‘A slap in the face': RNZ's new theme music made in Australia
RNZ’s recent “sonic refresh” has provoked outrage from the local music industry in Aotearoa, with critics calling the move “tone deaf” and “a slap in the face” from the publicly-funded broadcaster. Beginning last week on May 28, during the final week of New Zealand Music Month, RNZ’s flagship news programmes Morning Report, Midday Report and Checkpoint launched new theme music, the first update in years. The outrage? It was created by a Sydney sound design studio called Song Zu.
“Everyone is quite shocked by it,” says Polly McKinnon, co-chair of the Screen Music and Sound Guild of New Zealand. Established in 2020, SMSG represents composers and designers who work for film and television in Aotearoa, as well as other media projects. “This is the perfect example of why we needed an organisation that can advocate for us,” she says. “We have this incredible talent pool here in Aotearoa, and there just seems to be this lack of confidence in our local talent, sometimes from our filmmakers and obviously now from our public broadcaster.”
The Sydney-based design company that made the theme worked in collaboration with New Zealand composer Jim Hall, but McKinnon says there was no need to take the production to Australia. “It was the right call for them to utilise a New Zealand composer but, that being said, it was the wrong call to have gone offshore to a studio in Sydney in the first place – we have everything we need here to produce world-class work.”
Prior to the update, the Morning Report theme had remained the same since 2014, composed by Wellington-based company Plan 9. David Donaldson of Plan 9 was equally shocked to hear that they had chosen to make the new music offshore. “I switched the radio on and heard they were doing an update, and then I heard them say it had gone to this Australian ad studio,” he says. “I was just kind of dumbstruck. You’ve got to be joking.” Read More…
