Why is older music still not being used?

[kantoskies]

When Best Wishes started, part of what helped give it a bigger sense of "newness" than before was not using any music from the previous series. Many people thought that with the start of Season 2, what with the old characters returning and pre-Gen 5 Pokemon getting the spotlight again, older music would start being used. Three years later and that still hasn't happened. I'm kind of confused about it; the whole "let's not reference the past" thing was kind of ditched in 2012 and while I agree that since it's the XY series the XY music should be what's primarily used, but there have been quite a few times that a pre-Unova track would have fit very nicely since this change (*cough*Kantoflashbackepisode*cough*)

Was it ever explained why they only use new stuff now? I thought that with that one XY preview (I can't for the life of me find it but it was a trailer for the overall series and it only had Kanto music in it) they would at least use some of the old tracks.

 

[FelipoDepot]

I think the logic is that by making all new music, they won't have to constantly resort to hundreds of tracks used in older series and movies. Like, to be a little more "modern", since a lot of the old tracks used up until DP are over a decade old. I don't know how well this has possibly affected viewership or profitability, though I do agree with the change to some extent. Frankly, a lot of tracks were tired out by the time DP ended, since they had been played so much, especially the Kanto stuff. Also, had they kept the old music, chances are that Shinji Miyazaki wouldn't have been contracted to compose as many tracks as he did for BW and XY. If you look at his arrangements made for DP, you'll notice that there's significantly less compared to other series, because DP was using BGM from over 10 years of the anime, as well as 11 movies, many shorts and other media. There just wasn't as much of a need for Shinji Miyazaki during that time, which is a shame.

Overall, I do believe the lack of older music (which I still like) is pretty beneficial, at least so that the anime feels a little fresher every few years. Because repetition gets tiring. And people don't really want that.

 

[JacobYBM]

XY feels like it re-uses the same few pieces a lot. I figure the older tracks aren't used much anymore because they have different sounds to them. With pieces from the first TV series one can literally hear the individual live pieces of the orchestra. The modern stuff is significantly more homogenized in that regard.

 

[Dogasu]

Last week's episode used a piece of music from 2008's Giratina and the Sky Bouquet, for what that's worth.

 

[Ampharos King]

What I want to know is why the BW series music was remixed for XY.

 

[ii kanji]

I'd love to hear some of the original older tracks, but I have to say that it's also been fun to hear the classic old themes being remixed this series. As far as I'm concerned, a mix would be ideal Glas to hear (based on Dogasu's above post) that old music is not a complete taboo.

 

[Alola]

XY feels like it re-uses the same few pieces a lot. I figure the older tracks aren't used much anymore because they have different sounds to them. With pieces from the first TV series one can literally hear the individual live pieces of the orchestra. The modern stuff is significantly more homogenized in that regard.

The Vs Wild Pokemon and Trainer Battle especially