Hey guys,
i was just wondering when and WHY did they change the music of the Bazar area?? I've been to DlP just 2 weeks ago and was pretty surprised not to listen to Alen Menken's gorgeous soundtrack of Aladdin anymore.
What was it instead? Maybe they put back the original music?
It was some oriental style music. The Aladdin soundtrack was not the original music? They played it since 1994...
No, Aladdin was released 2 years after DLP opened. It used to be gamalan and middle eastern music that was awesome.
That's interesting!!! Thanks for your information. So, probably it's back :)
Aladdin was released in 1992.
It was released in late 1992 in the US, that's right. In Europe it was one year later, in Winter 1993. I'd suppose that they changed the music loop after that, so 1994 sounds about right.
They changed it back to the way more appropriate Middle Eastern music (not sure if it's the original loop) in 2008 or 2009 already.
As conservative as I tend to be in these fields, I must say that the loop currently played in the Adventureland Bazaar courtyard is a tiny bit startling. I find myself trying to escape from it.
I suppose that if the area had been a bustling Arabian marketplace, as I'm sure the Imagineers intended it, the current/original music would have worked very well. It's very much "Fresh fish, we catch' em you buy 'em!/This bread/those fish/it's stale/they smell!"-type music. But it's not a bustling marketplace. It's a quiet little nook where people wait for their friends to return from the bathroom, and the music feels too busy.
The instrumentals to Aladdin are, dare I say it, possibly Alan Menken's best work. They're also atmospheric, soft and when played around the Bazaar, they felt like the beginning of an adventure. (I'm trying to avoid using the word "magical," but it's surprisingly difficult.) I'd much prefer them to return.
But yes, from a plausibility standpoint the current/original music does win, of course. It's hard to imagine a 50-strong Hollywood orchestra busking in Agrabah, although that is a hilarious image. I suppose it's a bit like Phantom Manor versus the Haunted Mansion — Physically probable music versus magically appearing cinematic music.
To me it's not so much a question of probable vs. abstract music... but a question of what mood you're going after. The old and current loop(s) convey a feeling of exotic adventure while the Aladdin one practically screams Hollywood musical. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's a question of preference... But one facet that really bothered me was that many tracks were very obviously meant to underline a specific sequence of action; not what you'd like to find in an area background music loop. Had they recorded a new loop based on the Aladdin score (like the one in TDS), I'd probably have appreciated it a lot more.
Well, what is Disney but a Hollywood musical? I suppose that's the thing; Hollywood musicals tend to take music from different lands and times and turn it into ditties and orchestrations pleasing to the modern Western gay man — I mean ear. The old/current loop hasn't quite made it all the way through that process, I feel. Whether you feel that's a good or a bad thing is indeed up in the air.
And that's a good point about the score having been tailored to very specific occurrences, but the mysterious hints at action were usually more than welcome in an area that has tended to be rather void of it ever since Streetmosphere has become so rare. Well, that was my take on it anyway. It was nice to be among the sandy slopes and think, "ah, this is where Genie talks about wanting to be free." Nowadays, one can only belly dance. Again, good or bad; up in the air.
I had to look up DisneySea's Arabian Coast loop. I was able to catch a little part of a reorchestrated version of "Arabian Nights:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYoYmOvk ... re=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYoYmOvkZTE&feature=related%22%20onclick=%22window.open(this.href);return%20false;) Very nice! We may have found a compromise.