M-XXXX Background Music Titles

[Pretorious]

I've seen people on this forum refer to pieces of music from DBZ with codes like "M1131" for titles.

Where does this come from? Is this some fan-made convention? Did this guy on Youtube start this?

http://www.youtube.com/user/MegaExupery/videos?view=0

I have never seen these type of titles used on soundtrack CDs.

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

The M number convention was used by the music staff at Toei for organizational purposes. They're listed in the booklets that come with the OSTs.

[Pretorious]

Thanks! They are not listed as track titles, or even next to the titles on the 5 disc collection I have, but I looked at the booklet and each piece has several paragraphs of Japanese text that I can't read. Some of them--though not even close to all--mention M-numbers. Some have other kinds of numbers like G-numbers and J-numbers, but I don't know what those refer to. Does anyone else?

Is there a translation of the booklet of this set online? It's the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z: Daizenshuu set featured on this page:

http://www.kanzenshuu.com/music/sets/

[linkdude20002001]

I wish. Kenisu might have, but I doubt it. He's at least documented most(all?) of the music on his site.
http://kenisu.webs.com/

[VegettoEX]

I'm pretty sure we barely knew any of the M-XXXX catalog numbers for any/most/all of the tracks until the three-disc BGM collection set came out in 2006. The inside booklet lists the numbers for the tracks that it does include:



Since the set doesn't include EVERY bit of BGM, there are still some numbers we aren't sure about / can't confirm.

[Pretorious]

Thanks very much, you guys! This totally answers my quetsion. Linkdude, that website is incredibly comprehensive.

By 2006 I had fallen out of fandom, and only came back late last year, so I guess that's why this is new to me.

[kenisu3000]

I wish. Kenisu might have, but I doubt it.

I started to when I first got the Daizenshuu set, but that was 11 years ago, when I knew very little about Japanese. That's how we wound up with embarrassing mistakes like my believing that the last cue on "Prevent it! Cell's Perfect Body" was a combination of M1120A and M1120B - because both were mentioned in the liner notes for that track, so obviously both of them must be on there, right? It couldn't possibly be because they were mentioning M1120A as being the unreleased alternate take, now could it!

I do plan on translating the whole thing someday, as well as the BGM Collection's liner notes (some of which are just reprinted from the 5-disc set), now that I'm much better-equipped to take on the task, but seeing as how long it's been since I've been back to polish the actual episode documentation, you can imagine how long that could take me to get around to. I have a nasty habit of taking on too many projects at once.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the reason the M-numbers caught most Western fans off-guard is because most of us were native English speakers, and all that Japanese in the liner notes daunted us, so most Western fans must not have noticed the M-numbers hiding in there among the funny squiggles... and the BGM Collection from '06 was the first time Columbia listed the M-numbers directly on the tracklisting, under each track name. I myself only vaguely had the idea that the M-numbers were production numbers when I first noticed them, and since then I've learned a great deal more about the things and how they work, and how different productions use different conventions for numbering.

[linkdude20002001]

I hope you do one day. ^.^
Do you still want scans of the pages of my booklet that yours is missing? We got a printer/scanner and this one actually works. :p

[kenisu3000]

I looked at the booklet and each piece has several paragraphs of Japanese text that I can't read. Some of them--though not even close to all--mention M-numbers. Some have other kinds of numbers like G-numbers and J-numbers, but I don't know what those refer to. Does anyone else?

Ah, I overlooked this part of your question. You should be interested in this topic from a couple of years back.

The cues that begin with letters before "M" were part of what Shunsuke Kikuchi was commissioned to compose for the first scoring session, before the series began airing. Each letter represents a specific theme or idea - as near as I can tell, A denotes an instrumental arrangement of "Makafushigi Adventure" (which sort of doubles as Goku's leitmotif), while B indicates the same for "Romantic Ageru Yo" (Bulma's leitmotif), and so forth (expounded upon in the thread I linked to). After that, they settled on "M" for all subsequent cues.

And now that I've said that, I'm sure kei17 could pop in here and tell me what I got wrong

[Pretorious]

Ah, I overlooked this part of your question. You should be interested in this topic from a couple of years back.

I was so satisfied by seeing what the M-numbers corresponded with that, for a bit, I forgot about that part of my question too. Haha. Thanks again to all of you for this wealth of information. Y'all are awesome.