View Full Version : Looking for "fifties" style music...


Brent Hallman
April 4th, 2013, 08:38 PM
Does anyone know of any royalty free tracks out there in the following style of music??

Jack Strachey - Lambs In Clover - YouTube

It is proving to be a hard style to match!

Battle Vaughan
April 4th, 2013, 11:03 PM
This sounds like the "film music" from the 30's or 40's, to my aging ears.
You might try some of the previews at these places:

1930S Royalty Free Music | 1930S Stock Production Music (http://www.pond5.com/music/1/1930s.html)

Royalty Free 30's - 40's Music (http://www.neosounds.com/?mod=royalty-free-music&category_id=88)

www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/royalty-free-music-loops/retro/

Some of the tracks have pretty good reproduction, so a little EQ or something like a phone filter might give the "vintage" sound to these higher-quality tracks, if necessary.

Graham Bernard
April 6th, 2013, 12:57 AM
Yeah, well, no.

To my 1951-ears, this is typical of that smalchzy, glissando-rich, slippery-sloppity lack of imagination and post war attempt of frivolity that was bound up in the new age of the Festival of Britain, the austerity and poverty of aspiration that was created by a greyed-out, tired-out, war weary nation of the UK. However, and as a reaction, this period brought to the fore the angry writers & poets and eventually the '60s which was the coming of potency and age of that era of Rockers and Teds that delivered the 4 Boys from Liverpool and the not so publicly-savoury London based Stones.

"Lambs In Clover": Yeah, kinda of sums up that whole period of look-the-other-way dreariness that epitomises the denial of post War UK: The "Mustn't grumble" and "You've never had it so good!" attitudes.

So, unfortunately, and until shown the error of my reasoning and thought, that music and even its title, places it fairly and squarely in the early '50s.

Now the '30s, '40s with the big bands, bebop . . . . Woodie Herman and Benny Goodman Very rich . . . .

Grazie

Allan Black
April 6th, 2013, 01:24 AM
What Grazie said, look in the 50s bins Brent .. gulp! I just saw the price here but it's a start I guess ...

http://www.stockmusicsite.com/stockmusic/search/search_core.cfm

Cheers.

Paul R Johnson
April 6th, 2013, 01:39 AM
The example is one of those musical strands that was composed in an old style, so has it's roots in the 1930s, but was being used up until the very early 70s as incidental music. Apart from his obvious Gerry Anderson work, Barry Gray was pretty expert at composing in that style. It's a bit like people today still writing music that sounds a bit like Depeche Mode or the other 80s popular bands - it's 30 years old style.

Much of the original music would be out of copyright now - so if you can find it - it could be free! as in no money free, not copyright free but expensive. Some of the old 78s can sound pretty good with a bit of eq and click removal. Not sure of the exact copyright period in other countries on the recordings - 50 yrs? If some then there could even be better quality records around?

Steve House
April 6th, 2013, 06:35 AM
...
Much of the original music would be out of copyright now - so if you can find it - it could be free! as in no money free, not copyright free but expensive. Some of the old 78s can sound pretty good with a bit of eq and click removal. Not sure of the exact copyright period in other countries on the recordings - 50 yrs? If some then there could even be better quality records around?Not likely to be out of copyright. Most music published after 1923 is still under copyright. Even if the music (melody and lyrics) itself has entered the public domain, virtually ALL recordings ever made, going all the way back to the days of original Edison cylinders, are still covered by their own independent copyrights.

Christopher Young
April 6th, 2013, 08:45 AM
Does anyone know of any royalty free tracks out there in the following style of music??

Jack Strachey - Lambs In Clover - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_IEUuPaH7Y)

It is proving to be a hard style to match!

Traditionally known in the UK as 'Light Music'. Post war Britain grew up listening to this stuff on the BBC. As someone else posted the baby boomer generation of the sixties had consigned most light music to the pages of history by the end of that decade. Based on traditional English 'Promonade' music. Hard to find royalty free but you can negotiate rates with the 'Light Music Society". Contact:

How to hire items from the Library of Light-Orchestral Music (http://www.lightmusicsociety.com/how-to-use-the-light-music-library/)

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Paul R Johnson
April 6th, 2013, 10:59 AM
Here in the UK, something written by someone who died before 1943 is ok to use, and recordings made before 1963 are no longer in copyright. Some recordings from the late 50s are amazingly good quality, even when judged by todays standards. I assume the US offer more protection if we're talking about 90 years, rather than our 50/70 years.

Eugene J. Kulak
April 6th, 2013, 01:32 PM
You might try Smartsound.com. They have an album titled "playtime" which may work for you, or you can search their site using "playtime, fun, happy" etc."

Joe Garrick
April 11th, 2013, 05:38 PM
I've found some good stuff in here (not specifically 50s):
Free Music Archive (http://freemusicarchive.org/)

Not just royalty free, but most of it is completely free.

Trevor Dennis
April 12th, 2013, 05:07 PM
pond5 has already been mentioned. I investigated a license for a limited use of Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man a couple of months back, and got a bit of a shock when quoted NZ$1600. I was still looking at around the US$150 mark as I hunted through the stock music sites, but ended up with a presentable sound file for just US$25 at Pond5

Glory and Honour (Epic Action Trailer) Royalty Free Music Track - 11358112 (http://www.pond5.com/stock-music/11358112/glory-and-honour-epic-action-trailer.html)

It does not come close to having the impact of Fanfare, but I was pleased to get away with the low fee.