As of January of 2021, I am a fan of the reality TV show/ game show “Survivor.” I’ve watched about ⅔ of the 42 seasons and can’t seem to pry myself away from the forums, podcasts, and communities where fans discuss the abundance of content that CBS has provided in the form of “Survivor.”
There is a subset of “Survivor” fans who are really into the music that is used to score the episodes. In fact, there are communities of people who work really hard to source the music from the episodes, as the score isn’t uploaded anywhere and thus people have to edit out the voices of people talking over the music.
A few months ago, I discovered the subreddit r/survivormusic. On this subreddit, people create, share, and consolidate the aforementioned score edits. Among this community, there is somewhat of a legend, a YouTube user by the name of survivorfan191. This user is known for having the best score edits in the community, but one fateful day several months ago, copyright struck down these videos and subsequently user survivorfan191 seemed to disappear.
For a while, there was distress and disarray in the “Survivor” music community. Where had this user gone? Why were all of their videos suddenly gone? How else were they supposed to track down the edits survivorfan191 had created?
Then, around a month ago, they began reuploading past videos and even uploading content from the newest season of “Survivor.” Order had finally been restored to the “Survivor” music community, that survivor191 is carrying on their back.
I love these edits, they’re great study music and remind me of my favorite show. As all good music does, the score tells a story; I am eternally grateful to Russ Landau (the composer of the show’s theme song), the other talented musicians involved in the creation of the score of “Survivor”, and to survivorfan191 (along with other “Survivor” score editors) for allowing me and other fans to enjoy this music.
Until next time,
Caitlin
