My girlfriend and I usually get along great, but there’s one aspect of each other that seethes underneath like a pair of scabs that won’t go away. I like wrestling, and she likes The OC. She hates wrestling for all the reasons that people that hate wrestling hate wrestling, and I hate the OC because it’s just such horrible filth. It’s two main characters couldn’t muster an emotion between them. It’s near-incestuous cast (though I suppose, not at all close to how incestuous Dawson’s Creek got) never seems to realize that there are other people in the world they could commiserate with. And finally, almost every episode climaxes in someone having a cocktail party, where everyone comes out in their finest and act like a bunch of whiny little bitches.
There is, however, one nice little feature to the show; Seth Cohen’s taste in music. Roughly every episode, he’ll name-drop a couple prominent indie bands for seemingly no reason other than he genuinely likes them. Sometimes they’ll go to concerts and talk openly about how much (band) rules, again for no reasons pertaining to the pithy melodrama. The music of the show is just sort of there, sitting on the side of the plate like chicory; it looks nice, but it’s not really necessary. The only function I can see to the music in The OC is to make Seth Cohen a likeable character to the geeks, while simultaneously making him look more like a geek to The OC’s core audience of 15-34 year old men and women that like to dress and talk like they’re on The OC.
Scrubs is another show that uses lesser-known artists’ music in their program. This can be blamed pretty well on Zach Braff and his heartfelt CD collection. The soundtrack to Scrubs and the soundtrack to Garden State (a CD that’s becoming ridiculously annoying, now that everyone considers it a CD to make out to in the basement of their parents’ home, when really it’s a CD full of songs meant to make you freaking cry, thus guaranteeing a generation of 14 year olds that will no doubt confuse the two) are very similar in tone to the point that it’s clear the same person put them together. The songs add a solid emotional base that always seems to match that of the light-but-touching philosophical montage that ends each episode.
This brings me to my point this week; TV soundtracks are kicking a whole hell of a lot of ass right now and I’d like to know why. Why are, all of a sudden, television executives allowing indie (read: only known to people who wear Belle & Sebastian buttons on their shoulder bags) bands precious air time on expensive dramas, and why are these bands, who are traditionally against selling out in any manner, allowing their music to these blatant forms of commercialism? And finally, what does this mean to the television and music industry in the long term?
Now, I’m not terribly old, but I don’t remember any show using real songs (as in, not written for the show but before and with no intent to sell it to make a quick buck) until Beverly Hills 90210. After that it was Baywatch and then Melrose Place, then to a lesser extent ‘hip’ sitcoms like Fresh Prince. I could be totally wrong about this, but I don’t think shows used real music at all until the early 90’s. Before this time, shows would simply make up artists to be fans of or to go see. This sort of made sense in a fictional context; since Zach Morris wasn’t a real person, why would he like a real band? Perhaps this is why they began using real artists in the first place; if Jane Andrews Mancini knows who Aimee Mann is, then somehow that makes her a more personable character. She likes not only the kind of music you like, she likes the exact same artist. This makes a character instantly more appealing, since if you stick the two types together, the character that enjoys music invented by the scriptwriter ends up sounding like a complete tool.
Sorry, I just proved myself wrong, as I came across the Miami Vice Soundtrack, which was clearly a pre-90’s thing. It still sucks though, so it doesn’t exactly change the main argument, in that while real music was beginning to seep into the television world, and in the process making characters slightly more real, but there was still a long way to go. Melrose Place was the next real step; not only did characters know real music, actual artists would show up and play their stuff live. This was a no-brainer for artists trying to be noticed. Millions of people watched Melrose Place every week, and if you got a spot on the show then you got them as a captive audience for the length of almost an entire song, an audience that didn’t necessarily watch MTV or listen to the radio. As was widely featured in her MTV biography, the show literally made the career of Christina Aguilera. Somehow, their soundtrack stunk, too, but that probably had more to do with licensing foibles than anything else.
And because The OC is the newest incarnation of the Melrose Place format, they’ve got their own concert venue where artists come and play a tune for a huge audience. However, instead of pop starlets like Christina, bands like Death Cab For Cutie show up. As well, they dedicated an entire episode to shilling Beck’s latest album, playing a handful of songs above the cheese weeks before the album became available. What the hell happened? Modest Mouse couldn’t get more than a couple hundred people showing up at his concerts 4 years ago, now everyone who’s ever watched The OC knows who they are. Why wasn’t Melrose Place talking about Jeff Buckley back in 1996? It’s not like it was a different audience. The exact same people watched Melrose Place that watch The OC. It’s not like indie music is particularly in right now, (or that Jeff Buckley was even particularly indie, having signed immediately to Sony and all), or that the market researchers have become any more savvy. They still don’t have a damn clue what any of us really want and never will. All I know is that sometime between the cancellation of Melrose Place in 1999 and the debut of Scrubs in 2001 there was a shift in aesthetics. Instead of trying to have a big name and a popular song attached to the format (which was basically the formula ever since the early Broadway shows of the 20th century), they chose music based on lesser-known bands (on purpose).
The easy answer is that attaining the licensing to indie-label acts is cheaper, and you’d be correct. Whenever a business is concerned, the bottom line is money. It costs $$$$$ to get a Coldplay track, but it only costs $$$ to get The Shins. However, I’ve got a theory that’s slightly more meaningful. Often, a person’s favorite song won’t be a popular one. Often, it’ll be a friend of theirs’ rendition of something that they did for only them, alone in their room one evening before they made out to the Garden State soundtrack. The reason for this is that everyone loves it when they think that a song is being sung to them. Now if, say, the executive producer of Smallville chose to use a song by U2 during a sad scene, there is a much higher chance of the audience absolutely not giving a shit about the characters than if they chose to use something by Remy Zero, because there is a much higher chance of the audience hearing that Remy Zero song for the first time on the show, which not only comes across as creative and emotional but also creates a bond between audience and character.
Now, this theory still doesn’t answer the question of why all these bands filled to the brim with artistic credibility are suddenly (and we’re talking in the last year or so here, so this is a fairly new phenomenon) licensing songs to television—quite possibly the lowest art form imaginable—and doing so in such a massive rate. In the last year there have been FOUR soundtracks released just from The OC, all filled with amazing songs by artists that traditionally would receive exposure only from word of mouth and the internet. Hell, they have a website for them that includes every song that’s ever been on the show lined up in an easy to find, easy to buy fashion. Not only is The OC up to date on who’s who in the indie world of music, they also apparently have a goddam time machine. Episodes for fall shows are taped in the late summer, yet The OC constantly plays and talks about music that gets released the week the show airs.
My theory on this is that bands like Death Cab For Cutie, The Bravery, Love as Laughter, Spoon, and all the others have their songs played on these shows for the money. It sounds like selling out, but not if you look at the particulars. Selling out constitutes changing something about the art for money. Having a song played or doing a performance on a TV show that not only supports independent music but shines a mainstream, monetary light on it isn’t at all selling out when you consider the alternative. The money they receive from these shows may help them avoid having to sign major label contracts with folks like Sony or Universal, where they’re sound will be closely monitored and censored to fit the required regime. Yes, some artists with major backings have artistic freedom and are able to explore. Most, however, are required to write hits and come up with radio friendly jingles. Also, at that point, the label owns the music, not the artist, and with that comes appearing in cell phone commercials (and as well, cell phone rings), McDonalds ads, MTV music awards and, finally, a guest spot on The Surreal Life should your band break up in spectacular fashion.
Another possible explanation is that, perhaps, they don’t have as much artistic credibility as we all think. It’s possible that they’re simply not popular enough to grab attention in other ways, and not marketable enough from a major label standpoint to garner a big deal, so they have to make do with appearing in the second last scene of last week’s episode where Ryan finds Marissa at school & basically accuses her of something happening between her & Trey while he was away. Given the choice, I want to live in the world of option A.
Finally, what does this mean in the long run? Is it a good thing that television dramas are using independent music to promote the emotions they try and convey? Absolutely. I’d rather have the Kaiser Chiefs in the background of my favorite shows’ world than Nickelback any day, and I don’t think anybody would disagree with me. Is it a good thing that these bands are promoting themselves in this particular format? I really don’t know. On one hand, it opens them up to a huge audience in which they simply could not touch otherwise. On the other hand, many fans of Wilco are going to be really pissed off that the preppy girls at school are crying along with him now, too.
Either way, business appears to be heading straight up. Just last week, it was announced that both The Arcade Fire and Interpol would lend unreleased tracks to the newest Six Feet Under soundtrack, thus giving fans of those bands a reason to buy a soundtrack to a show they may have never even seen. The same thing happened last Christmas, when The OC released their ‘Chrismakuh’ album, full of awesome bands’ new songs. It was enough to make me sit up and take notice and watch an episode or two of the show. It still didn’t make the show any good, but I’ll take what I can get with TV these days.
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NEWS
Kylie Minogue diagnosed with breast cancer
Kylie is currently undergoing tests at a first class medical facility in Melbourne in preparation for an operation this week by one of Australia’s leading surgeons. Thankfully tests so far have confirmed the earlier diagnosis that the cancer appears to be confined to the breast.
Today Kylie said: “My heartfelt thanks to the incredible number of people who have sent messages of love and support over the last two days. I want to reassure you that I am being well taken care of. Olivier is by my side and I have a lot of family and friends around me. I would also like to extend my best wishes to all of the other women around Australia and around the world who are dealing with the same illness”.
Kylie’s been touched by the many fans who have asked if they can send cards or flowers. She has suggested that instead well-wishers might like to make a small donation to the charities fighting Breast Cancer.
Jimmy out, Dinosaur in
JIMMY EAT WORLD will be replaced by DINOSAUR JR at this summer’s CARLING WEEKEND: READING AND LEEDS FESTIVALS.
The band were due to appear on the Main Stage on the Saturday in Reading (August 27) and Sunday in Leeds (28).
However, the group are now supporting Green Day in North America around the same time.
The rock veterans will play between The Charlatans and Roots Manuva.
The Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds Festivals will take place between August 26 and 28 at Richfield Avenue in Reading and Bramham Park in Leeds and will see Pixies, Foo Fighters and Iron Maiden headline over the three days.
–NME
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LINKS
Michael Chadwick is an excellent example as to what sets Insidepulse apart from other sites; great f*cking writers who can craft a story and suck you in. In this article, he talks about how he got into hip hop. Great stuff.
Mike Eagle has it completely right in his open letter to hip hop about the promotion of crack.
Shawn M. Smith thinks I’m cute and thinks that Rufus Wainwright, great musician that he is, is a complete dick. I completely agree with him there. One of my girlfriend’s teachers once had Rufus in his class, and said that of anyone, he figured Rufus would succeed the least. So it’s a popular opinion, really.
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Lyrics to Live by
Rock n Roll Girlfriend – Green Day
Geez…ha…
I got a rock and roll band
I got a rock and roll life
I got a rock and roll girlfriend
And another ex-wife
I got a rock and roll house
I got a rock and roll car
I plat the shit out the drums
And I can play the guitar
I got a kid in New York
I got a kid in the bay
I haven’t drank or smoked nothin’
In over 22 days
So get off my case
Off of my case
Off of my case
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Next week, I’ll talk about the ipod, and how strange it is to babysit one.
