Finding the artists and titles of songs played in TV shows.
Back in the
Seventies and Eighties, the background music played in TV shows was pretty awful
and usually written especially for the show. Remember
Kojak or
Banacek chasing criminals to a background of some fast and furious
instrumental music?
Nowadays the songs played in the background to romantic or dramatic scenes in
such shows as The Vampire
Diaries, The Secret Circle,
True Blood,
Greys Anatomy,
Supernatural, etc
are usually good songs by established or up and coming acts, and are played to
tie-in with the details of the scene being played out .
For example, one of my favorite bands, the Irish trio
The Script, were featured heavily in
Ghost Whisperer
at the beginning of the show with their UK hit
The Man Who Can't Be Moved and while I won't comment on what I think of the
storyline involving Jim and Melinda, the song fits and the exposure they got
there certainly helped them break out in the USA.
Similarly,
the band Carolina Liar has been played a lot
on TV recently. Several of their songs have been used in TV shows, and the band
performed their first single "I'm Not Over" on
90210. Other songs,
including "California Bound" and the very impressive "Show Me What I'm Looking
For", have been featured on
Gossip Girl.
They've also had songs played on
Army Wives and
several on The Hills.
People in the TV world are often asked how to find the artist and titles of the
songs played in these shows. The fan forums are full of questions like 'What was
the song played in last nights episode of ...?' or 'Who sang that song in the
closing scene of ...?' Some devoted fans collect every song played in every
episode of their favorite shows and there is often a heated online debate as to
who the singer was on a particularly good song. Several websites have sprung up
over the last few years that list the songs played on shows, with the artists
and titles, such as our favorite,
TunesOnTheTube.tv.
Trouble is
that often, when a series is shown in other countries, the songs played may be
entirely different. Perhaps the legal rights to a song are not available in
France, or Germany, so the song played in the American screening of a show is
substituted overseas with a different one. The same goes for the DVD release of
shows. For various reasons the DVD version of, say
Supernatural, may
feature different songs and singers than the TV version.
I sometimes find that listening to the music playing in the background is more
interesting than the shows themselves, and I take an interest in whether artists
who are featured more than others get the recognition they deserve. There is no
doubt that exposure on top TV shows is nowadays a major part in getting a band
or singer the success they seek.