Musical ponies getting the shaft?

[ManaMinori 4,149]

I have noticed for a while now that the only two musical ponies the fandom seems to believe exist are Octavia and Vinyl Scratch. While they have interesting designs- Vinyl Moreso than Octavia, it seems that the hyperfocus on these two have all but shafted all the other musician ponies- and there are quite a few.

Beauty Brass, Frederick Horseshoepin, Parish Nandermane, Levon Song, Meadow Song, Noteworthy, Royal Riff, and B. Sharp, to name a few. Most of these ponies have appeared on screen- and on stage- with Octavia long before Vinyl ever did. Yet unlike Lyra and Bon Bon who are frequently seen together (and shipped), the ponies who have appeared alongside Octavia....are not. Why is this? Should other musician ponies be getting their spot in the limelight?

 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Nightmare Muffin

[Envy 6,406]

Oh, I've noticed this for a very long time. It's clear pandering, and it's just annoying to always see Octavia and Vinyl.

To be honest, it makes me sad that they, for the most part, stopped creating unique musical pony background characters just to pander to those who like Octavia and Vinyl. I'd like to see more musical ponies and more musical instruments!

[ManaMinori 4,149]

12 minutes ago, Envy said:

Oh, I've noticed this for a very long time. It's clear pandering, and it's just annoying to always see Octavia and Vinyl.

To be honest, it makes me sad that they, for the most part, stopped creating unique musical pony background characters just to pander to those who like Octavia and Vinyl. I'd like to see more musical ponies and more musical instruments!

in fact, I think they should retire V and O for a while, and shed spotlight on the other musical ponies. Didn't Twilight say in Slice of Life, that everypony's story is worth telling? So everpony is important. Not just the ones who are hyperpopular and done to death.

Edited June 5, 2017 by Nightmare Muffin

[Jeric 46,884]

32 minutes ago, Nightmare Muffin said:

Why is this?

...

Also, I rarely feel 'pandering' is given as a valid criticism. I have yet to see a well thought out explanation of how it has negatively impacted the show. It is tossed around as a drive-by complaint and not elaborated on. It usually amounts to an 'I don't like it' approach and when asked I get more of that. Eventually I have to do this with the conversation. 

...

Lyra and Bon Bon were placed together for artistic reasons. Color theory and all that jazz. Straight from the staff's mouth. 

Prior to Slice of Life, how often did we see Vinyl and Octavia together? Please don't act like they've been doing that since Season 1 - they haven't. The reason they eventually did that is because the fans took two characters related by a common proto-talent and assumed they had contrasting personalities and creatively put them together in fan works, and then badgered show staff about it. 

The reason that you don't see this with every other character is tied to the economy of time and setting mixed with the obvious reason ... fans just were not as interested in some background ponies as they were others. Like I said, I don't feel that pandering is inherently bad, and until someone has shown me where it negatively impacts the story, I'm standing firm on that. 

I will applaud you Nightmare Muffins for at least not going the route of trying to ask why the boarders and directors are not shoehorning a character into a story idea just for the sake of doing it and instead focusing on background appearance. 

Personally, I would welcome new and visually interesting characters in the background that we haven't seen yet, and I certainly would not object to them having a musical talent. The ones mention certainly aren't that visibly interesting - even though I stole one of their color schemes for my ponysona.

[ManaMinori 4,149]

6 minutes ago, Blue Diamond said:

...

Also, I rarely feel 'pandering' is given as a valid criticism. I have yet to see a well thought out explanation of how it has negatively impacted the show. It is tossed around as a drive-by complaint and not elaborated on. It usually amounts to an 'I don't like it' approach and when asked I get more of that. Eventually I have to do this with the conversation. 

...

Lyra and Bon Bon were placed together for artistic reasons. Color theory and all that jazz. Straight from the staff's mouth. 

Prior to Slice of Life, how often did we see Vinyl and Octavia together? Please don't act like they've been doing that since Season 1 - they haven't. The reason they eventually did that is because the fans took two characters related by a common proto-talent and assumed they had contrasting personalities and creatively put them together in fan works, and then badgered show staff about it. 

The reason that you don't see this with every other character is tied to the economy of time and setting mixed with the obvious reason ... fans just were not as interested in some background ponies as they were others. Like I said, I don't feel that pandering is inherently bad, and until someone has shown me where it negatively impacts the story, I'm standing firm on that. 

I will applaud you Nightmare Muffins for at least not going the route of trying to ask why the boarders and directors are not shoehorning a character into a story idea just for the sake of doing it and instead focusing on background appearance. 

Personally, I would welcome new and visually interesting characters in the background that we haven't seen yet, and I certainly would not object to them having a musical talent. The ones mention certainly aren't that visibly interesting - even though I stole one of their color schemes for my ponysona.

the Canterlot ponies that tried to make friends with Twilight aren't visually interesting either, but yet THEY still got their own episode. Der[y isn't all that visually interesting, but look how many times she has gotten screen time, whether in the foreground or background. Ad since season 6 there have been DRASTICALLY more visual ponies in the background, but does anyone eve give them a second thought? Nope. Visual interest isn't really an  excuse when you look at what has already been canonically done (or not done).

[Jeric 46,884]

3 minutes ago, Nightmare Muffin said:

the Canterlot ponies that tried to make friends with Twilight aren't visually interesting either, but yet THEY still got their own episode.

Oh no. That episode didn't start with the question 'How do we use Canterlot ponies more?' It was about a strong theme and a throwaway line in the first episode. And they didn't get an episode. Twilight did. Moondancer was the objective and the conflict, and doesn't count as a background pony because she was never seen on screen until Amending Fences. The others helped serve the plot and theme ... it was most certainly not about them. 

And Minuette is not visually interesting? Whatchu talking bout Willis?

10 minutes ago, Nightmare Muffin said:

Ad since season 6 there have been DRASTICALLY more visual ponies in the background, but does anyone eve give them a second thought? Nop

For 1-3 weeks. Then they focus on the next dump of cool looking characters. Hence my comment that implied that there is an opportunity cost. But you probably missed that.

[Envy 6,406]

9 hours ago, Nightmare Muffin said:

in fact, I think they should retire V and O for a while, and shed spotlight on the other musical ponies. Didn't Twilight say in Slice of Life, that everypony's story is worth telling? So everpony is important. Not just the ones who are hyperpopular and done to death.

Problem is that Slice of Life was nothing but pandering. The morale of the episode was as clearly thrown together as the rest of that very sloppily written mess. So don't expect them to actually live up to that morale. Sadly the majority of musical ponies have fallen into the void.

They still do make some new ones. I remember last season they showed a saxophone playing pony:

But yeah, they really need to cut back on Octavia and Vinyl.

Beauty Brass is best pony!

[StormBlaze 993]

im quite happy to see more of Vinyl and Octi (love them) but the MLP music scene in general has all been shifted to Equestria Girls. Have you noticed the lack of songs in recent episodes? =c

Hoping that there will be a big music concert themed one with Sapphire Shores and Rara. 

[Meeps 298]

I honestly just thought, "eh, background ponies" and didn't give it another thought. As such, its never bothered me :/

[cmarston1 5,964]

To be honest I don't really care much for background ponies, the only musical ponies that I feel worth caring about are Countess Coloratura and Sapphire Shores.