With multiple Oscar wins and several dozen more nominations under its belt, Netflix has established itself as one of the premiere contenders on the battlefield of the streaming wars. A feeling of prestige accompanies the Netflix experience when the resonant "Ta-Dum" audio flourish plays before a title. It's a big, warm hug that assures viewers they’re about to engage in high-quality content.
Engineered by Braveheart’s Oscar-winning Lon Bender, the "Ta-Dum" is the glorious result of the sound designer tapping his wedding ring on a nightstand, followed by the strum of a guitar played in reverse. In one of the strangest developments to come out of the streaming platform, Netflix’s VP of Product, Todd Yellin, recently confessed that the now-iconic sound wasn’t the only candidate for the intro. As covered in The Hollywood Reporter, Yellin recently told the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast that, in addition to the "Ta-Dum," the sounds of underwater bubbles and, more strangely, a goat’s bleat were amongst the prime choices for the Netflix intro.
Those options are all well and good, if a smidge weird, but Netflix missed the opportunity to get down and real funky with what its library of content has afforded it since the intro sound’s inception in 2015.
Just a year before, the big N splurged on a fat $250 million, multi-picture deal with Adam Sandler that was just renewed earlier in 2020 for another couple of movies. Like it or not, the Sandman is now as much a Netflix staple as Daredevil or the Stranger Things gang, and with the nasty amount of cash being burned on more Happy Madison movies, Netflix may as well have slapped a special sound byte from Sandler in front of every one of its original movies and shows from then until the end of time. No other studio could contain the polar energies of the universe in as quick and poetic a snapshot as a classic Sandler fart joke batting up for Roma’s own poop-centric motifs.
But if The Ridiculous Six or Murder Mystery, for some reason, don’t do it for you, it would be hard to say no to bytes from any other Netflix original. Rotations from the ever quotable Arrested Development, American Vandal, etc., though far from family-friendly, would ensure even the bottom-of-the-bin titles on the platform would start with a bang. On that note, is there anything more disrespectful than a distracted viewer ignoring the hours of creative work that went into producing a movie or show? Kicking off a Netflix Original with some smooth Tobias Fünke action or poop and wiener-related jokes would ensure all moods and attention in a "Netflix and Chill" session are pointed at the television and the television only -- as it should be. Netflix doesn’t burn through billions of dollars a year for you to snog your way through Marriage Story.
Similarly, Netflix could have taken a more utilitarian approach to their trademark opening by blasting an ear-bleeding air horn sound before their media plays. Lord knows how many people have fallen asleep while their show continues playing in the background, screwing up their viewing schedule. An annoyingly loud noise would alert viewers to the start of a new episode, letting them know they should stop it, or at least waking them up enough to help them continue their binge -- killing two troublesome birds with one simple stone.
It’s tough to argue against the relaxing yet invigorating power of the "Ta-Dum," but if Netflix ever decides it wants to step up their intro game, these suggestions are always up for grabs.