Library Music
Located in 2 routes
Pre-recorded music held in a licensable catalogue ("the library"), written to order in every conceivable mood and idiom so a producer can license a finished cue cheaply and instantly rather than commission a bespoke score. The classic sound is the vinyl-era British and European library LP: crisp session-band funk, dramatic orchestral stings, exotica, jazz combos, moog experiments and mood pieces, all impeccably recorded and rigidly organised by theme. The aesthetic is functional yet often gloriously inventive, since composers enjoyed creative freedom off the commercial-charts clock. Craft markers include descriptive track titles, alternate mixes and the mood-indexed catalogue sleeve.
History
Library music dates to De Wolfe's silent-cinema catalogues (from 1909) and blossomed in the LP era through EMI's KPM 1000 "greensleeves" series and rivals Chappell, Bruton, Themes International and Italy's and Germany's houses. Between roughly 1965 and 1980, composer-arrangers such as Keith Mansfield, Alan Hawkshaw, Brian Bennett and John Cameron produced a vast, adventurous body of funk, jazz and orchestral cues that quietly soundtracked global television. Long dismissed as disposable, these records were rediscovered by hip-hop and dance producers and reissue labels from the 1990s onward, turning original library LPs into prized collector items and inspiring a modern crate-digging aesthetic.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- David Hollander, Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music (2018)
- Jonny Trunk, The Music Library (2005)
- Lukas Long, Music Library reissue notes