Youre watching Supernatural. Dean turns on his car radio and out blasts an old metal song from the 80s. Suddenly youre no longer interested in why the demon sitting in the back seat is about to sink his fangs into Deans neck. All you want to do is remember who sang that crazy loud song youre singing along to.
You MUST know, so you try to catch a few words and rush off to the computer to Google it. Meanwhile Dean is fighting for his life and Sam is nowhere to be seen, but who cares? You have to have that song!
I wonder if shows in the Fifties, like 77 Sunset Strip or Highway Patrol, had songs playing in the background? I guess probably not. This is a much more recent trend, and gradually the music played on television shows is becoming as important as the action. In Cold Case, for example, the music is cleverly taken solely from the year in which the action takes place. Several episodes of that show have featured the music of only one artist. Nirvana springs to mind.
When a show features a particular song, it can have quite an effect on the career of the artist, and can inspire a sudden surge in sales or downloads of the particular song. Sales of songs by such artists as Fauxliage, The Decemberists, and The Bravery jumped dramatically for a few days after episodes featuring their music aired.
Another group to benefit from having their music played on TV is The Kin, who have had an upsurge in sales of their songs having been featured in Army Wives and Moonlight. Speaking of Moonlight, the vampire detective/love story which was inexplicably canceled after just one season by CBS, that shows fans were frantically searching for the titles and singers of songs featured in each episode within seconds of the show having aired. People on the west coast were on forums searching for the music from fans on the east coast where the show had already aired.
The rise of iTunes over the last few years has been incredible to watch, and many fans of the shows have created iMixes of songs played during their favorite shows.
Several websites have arisen that list the songs and titles played on top shows, so if you don't want to try and remember the words and Google them, you can always try one of those sites.
By: Bobgfc
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
Bob Wilson is a Brit living in Los Angeles who, with his wife, Marissa, publishes around 50 websites, including
TunesOnTheTube.tv,
TunesOnTheTube.co.uk ,
Shemaghs.com ,
and many others.
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