The Quiet Genius Of A Really Good Theme Tune

Those few opening notes do heavy emotional lifting.

Three or four notes play and you are already grinning, before a single character appears. A great theme tune is a shortcut straight to your feelings.

Themes work as sonic branding. Repetition teaches your brain that this specific sound means comfort, adventure or home, all in a couple of seconds.

They also act like a bookmark for memory. Hear an old theme years later and it can drag a whole era of your life back in vivid detail.

That is why people resist skipping the intro. Those few bars are a small ceremony, the sound of settling in for something you love.