2024 ❤

[@MinistryOfGamersMOG]

As a broadcast video editor of 18 years I can confidently say this was a much longer song, cut for time using older audio editing methods and it was done quickly and badly. then they slapped a "good enough" sticker on it and confirmed that none of us kids would care or notice. however, the og unedited theme was included on one of the dvds and the timing is fine, its the first track on this kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4S4faOXapV8iKM the themes timing issues were fixed and the dvd version gave the sound a lift across the board. Still can't believe they left that bad edit in for an entire season.

[@BTLJKS]

I didn't even watch Transformers as a kid, but holy hell, this is fascinating.

[@TomLuTon]

I can. Transformers was famous for animation errors, including animation errors IN THE INTRO. An audio error would be par for the course

[@MinistryOfGamersMOG]

@@TomLuTon Animation errors are insanely costly to fix by comparison so yeah those slipped through the net a lot... but an audio clip like that could've just been re cut on the spot lol. Whoever chopped the audio that day phoned it in and I think must've been in a bad mood... I'm also putting the production team on blast for not hearing it with their silly ears. HOWEVER, there is another explanation. The audio was likely cut reel to reel. I used to do it in college, you have the audio tape and the machine and you had to spool it to the right spot, mark it with china graph pencil then physically cut it with a razor blade. You would then chop out the other section and splice the tape together using a small strip of adhesive. SO if they made the edit... and it was slightly off and they didn't have another copy of the recording that they could get in time for the series to launch then they probably figured.... eh... let it go lol.

[@brx017]

I remember this "skip" bugging me as a little kid

[@mr.dortsmusicclasschannel9278]

Seemed so obvious to me that it was hacked in editing, but it was a fun exercise either way.

[@sentientblender]

Honestly I would've just chalked this up to having ONCE BEEN a piece with coherent timing that got butchered by the editors to fit some kind of time restraint. Even after breaking it down I have a hard time believing it was intentionally written to be this confusing.

[@yetanotherbassdude]

This was my thought too. Hard to say whether it was recorded as something more coherent and edited afterwards or if the chart itself was butchered and recorded that way. I kind of hope it's the former though, just for the sake of the poor musicians who would've had to try and follow this chart!

[@danielwilson7494]

That has to be what happened. Nobody in their right mind would write a piece this unnecessarily confusing, especially for a kids show lol

[@nathanberrigan9839]

That was my initial thought too, but the outro has the same stutter. It seems weird that an editor that was so careless about the flow would also be careful enough to make the outro line up with the intro.

[@Skip6235]

100% as soon as he played it I pegged it as being a song that was originally recorded and then sliced up. It sounds precisely like it has had parts cut out without a regard for musical timing.

[@sbatou87]

Same thought as well. Wish there was an unedited version out there.

[@papisatanico4380]

I think it happened when they edited the theme for time. After hearing how odd it sounded, the design team probably thought it made the theme sound more alien and kept it.

[@HorribleHomeVideo]

yup, just bad editing cut for time

[@toeknee1505]

INDEE.. EE... E.... D

[@LinaaaOfficial]

was thinking the same thing indeed

[@DF-rx5mg]

Yup. He's nuking this (over thinking).

[@fredtott4684]

When Lion remade the theme for the Movie, he had the time to make the "whole" theme and I think the 1st season would sound more like that kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5K5lKOco8iCjdU

[@NathanielJamesProd]

Hot take: Apparently, one of the dvd versions has fixed timing and this was an editing issue... but I kind of like this version better. I like that kind of off-beat timing that keeps you guessing. Music is full of happy accidents.

[@thelazyvagabond]

Whoa!!! Where can I find this??

[@NathanielJamesProd]

​@@thelazyvagabond kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4S4faOXapV8iKM

[@NathanielJamesProd]

@@CraigScottFrost That may very well be true, but also, as a musician myself, many of the best parts of my songs were mistakes that ended up sounding good. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

[@edwardcoakley384]

@@S_PIDER Great find! This really proves the 13/16 (or 5/16) reset was down to editing (probably an error)

[@tronvillain]

Bizarre. I'd argue that sounds worse.

[@brianlew86]

Obviously, the theme song did its job. It’s a song that more than meets the eye.

[@clancydowrca]

I see what you did there!

[@tankadamka]

More than meets the ear.

[@zi-muh]

nice

[@fightrudyfight5799]

This comment just lit our darkest hour. 💯

[@basteagui]

you guys should watch ELECTRIC EYE by judas priest next. trust me, it's like they're talking about soundwave in his satellite form. the album cover even has mechanical animals

[@Xemptuous]

Damn, as a composer, I must say the outro has one of the most addictive rhythmic changes and modulation into a major sequence progression i've ever heard from a tv show.

[@ImmortalThanos]

The outro makes me FEEL things, man!

[@HuchiaZ]

now make it JAZZ ngl the progression around 10:30 had me thinking of something, probably a game, but it really licked my swing bone too.

[@mudkatt2003]

@@ImmortalThanos still makes me tear up

[@reyntime1950]

I'm no music surgeon but this is an amazingly well crafted piece. Brutally efficient. Total space prog.

[@geoffstockton]

TV music back in the 1970s and 1980s was definitely written above the skill level of the average musician but made to sound as though it were simple stuff at a casual listen.

[@Lowehart]

Mad respect for the original theme choosing to slam the 4 syllable word decepticons into a space where the melody only really had space for one.

[@blakem2902]

That’s what I always found really funny about this song

[@FilYRU999]

It sounds like the singer is confused and trying to figure out who the enemies of the autobots are. “The evil forces ooooofff… the deceptions!”

[@ObadiahQRex]

​@@FilYRU999 It was a delayed lead in.

[@atitagain2788]

As a kid, it sounded a lot like they cut the song twice to shorten it and never smoothed it out, but it's still one of my top favorite opening songs ever, I loved how well you walked us through the song, I learn new things each episode!

[@dracocrusher]

Listening to it, I genuinely think that's exactly what happened. Someone composed a weird but functional track, because of course, and then other people who didn't care as much because the show's just one big ad just chopped it up to fit the footage without worrying about how much it throws off the flow. Same for the outro, that CAN'T be intentional. It literally JUST sounds like a really bad cut because they just shortened the song without really caring about the consequences.

[@souljastation5463]

That's something that they used to do at the times with TV themes, and they also do it in movies. Sometimes you hear a popular song in a movie that's been cut to reach to the imports bits in synchro with the movie scene.

[@grios5530]

🤣🤣🤣🤣👌👌👌 as a kid you never noticed and didn't care. You don't gotta lie to be down. 😉

[@SianaGearz]

I noticed this 30 years ago as well that it was kinda broken. You lot know that they published a CD soundtrack for the G1 animated series and that you can listen to it? Unfortunately it's not on Spotify but you can find it. It does some weird things still, but it's WAY much smoother than how it ended up on TV.

[@dracocrusher]

@@grios5530 You might not have noticed, but your brain did

[@Starlesslight]

Never thought twice about it as a kid. It just sounded cool and still does.

[@vt20247]

Right! Never had any issue with it. I can barely contain my excitement every time I hear that intro.

[@wanmohamed9611]

Kids are genius… adults too judge mental

[@drewali7]

@@vt20247 i lose my mind when i hear that!!!! i am captivated with transformers and everything with it. even the packaging.

[@ErebosGR]

As a kid, I loved how almost all the '80s cartoon themes were steeped in fusion jazz, hard rock and power metal. They were so fresh, cool and interesting.

[@novustalks7525]

This is not power metal lmao

[@ErebosGR]

@@novustalks7525 I didn't say it was. Learn how to read.

[@novustalks7525]

@@ErebosGR you said it was steeped in it

[@ErebosGR]

@@novustalks7525 No, I didn't. I said "almost all the 80s cartoon themes". And I mentioned 3 different music genres. You need to work on your reading comprehension.

[@CrypticlyEncrypted]

@@ErebosGR chill lol

[@RealEpicWork]

That theme song was a masterpiece at the time for many of us who grew up with Transformers.

[@nsiivola]

That song is so deeply engraved in my consciousness that I really struggled to hear anything strange in it... "OBVIOUSLY it goes like that!" Now I can blame my uh, eccentric sense of time on the Transformers, I guess :D

[@themirrorsofmymind]

I personally liked the version that came right after this better. It sounded more like an actual song.

[@Chromaxxx]

As far as I understood, the creators of the show never intended the intro to have lyrics. The line "Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons" was just meant to be read on top of the intro tune. When the composers got the job, they actually thought that this was the vocal line for the intro, and they fitted the music around it.

[@kbub1234]

I can see that being the intention, and then they tried to cram it into lyrics that matched with music instead of narration

[@mistaboogeyba3358]

That’s actually amazing

[@Vinemaple]

Where is this story coming from? I want to believe it, but where? It sounds true, but I've learned to be suspicious of that...

[@RAFMnBgaming]

Well that's kinda interesting. Because in 2005 they had a version where someone did narrate it over the theme (Transformers Cybertron, to be specific)

[@inglebear84]

So what you’re saying is…the composer’s were f*€|{ing idiots.

[@DStek42]

Years ago, I worked with Anne Bryant who composed the original Transformers score. She had the foresight to negotiate a license fee as opposed to a fixed fee for her work. Really cool woman to work with.

[@MollyInanna]

That's really awesome. Very cool experience. (Sort of like George Lucas' foresight to retain merchandising rights on SW.)

[@4D_242]

That is so cool!

[@curtyeomans8446]

Did she do any work on the second and third season themes, because each season had a different opening theme song

[@Blacktsalagi73]

I have to ask: Was the original score composed that way it came out.....or was it just "strange" editing? I remember working with a few composers who had their works butchered in post by video editing guys who didn't know music very well.

[@thinkbolt]

That's great to hear!

[@phillysphamous]

The song itself was transforming. Kids wasn’t ready for this genius

[@Truevalckrie]

How no reply’s

[@swatdoggy]

Thats a cool concept

[@swatdoggy]

Sounds beautiful played on piano

[@nigelagilebear]

The legend is the line "Autobots wage their battle to" was supposed to be a voice over and they accidentally made it into a lyric. Which is why it is such an odd fit.

[@globofoxfan2cs124]

Isn't the "Autobots wage their battle to..." part a voice over in the Transformers: cybertron version of the theme song?

[@nigelagilebear]

@@globofoxfan2cs124 Could well be - I am afraid my TF knowledge stops when g1 stopped!

[@ObadiahQRex]

​@@nigelagilebear Why not check the Tf wiki?

[@andrewhuang]

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DECIPHER SOMETHING THAT HAS PUZZLED ME FOR ALMOST MY ENTIRE LIFE. WOW THIS IS SATISFYING

[@Bob78]

How has no one else replied to this.

[@Alacrity551]

@@Bob78 I just did

[@ARSZLB]

ANDREWWWW! we love ya

[@thirsk3]

Love the sarcasm!

[@swetdep]

bro is your caps lock key as broken as mine or

[@brunoschmitt3825]

The intro is actually pretty simple to explain: they wanted it to repeat before the melody started, but only had a recording going straight into the melody, which starts precisely on the 16th note right after the fourth beat. So they just sliced it right before the melody and you end up with 3 whole beats + one 16th note (13/16 in total for that bar).

[@bernardstiegler]

That’s what I thought it was too.

[@skoosharama]

That would be plausible, except for the fact that the stutters happen in the same places in the end credits as well, where the video edits are in different places, and it sounds like the bass line is a different track as well. So it really does seem like an intentional choice by the composer.

[@nuno.vieira]

I think so too. I imagine they had an original song that was too short and they needed to add few more seconds for some reason, but the only thing they had available at that point was the recording. So they cut and pasted sections that could be repeated in a way that could make some kind of sense and that is what they ended up in the end. None of it was by design! :D

[@davak72]

Yeah, after listening to the music by itself as a whole (intro+outro), I’m convinced it was chopped up in post

[@stephenspampinato2184]

This is it. I have some experience in chopping samples and they definitely forgot or just didn't replace that missing time.

[@VincentDBlair]

That’s wildly modern! Sampled, edited with no regard to a consistent tempo, then spliced together by cartoon editors . Love it.

[@kingdavid9252]

Bingo

[@raleighpurtzer4601]

That’s it. Grab some trash bed and sing whatever melody you want over top. Recipe for fire.

[@PlasticCogLiquid]

That was my first thought too.

[@jorhay1]

Yes. This is just old school editing for TV. The original is just 4/4.

[@JamieVegas]

@@jorhay1 No,

[@MundaneBrain]

You have answered questions that we did not know needed answering. You've got the touch.

[@davepowder4020]

You've got the power, YEAH!

[@djm5687]

​@davepowder4020 After all is said and done, you never walk, you never run.

[@carelessdreamer]

@@djm5687You’re a winner!

[@ObadiahQRex]

​@@djm5687 You're a winner!

[@AquariusPrime-15]

You got the moves, you know the streets

[@williammakra4197]

A couple things. 1. I spent half of my career in animation. I can't say difinitively if the stutter was a musical intentionality but I do have another perspective. Animated television shows have to fit an exact time frame, much like radio DJs measure song programing ahead of time so that everything meshes and flows well with commercials. I would bet money that the episodes were running too long by quite literally a few seconds. In order to bring the whole canned package in line with broadcaster requirements they got creative with the music and chopped it up in a way that the average 10 year old wouldn't notice nor care. I know, as a 10 year old at the time, I certainly didn't :) Maybe not, but it wouldn't surprise me. 2. During the 'decepticons', it goes to the A minor but there is something else there. There is an odd major sound that resolves into the A minor rather quickly. It's super subtle but it's there. I wonder if the very fist time you played through it you went to the major for this reason? Any chance you can explain this further? My music theory is quite garbage lol.

[@arcaithsarchive211]

I came here to say this. It was probably edited as a completed recording of a completed piece but extended or truncated in parts.

[@jarod997]

Wow, full points for #1 - I bet you're right on the money.

[@williamhazzard5908]

I believe it was edited for time.

[@phantasmicyouth]

Exactly what I was thinking. This had to be clipped down in sections to fit the time frame.

[@AndThomHunt]

#1 is what I was thinking the whole time.

[@TiBiAstro]

As a child growing up with this show, I could hear this strangeness, and always attributed it to hastily cut/pasted tape in the editing room. 😂

[@LucLightWolf121]

☝🏿🎯

[@professorlegacy]

Me too. I was 9 and was like "That's a glitch. Awesome." Furthermore, I was always acutely aware that Transformers as a whole seemed hastily slapped together and somehow slipshod. None of the toys were in scale to each other. The dinosaurs had little seats in them. The comic book was a weird alternate universe of the show. So of course the song had a skip in it. But I knew nothing of the politics of cartoon production or Jetfire lawsuits. All I knew was I wanted Optimus Prime to be real and be my best friend :)

[@nebajnim]

Yeah those shows... its embarrassing i used to try to get home from school to see them. But the music has 3/16s cut to fit more commercials.

[@alwaysabiggafish3305]

@@professorlegacy glitch 😂

[@nickl5658]

Similar. I though they had shorten part of the cartoon so they had more time to put in more advertisements.

[@aidenwalk1118]

I’ve always loved this theme because it sounds so organic. Not only is it all over the place but the fighting and shooting always seems to be a part of the composition. Almost like the battles themselves drive the score.

[@wellesradio]

I came to the complete opposite conclusion. None of it seems organic, intentional, or sensical. Whereas you hear the sfx driving the composition, I hear the sfx overpowering the music. Perhaps to some untrained ears this gives the sense of taking the reins, but to me it is just an interruption. I’m quite certain that the composer if the theme had no idea they were going to overdub these sounds onto the theme as presented. The time constraint edits make it worse.

[@aidenwalk1118]

@@wellesradio Oh for sure the sfx were probably added after and it wasn’t intentional to feel like the driver, but to me at least for the theme song it helps bring together better. If you listen to the theme song with bad edits without the overlaying sounds it makes it sound so much worse.

[@No_OneO_N]

That last sentence pun HAS to have been intended

[@horseradishpower9947]

@@No_OneO_N Music Notes... transform, and roll out!

[@THESLlCK]

@@aidenwalk1118 you're seriously misinterpreting what is essentially garbage editing

[@reallyfurious]

I keep trying to tell people how incredible this theme music is.

[@XTRABIG]

aS A kid i was fascinated. and still so as a grown man now.

[@Imperial_Lizardgirl]

It is, it's incredible.

[@JoshuaEricSViana]

No need convincing here, I love the theme song since I was 9

[@firefox8713]

I don’t understand why music needs to keep to a fix timing. It makes it so boring. The transformers theme sounds perfect to my kids ears. The odd timing is also what makes the transformers theme unique and gives it character.

[@JonCombo]

Love the season 3 outro.

[@elapidpython4378]

I love that he covered this like it was a stylistic choice in the music rather than an editing hiccup that either got missed or there was not time to fix before it had to ship

[@chantakzee]

Probably exactly that, edited to make it fit in 20 sec for the opening theme to not eating in the commercial time

[@caramelldansen2204]

the original doesn't seem to include these "hiccups" kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXubn6SIqa6nrdk

[@juanquntos7123]

I agree it seems like the original song was much longer and it got shortened in a sloppy way

[@samuelcolvin4994]

As rushed as they were for time probably the latter.

[@prettywiththelightsout]

😹 that's where i'm at with it. tape edit gone wrong.

[@pmdrummer]

Huge transformers fan and life long drummer. My gut tells me this was a result of 80s bad sound editing. Cutting tv show themes to fit specific intro times was definitely a thing back then. No flow and rough transition in the tune, gotta be the edit.

[@venomagent76]

But you can definitely play along once you know the song.

[@LanceJ1992]

I get what you’re saying but there MUST have been an easier way to shave off a few seconds or whatever?

[@venomagent76]

@@LanceJ1992 yeah, I do believe it was an edit to be able to match scenes with certain parts of thesong.

[@knightlight5497]

Don’t tell anyone, but I was alive and remember this song from back then.

[@narnia1233]

It’s funny seeing all these comments from probably young people saying they can’t believe it’s an editing to make the song fit the time slot of the trailer. I believe it’s an edit. Because you’ve got to realize too that back then kids shows were being made very quickly and by small studios. I think this show might have been made in the US, but shows that were made in Japan and licensed in the US were literally being licensed to anyone. The small studio that got the rights to dub Dragonball Z was literally a random guy. That’s why we have some gems where voice acting was horrible, etc. back then. But of course there were a few extremely small studios that somehow weren’t completely horrible and struck gold. However they were learning as they went. So it wouldn’t surprise me if there were mistakes. Back then kids shows weren’t being made by huge, established corporations-and they kind of weren’t taken as seriously as today either.

[@matthiasplatz5919]

The music does start over in the outro. My guess is that the original cut was slightly too short for the credits, so the editor was probably told "just repeat the intro-the first two measures ". The problem is that the melody proper starts on the last beat of that second measure....so that got chopped out because I'm guessing that whomever was in charge decided having the melody start for a beat and disappear sounded worse. Thus the weird stuttering.

[@akaicedtea6236]

Did you get past the two minute mark?

[@That_AMC_Guy]

And who really cares about the editing of the theme music for a children's program? Back then, there were so many animation errors and wrong colors or wrong characters speaking or panels/frames missing..... the music was entirely secondary.

[@kobaltkween]

Wait, it kinda has to be cut apart, right? Because it's missing a line. It's "Transformers... More than meets the eye. Transformers... Robots in disguise! Autobots...". I think they just edited the theme to fit the opening and closing sequences. The problem, I suspect, is that he doesn't have the ads to reference like those of us watching at the time did.

[@Dantheman5127]

@@That_AMC_Guy yeah

[@sockshandle]

@@That_AMC_Guy never heard any of the classic Thomas and friends music did you?

[@albdamned577]

This is a fun theory topic. I always got the distinct feeling like there is a time skip, like with a cd or a record. As such, I kind of just hear 4 4 but with skips. This fits with the theme of the show (an object being used suddenly shifts to something new). I wonder what the composers thoughts on the piece were.

[@ChineduOpara]

You know, you read my mind. That "sudden skip" always FELT to me like, _"Even the music TRANSFORMED, you see"_ ...it all just made sense to 9-year old me... and 49-year old me still concurs 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@Suspendermen]

The "Autobots wage their battle..." section was meant to be a spoken line during the opening animation, but got misinterpreted as something that should be in the theme song, hence the nuts section to fit all those words in.

[@kaltziferYT]

Looks like the song is just messed up at this moment.

[@Vinemaple]

This would be awesome if there was a reference to back it up!

[@Suspendermen]

@@Vinemaple Transformers Vault, page 88. It doesn't site exactly where it got the information from, but in the acknowledgements it notes multiple Hasbro insiders who the author spoke to in the making of the book.

[@Anon26535]

Next time they do a new version it should go something like Transformers Robots in disguise Transformers Change before your eyes Transformers They're more than meets the eye Autobots and Decepticons In a struggle that never dies

[@Y34HT045T]

@@Anon26535 iirc "Change before your eyes" was actually used in RID2001!

[@hasmith6293]

Charles, welcome to the world of LINEAR video editing. As soon as I heard it I knew exactly what it was. I was that guy. I am not responsible for this particular episode but I have made 100s of edits just like that. I never worked on transformers but 25 years ago, I would edit TV shows down to the precise second using video tape, NOT COMPUTERS. There was no such thing as non-linear editing. I would edit those episodes based on story boards and studio notes and then end up long or short timewise by the end of the episode. I would usually use the credits to make up or add the time back. The alternative was to make up time back in the middle of the show but this was not considered good form because you would have to dub the episode over to another tape and make an insert edit and thus lose a generation. Losing a generation is bad news on 1" or 3/4" video tape even if was the "right" thing to do for music editing. It was considered the lesser of evils to just make a bad music edit instead in order to turn in the program at 22:30 or whatever the deliver requirements for run time were. There was also time crunch, I can't tell you how many times I would be up against a deadline editing as fast as I could, make the last tape, eject, and run it to over to broadcast and physically throw it in another deck and press play. Those were the day of big video cartridges and big buttons. Fun Times!

[@cokedollar86]

Must say that’s actually kinda neat to hear, what did you work on?

[@ecpi.x]

now it makes sense!! Thanks for this

[@newguy371]

Man, I love watching videos of guys running with those tapes like on UPick Live. It's cool you had the edit actual video tape.

[@nchalt]

So, the editors were really experimental sample-based avant-garde composers.

[@alfichotj]

Today I learned something new

[@evanmorgan]

Professional Audio Engineer here. This sounds like a tape edit to me. I think it was recorded in 4/4 but a some point the tape got edited, probably for time

[@sentientblender]

Sounds like it yeah. I recall there was some youtube ad for a phone plan a year or so ago that had a similar splice that came in the middle of a beat and drove me up the wall.

[@user-mk8he1ex3m]

It seems the only time signature Charles should be worried about now is 18/60 ..aka the hours he wasted explaining a splice! 😭

[@curiousbat5368]

I agree. Not a professional audio engineer here, but I've heard this type of things in many other intros.

[@AustinKU123]

I'm betting since Toei Animation made it, it was originally Japanese and during the translation they couldn't get the syllable count to be correct, so this was the best that they could do. Its hard to invest in something you arn't sure is even gonna work out.

[@NightChime]

I'm not an audio engineer and I came here to say this.

[@GuyGidoni]

the rhythmic mess got me hyped up each time before my favorite show, and it baffled me for years to come. thank you for an in-depth review of this iconic intro, yet mysteriously some questions will remain unanswered..

[@billintulsa]

As a suggestion: I would almost be willing to bet that the sheet music actually kept one time signature (most likely 4/4 or cut-time) throughout the piece. The reason awkward rhythms were most likely the result of sloppy editing to try and get the audio to match the visual track. I have edited many pieces of music to try and make it fit a particular scene and, although mine were not the hot mess this track became, I was often presented a round-peg-in-a-square-hole scenario. By the way - the reason the closing track made the similar jumps in time could have been that the initial edits were made early in the process which would cause the generational changes throughout the piece. On the other hand, my favorite color is plaid so take this with a grain of salt.

[@grundlemaster1691]

This is indeed the explanation that makes most sense - that we aren’t actually at all hearing the music as it was originally written, but rather as a result of the vagaries of the editing process. Much is the further amusement for us all then, watching the musician before us trying to make sense of it all :). This kind of thing happens in archeological study, or other studies of history, where years are lost building theories that are due to things like a less-than-careful worker accidentally getting a piece of their lunch mixed into a historical piece leading to researchers thinking the global trade of peanut butter sandwiches started millennia earlier than it did...

[@JawnTube01]

This is exactly what I was thinking! I wondered if it was just a chopped up version of the original song to fit the short space they had for the intro

[@Grail_Quest]

Yep, as a video editor who has worked extensively with both analog and digital formats, this is almost certainly the explanation. It's even more probable since in 84 they would have been editing with analog sources where you can't easily restructure placement of tracks on the fly and stuff like audio tracks get baked in, almost "flattened" and the editor has to do their best to get everything to fit, and sync. Especially since they would have been dealing with broadcast time requirements.

[@PrometheusForever]

Bingo my friend. I am a music [listener] doesn't matter what gere and when I hear this imo a child of maybe 8 (bc that's how old I was when I started watching the original)-can tell that it was edited or cut/trimmed. On the other hand could have been intentionally played like that FOR EFFECT.

[@MissilesOnMotorcycles]

As editors for TV… this is most likely the answer to fit for TV time ^^^^^^^^^^

[@xaosbob]

I'm not a musician, but you have validated something that I have carried for damn near 40 years concerning this bit of music. I always thought something was wrong with it, that it MUST have been an editing error, but I couldn't say exactly why. Having you break it down (also, TIL that 'engraving' has a specific musical application) into its actual structure on the page and be just as confused as me about those changes and weirdnesses was pretty enlightening.

[@tvctaswegia497]

Same here. For 40 years I thought it was either a glitched broadcast or I was hearing it wrong. Good to know I wasn't crazy!

[@dugroz]

I propose that there actually was a slight portion edited out and then re-started. A non-musical editor was given the task and a tight deadline.

[@originalpunkSxE]

@@dugroz I'm gonna agree with you, it always sounded to me like they were trying to fit the song into a certain time stamp. The outro in particular sounds to me like they initially only put one bar of the melody in before the extra instruments came in... then decided it needed an extra bar, so they cut and pasted the one bar they had.

[@Grizabeebles]

Pretty clear the lyrics got written first and then the composers had to wrap music around them. I kinda love the compromise that the G1 theme song "transforms" back and forth between 4/4 and 3/4 time to fit the lyrics and that *the bad guys* wreck the song by forcing the extra 1/16th note.

[@dracocrusher]

I'm confident it's literally an editing mistake, I think they just didn't care in editing because it's just a big glorified toy commercial for kids so they just did a rush job and nobody stopped them.

[@twylanaythias]

The reason the score seems to be choppy and moving around is because it IS - not because it was scored that way but due to editing. In the mid-1980s, FCC regulations permitted up 25% of air time for commercials during "children's shows". For a typical 30-minute slot, this amounts to a minimum of 22.5 minutes of actual show (including intro/outro credits) and a maximum of 7.5 minutes for commercials - usually 3.5 minutes between shows and two 2-minute commercial breaks during. Being produced for Japanese television, the episodes were 23 minutes long with 4 minutes of commercials between shows with a single 3-minute commercial break during. Between the longer runtime and additional "We will return after these messages"/"We now return to Transformers" blurbs, producers needed to shave roughly 35 seconds from the total runtime for each episode to maximize ad revenues. Since the opening and closing credits were the same for each episode, that's where they focused their editing efforts - cutting just over 16 seconds from the opening credits and not quite 19 seconds from the closing credits.

[@longsan3]

Editing! Well put! I used to own multi track drum machines that I would MIDI (old school syncing components) to keyboards and samplers. I once accidentally edited a single measures' time and got a truncated track that had a similar effect. It was cool, fun and unpredictable but it was horrible to mix while spinning records live.

[@twylanaythias]

I still have a few old Atari STs, all of which came out-of-the-box with MIDI. While I never used the physical interface, I did do a fair bit of tracking back in the day - mostly *.MODs, but a few ADSRs and MIDIs.

[@kentalks2818]

Y’all talking a language that is now unknown to man and it’s great to read. I miss those days

[@pedroandresvidalperez8016]

I was thinking the same, I would have to check the original one

[@pedroandresvidalperez8016]

Ok, not even remotely close to the Japanese one

[@spurfan76]

My FAVORITE all-time cartoon EVER!!! LOVED all their theme music!!! That sounds INCREDIBLE on the 🎹!!!

[@SamuelCurtis]

As a professional television editor, this video was both awesome (as always) and hilarious. You have done an amazing job with this analysis (as always) but the real reason it's so weird is likely MUCH simpler than "complex rhythms". This show was made in the 80s, before the digital tools we enjoy today. My guess would be that the decision was made that the main title open total running time would need to be reduced and the editors were forced to trim it down. Given that not all editors are musicians, this was the result.

[@Surgicaldamage]

I was just gonna put that it's due to slot time constraints and making use of the programming time to psychologically install just enough story to shift the toys (to sound like I know what I'm talking about). I think, there are 3-5 main tunes interrupting and overlapping each other back to back. Kids are bound to pick up on one or 2 which is good planting for murchandice customers. Also, you get kids arguing about how it "really" goes (more subconscious advertising).

[@JamesMcCormickIV]

Was my thought too.

[@mcritz46vl]

Or the editors needed to fill time and tried - but failed - to create a clean loop

[@alexanderduque1674]

@1:41 I think that the original intro was shorter and they wanted it to be longer so they repeated the first two bars, but the first two notes were in the second bar starting at the 14/16 beat, so they they repeated the two bars but cut the last 3/16 of the second bar.

[@SteveN-dw1uy]

yes, this. They couldn't take a full loop without including the start of the melody, so they just chopped it off at that 5/16th. It was as much of the loop that they could use.

[@imfasterthanyou1814]

This is just one of those classic moments when a pro player in a fighting game can’t beat the noob player because of how unpredictable they’re playing. You’ve grown to know music and how it “should” work and what combos work and what shouldnt. But when something that shouldn’t actually works you don’t understand why

[@xSayHiToEarlx]

True.

[@damiresq]

And also mashing buttons like playing a pinball machine, Mk11 in a nutshell haha

[@emm_gee1294]

Ahhh welcome to rag time and jitter bug piano playing

[@offmymeds2994]

But it doesn't work.

[@Mindstormer]

Yeah my teacher always said some rules are meant for breaking in music specially because how it interacts with the song as a whole.

[@mistertwister2000]

Let’s be real, the best part as a kid was just hearing “Robots in disguise” in that awesome voice

[@doublestrokeroll]

For sure!

[@ochosigod5417]

Nothing like it

[@CarlosHernandez-rl2wg]

Hearing Soundwave talk was mine. I quite honestly used to include wanting to get a voice like Soundwave's in my nightly prayers for a year as a 3 year old. Nowadays, I know the secret. It is cigarette use ti the point of needing a voice box. Yeah, Soundwave is cool, but I'll let him keep the voice for himself.

[@bradmarchant7822]

The best line to say into a fan!

[@evog35viii]

More than meets the eye

[@ACK88]

Even as a child is knew this was both so good and so bazaar. Love it!

[@GinsuSher]

The theme song makes me feel like a machine made it. It doesn't conform to how humans usually arrange music. And it makes sense because its TRANSFORMERS.

[@President_Starscream]

Can confirm, this was a Soundblaster composition. A Soundwave composition would have been superior.

[@zerofaktor007]

Exactly, it sounds to me like it was a loop that didn’t match up when it was pasted

[@orlandoalessandrini2505]

Soundwave superior, video inferior.

[@dakaodo]

@@zerofaktor007 If you read Twyla Naythias's comment, that's because it didn't. They were cutting time out in editing.

[@nadiasemprini8459]

I was a child then, and it didn't sound bad. What stood out was the novelty of the robot-like sounds, voices and also music. It was energetic and reactive like you want a warrior to be.

[@alancash6420]

I agree with some of the other commenters that it was probably hacked about to fit some time constraint or other, but honestly I think that adds to the wobbly VHS tracking/ cassette chewed by Walkman aesthetic that anyone who remembers this probably feels some nostalgia for.

[@kswindl]

Yes, it sounds both robotic and alien. Perfect!

[@jeffreysherman8224]

Bro, your writing style... That comment is magnificently constructed! 👌

[@SirPumpkinKnight]

When I see shows/movies adding intentional static, or off tracking, or cutting to a test pattern, I ask myself, "Do the younger generations even know what any of this is?" Not in a condescending way, it's just been almost 20 years since a movie was released on VHS. Fun fact, the last VHS release was 'A History of Violence'.

[@salvatronprime9882]

@@SirPumpkinKnight alot of those VHS tapes and machines weren't immediately thrown into the trash when DVD hit the market. Alot of kids got some hand-me-down stuff. Same with 8-bit and 16-bit consoles.

[@notcardlinsytaccount1355]

I think it’s worth mentioning that when season 2 rolled around and the show got a shiny new intro and theme, they actually removed the stutter in the outro theme.

[@whythatspreposterous]

It added its own fair share of splicing, though!

[@xyshomavazax]

You should break down some of Vince Dicola’s music from that Transformers movie. It’s absolute genius.

[@johnzachariahg]

I second this!

[@SinginRabbit]

My elementary school music teacher, Mrs. Hoots, played cartoon themes on the piano to serenade us as we left to go back to our regular class: Transformers, GI Joe, My Little Pony, etc. She was badass.

[@kingsofcobra]

That's freaking AWESOME!!!

[@Epic_R3K47]

@@kingsofcobra Nice

[@alylu-to-esutej]

So cool

[@napilopez]

I love how we got a complex musical analysis for what is almost certainly just a bad edit haha Not complaining, I love this stuff

[@vincentkoster6291]

Exactly this is what happened to all of us in literature classes... Very complex analyses of poorly written books and pieces

[@napilopez]

@@vincentkoster6291 I do think there's fun in that -- the art becomes it's own thing. Sometimes it's authorial intent, other times it's random, but I'm just here to get the most out of it I can!

[@MixMeMcGee]

Yeah! Still so fun to see him try! even though it’s absolute nonsense

[@samus88]

If it were an editing mistake, it would just be in one measure, but that weird phrase repeats, so no.

[@henkdevries2002]

im pretty sure this is intentional

[@the_shadow_realm5110]

This progression is perfect. Transformers are alien robots. This polyrhythmic monstrosity fits the theme very well. Love it.

[@President_Starscream]

To us, YOU'RE the aliens.

[@MysteryGeek2006]

@@President_StarscreamMakes sense

[@mushroom11g55]

Advanced Aliens should make better and more organized music than we do if they have a soul

[@CChissel]

@@mushroom11g55 Music is quite subjective. Supposed we really do make contact and in the future co-exist, and music to them is something completely unrhythmic and distorted. Could you say it’s not music? Humans like to put everything in neat little categorized boxes, but reality doesn’t work that way.

[@lapp3351]

Skips half beats

[@LilyWillis]

I remember thinking this went hard years ago. It's nice to see people recognizing how good it is today. Truly a banger of a theme song.

[@Alterator76]

As someone that's been listening to this for over 35 years :) the Season 1 & 2 themes - that actually end up in the credits - are definitely "cut up" and spliced together, most likely due to time constraints. For that end credits "starts over" part: just listen to the Season 2 end credits. It *doesn't* repeat. Of course, that version adds another shockingly weird part later on. It's a great theme, that got totally messed up in post production.

[@SubFT]

I completely agree that the version used in the show opening and credits was the victim of editing. One has to remember that in the early '80s digital editing was either non-existent or at least very rare. These people were still doing the old cut and gluing method of tape editing largely. I would bet that the original music notation had two time signatures at most.

[@crock603]

Exactly

[@franciscomarin6493]

Correct

[@Sketch_Sesh]

Yes cut up and spliced in post

[@ChrisHirner]

Yeah sounds like they needed to shave some time to match the animation

[@alexkarp6244]

This song really accurately reflects the original show. Imperfect and a bit strange, but beloved anyways.

[@sodacitynative1983]

Bingo!

[@CruelestChris]

Which is why it's lucky that the _hand_ at the end of that _arm_ ... _is holding a gun!_

[@unicornevil6913]

I feel so validated. I never hear people talk about how this theme is insane, but the first time I heard it it completely threw me off.

[@ejb7969]

Obviously that's because you listened better! Most people are musical illiterates and wouldn't notice a dropped beat if it fell on their foot.

[@XiaoFury]

I always thought the cut in the outro was on purpose to cut it short.

[@ianphillips1365]

YES! I felt the exact same way as I watched this.

[@nuklearkhaos115]

Probably because most have heard other versions of the song. The first version I've ever heard was from a TF video game where the notes were much smoother.

[@lillysanchez3849]

omg same! I always tried to count along but I was so confused the entire time XD

[@jaybonny1954]

I’m so glad you covered this it’s one of my songs ever. I’m amazed any of this exists; Transformers as a premise is such a bizarre and addictive abomination and the song captures it all. When they resolve with “…the decepticons” cracks me and my brother up to this day. But the way they hit the “More than meets the eye” is simply a hole-in-one lyrically, melodically, spiritually

[@stevearcade]

I always assumed this tune just had a wonky mis-counted tape-edit to squeeze an otherwise too long piece of music into a shorter run time. But you managed to make some sense of it nonetheless. Great work! Can you possibly look at the Inspector Gadget theme tune in the future? That theme absolutely slaps and is super funky. Definitely an underrated TV theme that deserves some love.

[@stevecarter8810]

Doug e fresh and the get fresh crew sampled it and it was the best thing I had ever heard, aged like 12

[@nicholasgraves3149]

I second this. That Jews harp sound (unsure if it actually is one or not) in the Inspector Gadget theme and in Catdog's theme is such a nostalgic cartoon sound to my ears.

[@fireblade295]

Agreed. Where the original theme starts fucking up, it sounds sped up.

[@ematic75]

That exactly what my thoughts were. Tape edits were a little rough

[@TrenierTrombone]

Yeah it almost sounds like the backing parts were on tape and all the melody aspects were layered on top.

[@joecastle288]

i remember arranging a bunch of 80s kids show themes in high school so I can play them for my dad's birthday as a present but my freshman self could NOT comprehend the really weird groove of this song lmao

[@josiah566]

as music goes, this absolutely needs to forever be arranged exactly in this edited version

[@xavierharris9749]

Nobody: High school band + first grade counting

[@wikinut1]

Though it's clearly an editing issue, when I was a kid, the strangeness of the music with some added distortion from watching it on an old VHS tape, gave the show an almost alien, ethereal feel. It was great hearing that theme again.

[@QuestionDeca]

Yeah, I get the feeling they had longer opening/ending themes/animations but cut pauses to save on costs without regard to how the music would sound, but they're pretty lucky it still comes out enjoyable.

[@crownhood3502]

Yes. It felt like it was from another world. I remember that

[@rathesungod4]

No its genius, the music transforms.

[@Slayer119988]

Definitely, any scenes where only the transformers are present, no humans or human objects magnifies that. The 1984 movie really took that to the max.

[@Darkbirdy]

That's what I was coming in to say. I sounds like it was spliced between notes.

[@digitaldosage1979]

This was hilarious... Never knew one of my favorite jams as a kid was so complex and deep musically😂

[@ChineduOpara]

Meeeeee tooooo 😅

[@MrShastymax]

Music back then for most shows was loaded with detail

[@caramelldansen2204]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXubn6SIqa6nrdk Here's a pre-release version, with no time signature weirdness. I really think it is just a remnant of editing on magnetic tape, instead of in digital software like today. It's interesting nonetheless!

[@digitaldosage1979]

@@caramelldansen2204 I actually totally agree. That was my very first thought is that this must have been some sort of a weird edit for times' sake. I think it has less to do with The technology back then (I'm a sound engineer, btw 😊), and more to do with time editing for broadcast...I think🤷‍♂️🤣.

[@caramelldansen2204]

@@digitaldosage1979 Fair enough. I'm no sound engineer, but I'm (only just) old enough to have had to splice together tape once or twice, so I guess I was drawing from what I know!

[@lunaeraruth826]

I always felt that growing up on Transformers original series music cultivated in me a love for progressive rock and weird time signatures. Now I know why. :) Thanks for the video!

[@bntsloma5946]

Transformers and Prog definitely go hand in hand

[@nickolasroper3237]

It gives me a The Mars Volta vibe.

[@swingforthefences7439]

Any chance you are a Rush fan then?

[@Jameserton]

Have you heard the old Godzilla cartoon theme? It's got a nice abrupt change from minor to major you might enjoy.

[@PjRorke98]

Wow did not expect to find you here! Love your animations

[@GlizzyAssassin]

Oh hey James is alive! Thanks for your work man. No joke I was quoting it with my son this morning 😂

[@Jameserton]

@@GnikAtaidnus haha nice transcription!

[@Jameserton]

@@GlizzyAssassin Thank you sir

[@deathbypigx3h]

Lol I still sing the Godzuki part to myself in every day life

[@cowsruleusall]

Holy crap! I transcribed/arranged this for piano and two voices in my AP Music Theory class like 15 years ago. So glad to see this video you did on it! :D Gotta love that absolutely ridiculous mixed meter.

[@jasonkilley]

You did the Transformers theme for AP music theory? you're a legend!

[@commandercaptain4664]

You’ve never heard of mixed meters or even Leonard Bernstein?

[@omegahtv6779]

Thank you so much for breaking this down, I noticed the “stuttering” part for years. I used to make beats for songs, and noticed everything you pointed out as well. I’m not a professional, but still, I noticed this. Thank you so much.

[@TemporaryTemporary-y2j]

Imagine if after this in depth analysis, the person responsible for editing the intro was found and when asked about it simply said: "Huh? Oh that? There was a slight synch problem so we just cut the audio tape a bit and pasted it back so that it lined up with the video and hoped no one would notice." I remember back in the day when audio tape cassettes were still in use, sometimes they got jammed and damaged and we'd cut out the bad part and stick the tape back either with pieces of cello tape or sometimes even nail polish and the affected song would forever have a weird tempo skip at that point and sound very much like this. You'd have probably not even noticed it, if you weren't paying attention.

[@stephenallen4635]

Someone else in the comment was saying they talked to the editors and it was just cut for time

[@realtalk6195]

@@stephenallen4635 I wonder if there's an uncut version and what it sounds like.

[@80svoiceman16]

This is exactly what happened. I've been working in Audio Post for the last 25 years. This what happens when a non musician edits music. @@stephenallen4635

[@The_Bad_Guy.]

Honestly I'm betting that's exactly what happened haha

[@ChineduOpara]

Sounds like exactly what happened 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@zoomosis]

The Transformers theme was re-recorded for Season 2 (1985) and again for Seasons 3 & 4 (1986-7). The 1986 theme has the same unusual timing but without the strange edits heard in the 1984 theme.

[@attainableaudio4533]

Yeah I like to think that this is how it was written, LoL. Plus wouldn't it have been easier to just chop off the ending instead of making multiple edits...?

[@karlmarxstadt]

THIS. amazing analysis. but i was hoping you'd acknowledge season two or season three. it's incredible how barely 30 seconds of such a popular piece of music can be so confusing ^_^'

[@storm14k]

I was actually about to go hunt down the others because I thought it had the odd skips intentionally performed in the others and they didn't sound like bad edits. There was one that was kind of electronic I guess would be the only way I could describe it that was always my favorite. Don't remember the season.

[@KR0OK]

This is single handedly one of the greatest pieces of music ever.

[@FlanGaming]

Who would’ve guessed that the Transformers theme song would’ve involved so many shifting and changing parts?

[@sagittila]

THANK YOU

[@youarenotaghost3702]

Boom!

[@kevincrotty826]

Are you suggesting it might be... more than meets the eye?

[@80ssynthfan48]

@@kevincrotty826 boom

[@bdrummmm]

@@kevincrotty826 😂

[@Engineer_Who]

As a video editor who hobbies in audio/music editing, I think the weirdness of the TV theme sounds less like a strange arrangement or songwriting choice and more like clumsy cutting in the audio track to fit a time constraint. At the "AutoBots" line toward the beginning of the TV opening, it sounds like there's a cut that didn't quite line up. Yes, it changes the time signature of that section, but it also doesn't exactly stay on beat. To me, this smacks of an editor working quickly and a decision-maker not really caring if the music is just a frame or two off because "It's close enough, right? We've got a billion episodes of these to get out the door and toys to sell. The kids won't care, time is money, _let's go!"_ As Charles points out, the credits version sounds like they just cut and replayed the track from the beginning, probably because the editor found that the music they were given was seven-ish seconds shorter than the video they had to display.

[@DJTI99]

I came here to say the same thing. And it would have been much harder to line up the music on the beat since they were using video tape. If they did it with the audio tape, the edit would have been cut and splice and far more precisely than doing tape-to-tape edit on an old 3/4 inch U-matic machine.

[@tissuepaper9962]

They doubled down on the weird timing when they re-recorded the track for seasons 3&4 in 1986. Maybe it started as a mistake but it definitely became an intentional element later. Repetition legitimizes.

[@krthr]

@@tissuepaper9962 Repetition legitimizes.

[@JerehmiaBoaz]

I was a sound engineer for decades and I think this is a wonky video edit too. The problem isn't just misalignment but the that the earlier part they copied in isn't played exactly to the beat, the strings are somewhat behind the rhythm section at the start and are trying to catch up.

[@blara2401]

@@tissuepaper9962 Did they ? Listening to the G1 S2-4 theme songs, they seem completely sensible, especially thanks to the slower tempo.

[@theliminalist4429]

the way everyone smiles when the 1986 film drops the opening "Transformaaasss" is what makes it so great. You cant hear that and not get a big dumb smile.

[@Briansgate]

I was 13 when it came out, and after watching the cartoon on TV, then seeing this in the theater, my jaw dropped and eyes went wide and it was awesome!

[@adifferentangle7064]

Yeah you got me!

[@Bmontepeque11]

That song by Lion is like THE BEST THING EVER I loved that movie ❤️🔥 To me that is the ending to this series 😅🙌🏻

[@jamieleefisher9073]

It's like the guy was layering tracks using two 1980's casette decks, after sticking celetape over the tabs of his moms "sweating to the 80's" collection. I love what your doing here Charles, that was really entertaining. I lived and breathed Starwars, Transformers and GIJoe toys since in 1980 I was 5 years old. You've really got me thinking of starting a project now with new revised theme with recut/remixed dialog and animation.

[@TheGameChasers]

The part at the end when you say it sounds like a record skip Im willing to bet was the editor cutting the music to make it time with the credits better. He probably needed some pad at the start and they didn't want to have to pay to get the song re-recorded.

[@Joviex]

exactly this. The edits in the 80s were not cheap and not quick. A simple "CHOP" is what they most likely did.

[@TravisTravelsTheGlobe]

Agreed!

[@Ulbert86]

Yes it's just lazy cutting

[@KingBobXVI]

It wasn't a cut to make it shorter, but to make it longer. They only had two measures of 16th notes but needed to fill the space, so they duplicated them to fill the time. But the last 3 of those correspond with the lead-in to the theme song, so they cut them out on the duplicate, which is why it has such an awkward jump.

[@carlstanford7607]

The stuttering restart is totally thematic. It’s a transformation. Whether accident or design, it intuitively made sense to me as a kid

[@caiusmadison2996]

Well, some maintain that being meta is really just a way to cover artistic inadequacy. There's always two or more schools of thinking, no matter the subject. This song is done to fit time constraints, nothing more. It does this in one of the lest musical amd jarring ways ever put to recording. That's the true legacy of this song, the division it causes with musicians like myself who detest meddling from studio heads who have zero efficiency in musical production making musical production calls like this. During the test audience, if even one person mentioned how jarring truly is for a kids tune, I'd fire the editor and make sure they are listed as "DO NOT rehire." In their employees profile.

[@jamesyoungquist6923]

@carl... This is the best explanation I've heard about the why. I love this idea! BTW, @caius... I have no idea what you're talking about, does not grammar

[@caiusmadison2996]

@jamesyoungquist6923 didn't Grammer because it's 2023, Grammer is second to idea conveyed. People really should be used to that by now, seriously, at this point you're not trying to understand. The tune was jarring for even me as a kid, amd many remark it wasn't a sound song clip, it's clear here that it isn't. I'd have fired the exec who decided to chop so much out of production that they clipped a song crazy. It's a good tune when not hacked up, although very peculiar in terms of an action robot show, this tune doesn't really fit at all.

[@jamesyoungquist6923]

@@caiusmadison2996 yes, I'm sorry, I should have worded that better myself. What I meant was "I don't quite get what you're saying", it wasn't a riff on your language use, just a poor metaphor on my part. Thanks for responding and adding more info, I reread your first post and get it now. Cheers

[@sportysp]

The song perfectly fits the series to any kid. Just listening to the intro makes me want to watch an episode again, lol. These transformers made more sense then the movies 😅

[@pattonlyabsurd2807]

Honestly I kinda like the “stuttering” affect that the weird time signatures give. It’s not something you hear super often and can throw you off a bit if you don’t know how to count it. “one-e-and two-e-and-a three-e-and-a four-e-and-a one-e-and two-e-and-a three-e-and-a four-one-e-and-a” it’s kinda like an etude you’d find in a beginner snare book, it can help you learn accent placement and it’s just sounds cool. :)

[@Fretlessness]

Almost feels like a J Dilla type breast where they came in early

[@typicalwitch]

It swings.

[@darthparallax5207]

@@typicalwitch pew pew Pewpewpewpew

[@typicalwitch]

@@darthparallax5207 THE LITTLE PURRING BARSTEWARDS ARE IN THE GRAINSTORE!

[@tonyfromtaos]

What a great video! It was a joy to see your breakdown of such an iconic theme song from my youth. Yeah man, it was weird wasn't it? I look forward to checking out your other vids. Cheers!

[@mmcc1391]

I like that the Transformers music is complex. I think little kids watching the show are able to pick up on the subtleties of the complexities. Even if kids are not able to write music or articulate music theory, it's still something that makes the show itself feel more complex and that the adults who prepared it recognize that children are capable of complex understanding.

[@Len_J_]

It don't think it's complex. It's messed up. A cut and shut job to make it fit for time purposes.

[@Exgrmbl]

It's a messed up cut of a longer song. It's entirely accidentally avantgarde

[@Marionettetc]

They were definitely going for a "futuristic" and tense theme but the weird shit is a shitty tv edit.

[@chouchoue]

@@Exgrmbl Yoko Ono and Yellow Magic Orchestra planned this.

[@bluesunrise2323]

​@@Exgrmbl exactly i love the wierdness of this theme it suits the show so well

[@Skywarp2099]

If it helps at all, Anne Bryant, the composer, said that she used uneven meter for the song because she felt it was more interesting to write and listen to. It has a very Frank Zappa sort of feel to it. I'm not sure if this has any relevance to you or not. I loved the analysis though.

[@joshuafrias2415]

That I can understand. Does give the theme a more robotic feel.

[@darthboxOriginal]

Honestly she nailed it. It's way more interesting and dramatic because of the odd meter sections.

[@100nitrog]

@@joshuafrias2415 That's an interesting take. If anything, I'd consider a steady rhythm robotic.

[@krisrhodes5180]

I have been looking for references to anything she might have said about this theme. All I could find was a recent interview in which they only asked her very general questions about her experience in the industry. Where did you find the quote about this theme?

[@dancingpickleproductions7772]

I always assumed that “restart” was intentional. Like it almost represented a constant tug-of-war between the autobots and the decepticons.

[@futurosurf]

Same makes it feel more epic looking from that perspective, cybertronians care not for us humans unfathomable understanding of their musical arrangements!

[@sealco]

@@Ryan_Tse still sound’s good

[@highstimulation2497]

yes, I love restarts of this nature.

[@Noodelzmop]

@@futurosurf "cybertronian" is a bad excuse for a jumbled mess, just look at some of the alt-modes of the toys

[@K-11609]

Funny thing is, growing up, that part was my favorite in the theme exactly because of what you said, and it still is. Something about it’s story now makes it all the more enjoyable for some reason.

[@ApexDubb]

And this… ALL of THIS is why I couldn’t even get close to recreating a cover of this song back in the late 90’s using my hardware sequencer with drum machines and synths slaved to it… You broke this down amazingly Thank you for explaining why I wasted days trying to make this work

[@codezionjr]

It could be the case that the composer was low on Energon Cubes when he wrote that.

[@philipdavis3871]

Or high on them

[@codezionjr]

LOL exactly! That was why he was skipping beats. I guess Soundwave was working overtime then.

[@texasbeast239]

Soundwave was flexing by overloading too many cassettes and it interfered with his tape heads causing them to skip.

[@jameshamaker9321]

@@texasbeast239 i can see that happening, because he has an extended deck, he figured that he could add that last tape.

[@Talonistrying]

Maybe a little too much high-grade while composing-

[@carlosavila4281]

I think, the intro until the 5/16 bar might have just been a last minute addition. My theory is that the original intro that was recorded only lasted two bars. That would explain the complex (or weird) measurement. If you take the two bars before the melody comes in and cut right in the pick-up, you get the intro with the weird measurement. Cheers from Spain ✌️

[@jasonpaul4308]

nailed it lol that's absolutely what happened....not even a bad edit, if anything a REALLY good edit to solve a bad problem lol

[@miab-p6874]

I think you're probably right.

[@TheatreJosh24601]

Listening to the vinyl release of the soundtrack, you're exactly right... for the end credits version. The opening has FOUR bars of intro and then DOES seem to have a weird extra beat in there that I'm struggling to count. I THINK it's a random measure of 5/4, but there are also a few moments where it feels like there are some randomly-placed fermatas or weird ritards or something. It's definitely odd.

[@KyrreOstrin]

I have to wonder if the supposedly random 5/16 bar is a somehow a meta reference to the most prominent sound effect used in the show itself. If you listen to the transformation sound effect when any of the transformers turn into their machine forms, it is also five beats of 16th notes,

[@leftymcnally6913]

When I was a kid I thought this theme was the coolest, but when I became a drummer as a teenager it just made my head spin whenever I'd hear it. Awesome breakdown

[@newuser738-j8c]

One of the greatest if not the most greatest cartoon soundtrack ever.

[@LyimOff]

The opening line is supposed to be “Transformers, more than meets the eye…Transformers, robots in disguise…” in line with the toy commercials. That separation does not exist in middle parts of toy commercials and solves much of the issues in that beginning section.

[@thefrozenyak5272]

My thinking exactly. It's the opening jingle for a 22 minute toy commercial, and it has to fit the regular commercial taglines into the lyrics.

[@ZombifiedDuder]

I have to imagine there's probably some unreleased full version of the original opening somewhere. They probably recorded it, and it was too long for broadcast, so they had to not only shorten it but also stitch the different parts of the song together. Unfortunately the person responsible for stitching it together was probably a video editor without any sense of rhythm, hence the weird jumps, especially with the bass line. This is my head canon, at least, no clue if it's true or not.

[@robincray116]

This video has a version of the intro song that is about 6 seconds longer. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4S4faOXapV8iKM An extended outro can be found at around 22:47. In the above video

[@thedanimator]

Agreed.

[@StellarPone]

I can get behind that. Solid theory.

[@jamaluddinkhalifa8371]

@@robincray116 they still sound very weird somehow, albeit not as weird as the shortened versions.

[@Lustrum0005]

@@robincray116 Thanks for the link. Maybe the composer wanted to make a song that had a jazzy feel with odd time signatures on purpose, because after all they are alien robots, out of this world. I think this theme song is brilliant, and not all music is meant to make sense, it's about the feeling they convey

[@oprime]

The song always made me think that the strangeness was to divide Decepticons versus Autobots because the first part was all Decepticons and then it hiccups when the Autobots. It felt stranger during the outro since the images didn't match that idea.

[@The_Mimewar]

That seems to be with the editors were thinking as well

[@hybrid9mm]

Yep 👍

[@isaackarr6576]

@@The_Mimewar The moment of epiphany feels much the same when the must (;)change to continue

[@The_Mimewar]

@@isaackarr6576 fry again

[@electrictroy2010]

Feels like the TV director edited two songs together

[@timwall1102]

Time stamp 10:35 to 11:00 where he going on about the time and rhythm, he stumbles into Donna Summers "I will survive" without knowing it but he DOES hear it, but it doesn't click right away or at all for him to know that's what's he's playing....Still love this them though....

[@ascetic_aesthetic]

Specifically how the song was written, per the composer: "Ms Bryant explained that even for her it was a little different than usual. It was written in a minor key and had some very odd metered bars in the bridge (especially in the second season end titles). According to her, for a trained composer a-symmetrical music is more interesting to write and that's why it sounds so "hookey""

[@kyleschlichter3815]

The season 2 theme honestly seems even weirder

[@RupeeRhod]

I like how speculation in other comments are higher rated than literally the composer being quoted for saying it's intentional.

[@KingBobXVI]

@@RupeeRhod - Well, because there are multiple points of wonkiness in the piece. The general timing of the main melody is strange but makes some kind of sense. The awkward skip at the beginning is much more easily explained by bad editing. Two things can be true simultaneously (also, from the quote it sounds like she was mostly talking about the second season, where this is the first).

[@m.j.nilsson]

I think Anne Bryant said in an interview that she just sat down to play her piano and composed this song at first attempt. The original recorded demo sounds different. This was probably just extended with a quick loop and was considered good enough. My favorite version is the Lion - Transformers movie theme version. I don't think they had much time to record these old cartoon themes. Chuck Lorre had 48 hours and wrote TMNT theme on his way to the recording studio that was only available during night time and recorded everything on the go.

[@ARCAlpha12]

I always assumed what had happened was that the part where it "Stutters" and then repeats was actually a section that had been removed for time. The song has several spots like that, and either in a rush or due to budget constraints, they were forced to essentially sacrifice consistency to make something that was catchy enough to become iconic, which they succeeded in doing, but it has caused this wild and weird ride of mixed up notes to be smashed together.

[@ian_b]

Yes, kind of, "it needs to be precisely X seconds but we recorded x+.5 seconds" kind of thing, so they just spliced a bit out. This was the days of tape, not DAWs, after all.

[@ribeyerare8971]

Precisely. It’s not an original composition he’s listening to, it’s an edited version from when the show was translated into English

[@jaymo3205]

@@ribeyerare8971 But the instrumental version at the end sounds the same. And although he says the film version is different, every subsequent series re-records the song with the same wacky rhythm - kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYKYqayLjNSAarc

[@AM1media]

Im a video editor and this was immediately my take. And I grow up with Transformers and remember this intro well. Its just the edit.

[@robertburton6033]

I always assumed that stutter was due to editing as well. I think it became so catchy over time that it stuck

[@sonjaadamson1714]

I had no idea that the Transformers theme was so inherently jazzy! I love it! These chords could fit so well as a smooth jazzy lounge piece.

[@RhapsodyBlueVA]

10:48 Love how it transitions from the Transformers theme into the opening of "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (at least, that's what it sounds like to me).

[@finnrogers9616]

Me too

[@joshuadunkelberger8524]

You’re right lol

[@gwreevesReeves]

Bingo.

[@Allhoney33]

Love it!

[@DaiShuryoTechnus]

I'm not alone! :D

[@TheFrekeShowe]

Have you considered that the weirdness could be due to a film editor’s choice/mistake? As a filmmaker with limited music background (I completed percussion through 8th grade) watching this video, I’m left wondering if the confusion didn’t happen in the music studio, but in the editing room.

[@PhellpsBrasiliano]

Yeah I have been thinking that, sounds non intentional

[@fridaystarsign]

im like 100% its this

[@mastersurreal]

I feel this is most likely it.

[@Murdoch493]

Could this happen even on the credits? Do you think they cut this on the title then tried to copy it on the credits to keep consistency?

[@TheFrekeShowe]

@@Murdoch493, that’s basically my assumption. What I see happening is: 1. Music gets attached a video 2. Video and music get cut together causing “an error“ in the music 3. Music is ripped directly from intro video and placed into end credits video. And you have to remember that videotape editing was a lot harder than what we can do today with computers. I noticed someone commented on this video who said they had edited on videotape 30 years ago or so. Might be worth looking for that comment.

[@64kernel]

It's really interesting to note that even the orchestra is having a hard time to keep up with the tempo, which makes me think this is indeed they way it was written and not just some weird editing.

[@hundeparadies7691]

THIS!!!

[@drewharrison6433]

I think it was intended to sound "robotic" and "alien". They were after all robotic aliens.

[@elementallobsterx]

As a musician myself, I immediately started laughing when the wacky time signature part and subsequent chords part played 😆 Had to come back to this vid, so damn funny.

[@T0rche]

Whether it was intentional or not, I always thought this theme was oddly brilliant in its chaos, thematically speaking. The sudden, hard shifts in tempo actually fit the whole theme of the Transformers themselves. They can transform on a whim, at any given moment (more than meets the ear in this case).... and if you listen to the song carefully while watching the actual intro, every time they say "Transformers" it is perfectly synced with Transformers transforming: 1) The three jets 2) The transformer being thrown turns into a car 3) Grey transformer turns into a gun

[@BrianFlyingPenguin]

I'm sorry, did you just say 'grey transformer turns into a gun'?

[@nuklearkhaos115]

The Grey transformer is Megatron btw. He transform into a big gun in the original, in later series he transforms into a aircraft or a tank. Because giving kids realistic looking Mausers/Guns is a bad idea.

[@alexholker1309]

@@nuklearkhaos115 Some third party manufacturers still give him a realistic gun mode, but apart from one gaudy Nerf-looking pistol, the official toyline just threw up their hands and admitted defeat. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - the tank mode certainly fits in better with a collection than one massively out of scale pistol.

[@MattTOB618]

For his Neutral Special, Megatron turns into a G U N

[@rakninja]

@@alexholker1309 depends on the collector. my MP-05G fits in fine with all my other megatrons.

[@sonydominates]

As someone who really loves japanese jazz fusion, I think you should delve into the genre. If you go deep, there's plenty of songs with really unusual beats, time signatures, and key changes, which I absolutely love!! Thanks for the vid Charles!!

[@Azazel226]

How about some recommendations?

[@neithere]

Please give us some examples, sounds very interesting!

[@sonydominates]

Here are a few examples: Odd Time Signatures: Top Secret - Issei Noro Landscape - T-Square Fate of the Azure - Tri-Offensive Parallel World - Tri-Offensive Songs with unusual rhythms I like (not odd): Tremblin' - Prism Papillon - T-Square Black Joke - Casiopea No More Tears - T-Square There was a KZbin channel that created great playlists with all kinds of obscure J-Fusion songs called Xerf Xpec, but it got taken down unfortunately. However, there are some archives of his playlists and some reuploaded Japanese Fusion playlists on KZbin. Counting the beats while listening, there weren't as many as I thought with odd time signatures, but several had unusual and intricate beats that kind of gave the impression of it. Still great music nonetheless! Hope you guys like them!

[@burresseffects]

I was reminded of the Japanese band POLYSICS. And Cardiacs. Two bands with a lot of wild time signature changes.

[@TVsBen]

I love how much effort you put into understanding the weird intro to the end credits for what was probably just an editing mistake where they cut the loop before the theme comes in to restart it. The rest of it is super cool. You put a lot of thought into how it works and broke it down really nicely.

[@tomlee7073]

This tune has more than meets the ear

[@MFPMapFilmProductions]

There is a recent release of this soundtrack on Vinyl where you can hear the original recording of the main theme in a much clearer form without post production manipulation to make the human voices sound more electronic. Its here on youtube and its nice to hear how predominant the female singer is as her voice becomes altered along with her male partner's and can no longer tell them apart.

[@scotthughey4280]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6G3mIh7p5hsbqM here?

[@remrodboing5992]

@@TakenTook Hey there, no I think MFP is refering to thise one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6G3mIh7p5hsbqM

[@elephaux5671]

Having listened to this and some of the other original recordings, I'm now convince the odd timing is intentional. When I was a kid I always assumed it was an editing thing but hey, every day is a school day!

[@lichtschluusseln3528]

Link,please. Edit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGHaYamMo82En9U

[@jeffkoenig7402]

@@lichtschluusseln3528 kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6G3mIh7p5hsbqM

[@OptimusPhillip]

I actually remember hearing that the "Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons" part was originally written as a spoken tagline, not lyrics (because the song was originally written as a jingle for commercials). I don't know if that explains anything, but it might be useful information to consider.

[@redstar7311]

I think whoever did the music was seeking to have a robotic, mechanical type beat. The melodies were meant to give a feeling of a battle that had been waging for eternity, with the horns providing a resolution. Great video!!!!

[@geoffprocter9164]

I know I'm late, but I can't see any other comments about it. The other song that dances around the circle is I Will Survive. Am, Dm7, G7, CMaj7, FMaj7, Bsomething (half diminished?), Esus, E, repeat