Whedonesque : Comments on 17675 : EW's 15 TV Shows Where Music's a Costar.

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.

September 23 2008

EW's 15 TV Shows Where Music's a Costar. Buffy makes the list!

hellboy | BtVS | 21:45 CET | 18 comments total | tags:

Not a bad wee list actually. I will always associate Pavlov's Bell with Buffy.

Simon | September 23, 21:51 CET

As will I the Sundays, Simon.

Chris inVirginia | September 23, 22:12 CET

They got a Veronica Mars scene reference wrong. How dare they?

Um, I mean, yay for Buffy. ;)

skittledog | September 23, 22:17 CET

They got a Veronica Mars scene reference wrong. How dare they?

I was just about to post this! Thank you for being as big a Veronica geek as me.

daedreams | September 23, 22:26 CET

Me, I found out about a lot of these groups only because they got played on Buffy. And let's not forget some of the less-current selections; the first time I heard "I Only Have Eyes For You" on the radio, I was working alone in a bookstore and just about freaked out.

Also, let's not forget some of the music written for the show, and I'm talking more than just OMWF -- the three love themes, the music for Restless and The Gift and Chosen, all were amazing. Plus the Main Theme itself, which will always and instantly kick me into high gear when I hear it.

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | September 23, 22:56 CET

They got a Veronica Mars scene reference wrong. How dare they?

Yeah, that's one of my not-favorite songs, along with
"Rob Thomas" by Veronica Mars. Has EW fired their fact-checking people, too? The sky is falling.

[ edited by dreamlogic on 2008-09-24 03:26 ]

dreamlogic | September 24, 03:25 CET

Aha, 'Dashboard Prophets' are a band ? Now I know where "the poster formerly known as ..." got their name ;).

Gotta mention Sarah MacClachlan when you talk about (non-score) Buffy music IMO, 'Full of Grace' added immeasurably to 'Becoming Pt II', pushed it from very good to great for me. I can't actually listen to it anymore because it's permanently associated with a bad time for me but it's still an absolutely beautiful song.

Saje | September 24, 10:59 CET

I can't believe they could leave Supernatural off a list like this. C'mon, I still can't listen to "Bad Moon Rising" in my car if I'm driving at night.

Serefina716 | September 24, 13:12 CET

What, no Ally McBeal?

Ow, and ode to Cibo Matto and their Sugar Water. That's about the only song that comes to my mind when I think of Buffy and songs. That and the performance by K's Choice. But only because the lady comes from where I live.

[ edited by kaiuno on 2008-09-24 13:20 ]

kaiuno | September 24, 13:18 CET

Not a bad wee list actually. I will always associate Pavlov's Bell with Buffy.
Simon | September 23, 21:51 CET

Me too. Especially since it was in Sleeper, my favorite episode of season 7 & one of my favorites of the series. I'd never heard Amee Mann before, now I have lot of her stuff.

BtS also introduced me to Biff Naked and Heather Nova. Music was so often used so perfectly, as Sarah McLachlin's Full of Grace (mentioned up-thread), which lifted the end of Becoming pt2 to something transcendently heart breaking.
Same for Michelle Branch's Goodbye to You, at the end of Tabula Rasa.
Those last two endings still move me to tears, and the music is definitely a huge factor in that.

Shey | September 24, 13:35 CET

Serefina716, Classic Rock (it's a radio programming classification, with capital letters) can't really count in this category. If you're not in the US, I can certainly see how you might not get how that drastically over-used programming style might disqualify itself here. But the use of the music in Supernatural is usually good. And Supernatural is an excellent show whose network might get cancelled soon. And then what? It's not like there's still a UPN. Maybe one of the satellite/cable channels that I can't get, that are just numbers?

dreamlogic | September 24, 13:43 CET

The music on Buffy was brilliant. I can't even count how many artist's CDs I bought after hearing them on Buffy for the first time. Whoever picked out the music for Buffy was a freaking genius.

Devic's Key, K's Choice's Virgin State of Mind, Bush's Out of this World, so many songs where the scene was just kicked up to the next level because of the music.

And then add in the beauty of the soundtrack background kind of music. Brilliant.

Xane | September 24, 14:44 CET

Serafina716 I couldn't agree more! The music is like the 4th character (the Impala being the 3rd, of course) ;-)

Kudos to including Buffy & VM, even though their reference is indeed incorrect.

[ edited by svt121 on 2008-10-03 23:21 ]

svt121 | September 24, 18:16 CET

Actually I have now noticed there are two distinct incorrectnesses, which is not a word but I don't care... they are not breaking up in the Fidelity scene, and the band and song are vice versa for the other. I guess that probably means someone did actually watch the show and just remember it wrong rather than only looking up some info to write the list, anyway.

Anyway, on topic, yes - Full of Grace is the Buffy music usage that still absolutely kills me even when I hear it outside of Buffy. Zaps me straight back to that hollow feeling, staring out at the dulled world through a grey bus window...

Ow.

skittledog | September 24, 20:29 CET

Can't forget "Blue" in CWDP, written by our own Master.

Glad to see so much love for "Full of Grace". A dear friend just gave me a cd of Buffy songs and I've heard it about six times in as many days. Even my daughter can sing it now.

Willowy | September 24, 23:35 CET

Virgin State of Mind by Ks Choice is one of my very favorite songs ever since I heard it on Buffy. Other favorites: Blue, Sugar Water, and I can't believe nobody's mentioned "Lucky" yet. What a song! I got over the Parker association because it's just so wonderful.

Does anybody else have something called the Buffy Ultimate Soundtrack? It has 34 tracks. I don't think it exists as a CD, maybe it's a fan compilation, but it rocks my world.

Sabbrielle | September 25, 03:23 CET

Ah yes, Lucky is great and I just enjoy it for itself without remembering anything about Parker. (Although the irony of its use there maybe ought to earn it a few bonus points just for evilness.)

skittledog | September 25, 08:05 CET

Add me to the list of those who have no problem separating Lucky from the Parker connection. I've seen enough fan made videos to this one, it's not that hard.

Also can't believe I forgot Out of This World, since it's in back of one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite eps. Just goes to show how much really excellent music they had going on.

My understanding is that Joss picked a lot of the music himself and that nothing got the final go, without his approval (I think that was something James Marsters said in a long ago Q&A).

[ edited by Shey on 2008-09-25 09:28 ]

Shey | September 25, 09:24 CET

You need to log in to be able to post comments.
About membership.

« Older (SPOILER) AICN review of Tony Head's new mov... | Dollhouse moves from Channel TEN i... Newer »

Home . Archives . About . . Membership . Log in . Shop . Search

© 2002 - 2008 - WHEDONesque.com (e-mail)
Individual posts are copyright their respective authors

This is a non-profit, unofficial website, not affiliated with Mutant Enemy, Inc., 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers or UPN.

Click to see the XML version of this web page.