Netflix
I was scrolling through Twitter a moment ago when I saw a headline from Mashable that caught my attention. It claimed the iconic Netflix ‘ta-dum’ intro sound involved a goat and the article told the story of how this sound came to be.
This is a sound I hear anywhere from 5 to 10 times a day. That ‘ta-dum’ you hear before every episode or movie as the Netflix logo rolls across the screen before anything plays. I can close my eyes right now and hear it clear as day. You know the one.
Need a refresher? Here’s the intro + sound.
Well, it turns out Netflix actually refers to it as the ‘ta-dum’ themselves. Former filmmaker and current Netflix VP of Product Todd Yellin recently appeared as a guest on the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast where he told the story of this sound’s origin. One version that was in the final running included the bubbling sound of the ocean, another version included a goat sound.
You can listen to the podcast clip below but here’s the quick rundown from Mashable on how this iconic sound came to be:
“Yellin enlisted Academy Award-winning sound designer Lon Bender for the project, giving him descriptors that conceptualize this sound: Tension, release, quirky, and more. Bender came up with 20-30 sound effects in different styles. For a long time, the frontrunner was close to the current ta-dum, but also included a goat noise. Yellin recalls liking something that bubbled like the ocean. But he didn’t care what it sounded like as much as how it made people feel. A focus group associated the early ta-dum with “dramatic” “interesting” “beginning,” and even “movie” without anyone knowing its purpose.
In the end, Yellin’s 10-year-old daughter made the decision when he was torn between his top five contenders. The finished logo was touched up, adding a “blossom” sound effect to the end — that’s the little swell you hear right before it cuts away, and that’s guitar from Formosa Group’s Charlie Campagna. All in all, it took a year to create the ta-dum we all now know and love.” (via)
I’ll be honest, I need to hear that goat sound. I cannot wrap my mind around what the Netflix intro would be like with the sound of a goat somehow incorporated. I can conceive of what ocean bubbles might’ve sounded like but the fact that there was a goat sound in the running is something I need to hear.
You can listen to the full episode of the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast right here:
This podcast left me with a feeling of wanting to take a road trip because I’ve had virtually zero time to listen to podcasts in the past six months without traveling anywhere in the car. Anyway…
And you can visit Mashable‘s article to fill in any gaps I might’ve left on this topic.