Music for TV shows
I just finished watching all of "Freaks and Geeks," the one-season 99-00 hour-long drama set in suburban Michigan in 1980. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a great show. Well written, well acted, well shot, funny where it's meant to be. It also has early-career turns by James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Jason Segel.
But what it has more than anything else is a perfect sense of how to use the music of its time (Billy Joel, early Van Halen, Kenny Loggins) and the music from years before that its characters would also listen to (The Who, Cream, The Moody Blues) and edit snippets of songs to encapsulate what is going on in a scene. This is done with 5-7 songs per episode. Brilliantly. There's one episode where they spend a lot of time talking about going to a Who concert, and they end up playing portions of 7 songs by The Who. I don't know of any show that's done anything like that before or since.
My point is that I've watched a lot of TV over the years, and I've certainly seen music used effectively before without being too cloying, sentimental, or overly obvious. But I've never seen it used this well. At least, if I have, I don't remember. Therefore, I nominate "Freaks and Geeks" for Best Use of Music in a TV Show.
Hit me up with your own nominees.
But what it has more than anything else is a perfect sense of how to use the music of its time (Billy Joel, early Van Halen, Kenny Loggins) and the music from years before that its characters would also listen to (The Who, Cream, The Moody Blues) and edit snippets of songs to encapsulate what is going on in a scene. This is done with 5-7 songs per episode. Brilliantly. There's one episode where they spend a lot of time talking about going to a Who concert, and they end up playing portions of 7 songs by The Who. I don't know of any show that's done anything like that before or since.
My point is that I've watched a lot of TV over the years, and I've certainly seen music used effectively before without being too cloying, sentimental, or overly obvious. But I've never seen it used this well. At least, if I have, I don't remember. Therefore, I nominate "Freaks and Geeks" for Best Use of Music in a TV Show.
Hit me up with your own nominees.