It is hands down my favorite soundtrack of any tv quiz show ever. The suspension I felt as a kid while I watched the contestants struggle to get closer and closer to the Final question, was unreal. I was such a fanboy, that I even made my own Millionaire quiz using nothing but PowerPoint and low-res sound files I found on the internet. God bless you both, Keith and Matthew Strachan!!
Possibly one of the most iconic theme tunes of the past 20 years. You could go to any household anywhere in the world and they would have had their version of this theme on their television.
I just realised that those four notes repeating are exactly the very old "dies irae" theme (representing death and suffering). The increase in pitch goes along with the supposed increase in the tension and suffering of the candidate. This blows my mind. ^^"
Let's be honest. Millionaire is the reason quizzes are how they are today. Before Millionaire, every quiz was bright, colourful, joyful music. Now, it's tense, dark, gloomy and dramatic. Without Millionaire, gameshows would be very different. Rave music was also good. Nothing can change my mind about that.
R.I.P. Matthew Strachan Thank you for everything It was an honor for me to touch this format by participating in the Russian version of the show this year
If you wanna go for emotions, all hope is “lost” in knowledge of the question (generally), lifelines may be all gone, if not 1 remaining, and you make or break potentially the rest of your life off the one question. To top it off, the suspense mimicking a heartbeat is what contestants may usually feel with the previously mentioned attribute. The soundtrack’s amazing, and how it gets more and more suspenseful the higher you go is something that seems cliché, but it works
The composers definitely knew how the music for this show needed to sound. Listening to these brings back memories from the early 2000s. I had so many good times watching this show.
I remember this show airing during the height of the Pokemon boom in the late 90's/early2000's, when I was like 8, and my mom pulled me out of the shower to help figure out the answer to a half-a-million dollar question that was asked "Which of the following characters is NOT a Pokemon? Jigglypuff, Frodo, Squirtle or Pikachu?" The guy couldn't answer it and walked with $250,000.
6:14 Lights to the Centre 100 10:09 Lights to the Centre 2.000 13:00 Lights to the Centre 4.000 15:51 Lights to the Centre 8.000 18:40 Lights to the Centre 16.000 26:15 Lights to the Centre 32.000 29:07 Lights to the Centre 64.000 35:53 Lights to the Centre 125.000 39:57 Lights to the Centre 250.000 42:57 Lights to the Centre 500.000 46:27 Lights to the Centre 1.000.000
I love the granular precision of this soundtrack. Not just different tracks for right and wrong answers, but different versions of both depending on which question you're on (except for the first few). Different tracks for each "lights to centre", different tracks for each question, different tracks for each final answer. Different tracks also for the various stages of Fastest Finger First, for explaining the rules, for introducing the contestants, for going to commercial break, and so on and so forth. No matter what's happening, there's a specific track set aside for it, which may be similar to other tracks but is not the exact same one. If you have a good memory and a good ear, you can usually tell precisely where you are in the episode just by listening to the music.
You can find a clip of the unaired "Cash Mountain" pilot, and it's hilarious how the show is *almost* there, but is stuck with dating show lighting and happy-smiley pop music, because that's was what game shows were. The stage was the same, but, bright and happy.....but the panopticon, they had it in their minds. Someone knew there was something more here, they hired the Strachans, and the rest is history.
Great to have this clear again and these have the special 32,000 WIN and 64,000 LX Down. Still one of the best OST's to this day, and with a wonderful show to boot!
Thank you for my childhood and until today, Matthew Strachan. I found out from my mom's diary about me growing up, that when I was only 1 year and 3 months, I was in love with this program (it was in 2005), and now I'm 18... I always liked programs, where you need to think, include logic and sometimes trust intuition. But this is my favourite program forever. It always makes me calm, when I'm into the game too. This is my relaxing, to improve my knowledge. Thanks to all of people who creat this program for years. A lot of respect from me
Not only music for the world's top quiz show and my favorite, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?", this man is the original composer for "Brainiest", "The People Versus" and the short-lived interactive game show for the 49ers, "Winning Lines" along with his dad, Keith. You're all gonna love him! R.I.P Matthew Strachan, a talented musician and a true "millionaire". P.S. I always love his music!
I remember the early 2000’s when we would sit on our couches and watch Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in the dark on our heavy grey-screened Sony or magnovox tv’s. It was a heck of a time that we’ll never get back.
"Who Wants to be a Millionaire" is a British classic everyone loves! Too bad it's discontinued here in Czech republic, but I wouldn't miss a single episode while it lasted!
@Dan He Most countries use the rave soundtrack under the Olga Van Den Brandt graphics pack, Netherlands, Urugray, Australia (Special Events), the list goes on.
This is incredible. The only thing that would make things perfect is if we got an extended version of stuff like the 500 000 question, but until that gets uploaded, I'll take this for sure.
50:56 Am I the only one who misses the old, nightmare-inducing music that played when you got the $1,000,000 answer wrong? Cause using the standard "wrong answer" horn kinda takes away from that catastrophic feel that it should have knowing that you got, y'know, THE FRIKKIN' MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION wrong
