Jim Johnston Discusses Increasing Use Of Licensed Music In Wrestling
Jim Johnston, the man behind many of WWE’s iconic musical themes, shared his thoughts on the increasing trend of using licensed music for wrestler entrances and other moments in a recent appearance on the Conversations with Conrad podcast.
According to Johnston, while the impact of using such music can be palpable, depending on a fan’s emotional background, it may not incite the desired emotional impact.
Discussing how popular music that fans may have heard before alters their perception of the wrestler associated with it, he said,
“The difficulty with outside music is people already have association, emotional associations with it. So, if you hear a song and it takes you back to, ‘Oh, that’s when I first kissed my wife in the car that night after dinner.’ That’s great, but that’s not what you want people in an arena to be thinking about, when you’re most important guy is coming out.”
“You want them thinking about your most important guy. When Undertaker’s music plays, you only were thinking about Undertaker. You weren’t thinking about when you kissed your wife for the first time. Using outside music as an entrance theme I think can make the wrestler feel good about himself maybe, but that’s the end of positives in my opinion. Now it’s misleading.”
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