Features

I can't get it out of my head

The soundtrack of our times is to be found on television thanks to the meteoric rise in popularity of TV series that help catapult songs and groups to the top of the music charts

In an episode of the series Grey's Anatomy, first broadcast in 2006, the song How to Save a Life by The Fray appeared. The series' music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas, had seen the band in Los Angeles and decided to use their music for the soundtrack of the popular series. What's more, the series used the music as if the scenes it accompanied were promotional video clips. It was an immediate success and How to Save a Life quickly became the official anthem for the series.

The presenter of the Feedbac programme on Ràdio Flaixbac, Albert Planadevall remembers that the song and the band, until then unknown here, became regulars on radio thanks to the series. Planadevall stresses that radio stations continue to play an important role where music and TV series are concerned. The radio is the most likely place to first hear that tune you can't seem to get out of your head: “The telly is a medium we take into account,” he says.

However, the radio presenter points out that Grey's Anatomy is not the only series to act as a platform for launching a song. Planadevall also remembers playing songs like I'll Be There For You by The Rembrandts, used in the comedy series Friends, or Searching My Soul by Vonda Shepard, used in the series Ally McBeal. No doubt the volume of series now on TV plays a part in helping tracks to the top of the charts.

The television has also given rise to instrumental pieces recognisable from their opening bars, and Planadevall uses the example of The X-Files. The title music by Mark Snow is now a typical choice whenever radio stations introduce a mystery.

The arrival of the first crop of US series was accompanied by CD releases of musical compilations. In 2007, a compilation for Grey's Anatomy went on sale, and which included tracks by Rilo Kiley, Joe Purdy and Jamie Lidell, as well as Snow Patrol, whose track Chasing Carsbecame the signature tune. In less than 10 years, things have progressed quickly in this sense: “I loved House and I found a personal blog that compiled all of the songs used, by scene and episode,” remembers the Ràdio Flaixbac presenter.

Lost was another series with an important musical component that led to the reemergence of classic songs. The music appearing in the first episode of a second season of a successful series is key, as in the example of Lost. The season begins with references to the Dharma mythology that places the action in the seventies. As the character featured wakes up, we see a vinyl record and hear the song Make Your Own Kind of Music by Mama Cass Elliot. It is in this way that the series repopularised past songs for a new generation hearing the music for the first time. Among the list of classic hits in the series are Wonderwall by Oasis, Shambala by Three Dog Night, Downtown by Petula Clark, Catch a Falling Star by Perry Como, Are You Sure by Willie Nelson, These Arms of Mine by Otis Redding and Slowly by Ann Margret.

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