The News with Brian Williams was MSNBC’s signature news program, intended for viewers who missed NBC Nightly News. Shelly Palmer composed the musical identification package for the channel which included lots of contemporary instrumentation. This is the cut that was used to open The News and it includes the sonic signature that MSNBC used at the time.
Shelly Palmer – The News with Brian Williams theme
(11 votes, average: 4.18 out of 5)
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Love the new site, Victor!
I remember the days in-between the sunset of “America’s Talking” and the launch of MSNBC. There were “donut runs” of promotions for The News with Brian, along with a wonderful tech show called “The Site” with Soledad O’Brien, and a would-be competitor to Larry King called “Internight” with a rotating cast of NBC News icons (Brokaw did the first one, I believe, then Katie Couric). _This was the music_ used over, and over, and over, and over, behind most of the promos.
After several years, one realize this wasn’t such a bad piece at all; it was just overplayed. I think it was Palmer who wrote this song’s replacement for “The News,” which had a wonderful three-timpani punch plus the NBC chimes. And I remember what a relief it was to hear something different. All that said, this is actually a really good composition, and I miss the more melodic days of MSNBC.
By the way, do those five notes in the MSNBC cue sound familiar? Specifically, the first four? Think John Williams.
Hi Scott, are you able to be a bit more explicit as to your last paragraph about the nod to John Williams?
Also, I think this theme pretty much follows that trend of music using a mix of synthesizers and live instruments coupled with a contemporary feel, one of the examples is the music in the 1993-2001 Columbia TriStar Home Video logo which uses synthesizer coupled with strings and a brass section, Victor, I hope you put more details in relation to that trend.