This is the Japanese version of the theme song for 30 Rock. I don’t know the song being used here, but I do know that I love this sequence and it’s perfect and awesome. Enjoy!

Barely an update:
According to a commenter at SplitSider, the Japanese text on screen reads:
“The big hit throughout America! Winner of Emmys *and* Golden Globes!
Female television writer, struggling through life!
She’s confident when she’s producing live TV shows!
But, outside of work、she’s a somewhat timid heroine, facing challenges day after day, with no rehearsals!”
And the song might be called “Going All Night?” The end.

Last week, 30 Rock aired its live episode. The East Coast feed had Jane Krakowski singing lyrics along with the theme song; the West Coast had Cheyenne Jackson singing a different set of lyrics. I love adding lyrics to theme songs, obviously, so I hope you enjoy this! I did. So there you go.

I’m embarrassed to say that until I read this piece in The AV Club, I was not aware that the rapper Wale and I share a love of the show Seinfeld (with, like, everybody ever). He sampled the Seinfeld theme for the opening track to his Mixtape about Nothing. I really don’t know what it is about that bips and bass noises (by Jonathan Wolff) from Seinfeld, but they really set an upbeat, almost airy tone for a show without consequences. They’re fun:

And they feel really weird when distorted:

The above, by the way, is from Jerry and George, one of my all-time favorite webseries. You should watch it.

The 30 Rock theme song was written by Jeff Richmond, who was the musical director of Saturday Night Live, and is totally married to Tina Fey, and this is adorable.

This song, by the way, probably ranks in my all-time favorite themes. It’s upbeat and peppy and exciting. It definitely Gets You Ready to watch the show. And the visuals are very complementary. These actors are all having a good time. It feels a little like getting to watch comic actors warming up before making you laugh (recall the second season please).

Richmond also writes the incidental music for the series, and honestly the show has one of the best scores on TV. Next time you watch, pay attention to the recurring musical themes - they are a bit reminiscent of the way Arrested Development would use music as part of its recurring jokes (Mr F and Free At Last being examples of this). It’s all light and airy and fun.