Sideways (not to be confused with the film or comic book of the same name) is a music theory Youtuber that focuses primarily on dissecting and explaining the methodology of movie soundtracks and what makes them work. His videos are primarily between ten and thirty minutes long, with a few essays focused on the music behind the 2012 movie adaptation of Les Mis and the 2019 Cats film.
His various videos can be found here.
He also has a Patreon, which can be found here.
[Sideways] provides examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: "How To Listen To Music Incorrectly And Find Superman In The Avengers (2012)", he does discuss the title topic for a while, but it's not what he truly heard in "Portals" while watching the movie. That would be Linkin Park's "In The End".
- Blatant Lies: During the Les Mis video, released during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Sideways begins by saying that it's appropriate and poignant to do a musical about a revolution because...Sideways: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IS GOING ON. DON'T WORRY, EVERYTHING'S FINE. THERE'S NOTHING HAPPENING. JUST STAY AT HOME AND WATCH THE NEWS.
- Deathly Dies Irae: Discussed in his video on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, on how all the various motifs in the music contain a fragment of the Dies Irae in some way, foreshadowing all the death and misery that's going to happen to these characters. He points out that the only character whose theme doesn't contain part of the Dies Irae is Anthony, who doesn't die, doesn't kill anyone, and in fact rescues Johanna from death at the end of the story, thus setting him apart from the rest of the cast.
- Dramatic Irony: When describing the production of the soundtrack for Avatar, Sideways notes that it mirrors the story of the movie.Sideways, speaking: Oh boy! Making something that'll walk, talk, and act like it's from the native culture, but isn't? Why does that sound familiar? ... It's like they didn't even bother to watch their own movie, because the story behind this soundtrack is ironically familiar.
- Gilligan Cut: During "Why the Music in Cats (2019) is Worse than you Thought," he plays a clip from the special features of Les Misérables (2012) where the conductor describes the struggle of having to keep up with the actors' performance, but that "it's really worked." Smash cut to a title card reading: It did not.
- "I Am" Song: Discussed in his video on Cats, and how all the cats spend time building themselves up only to be swept away by the sheer emotional pain in "Memories".
- "I Want" Song: Discussed in his video on Cats, and how effective it can be in eliciting sympathy from an audience- Grizabella's "I Want" Song is what turns the entirety of Cats on its head.
- Leitmotif: In his video, "How To Evolve A Leitmotif".
- Musical Spoiler: "The Hidden Message Behind Rey's Theme" sees his analysis of said theme (prior to The Rise of Skywalker's release) accurately deduce an important part of the movie... and that's sadly not a good thing, because said theory was that Rey's theme being strangely related to a massive number of other Leitmotifs meant that
the trilogy's production was such a mess, John Williams didn't have access to proper plans for the story and had to cobble together a music piece that would work in almost any situation. - Ominous Pipe Organ: "Why Pipe Organs Sound Scary", of course. The video is a full essay, but to give a summary, it boils down to idea association in the early days of cinema. Organs are extremely complex to operate and allow one to effectively become a one-man orchestra, meaning that someone associated with organs is characterized as a solitary, ambitious genius (notably pining Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) making Henry Jekyll an organist as an early example); and their heavy relation to religious imagery quickly leads to creepy organ music being the "corrupted voice of God".
- Rage Breaking Point: Reaches it in his video on the Cats 2019 movie, after realizing that Hooper was allowing his actors to make up the tempo of the musical numbers on the spot.Sideways: Hey Tom! Tommy! Tombo! Mah Man! If you wanted to capture the live energy of a real performance, maybe you could, I dunno, treat it like a real performance!
- Villain Song: While they do get discussed a number of times, there's a special mention to, of all things, "On The Open Road" from A Goofy Movie. While there is obviously no real villain in a Road Trip Plot about a father trying to reconnect with his son, Sideways points out that fundamentally, this song hits all the marks of a proper villain song, being all about how Goofy intends to ruin Max's plans for the holidays, making him technically the antagonist of the movie. The one difference is, Goofy doesn't actually know he's doing anything wrong.
