It’s a bit like Marmite really, you either love it or you hate it. What are we talking about? Music in TV shows. Here’s Which? super-supporter Lee Beaumont on why music has an important place in the shows you watch.
I myself love music in TV shows. I can’t think of anything better than watching a really powerful moment and then to match it, a very powerful song plays alongside.
As an example, a few weeks ago I was watching an episode of Heartbeat’s The Royal where staff nurse Meryl Taylor sadly passes away. I was already on the edge of my seat, but when Gerry and the Pacemakers’ Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying started playing, that was it, I was gone – tears all over the place.
Another example is when Heartbeat has The Animals playing in an episode, I can’t stop singing ‘Oh lord please don’t let me be misunderstood’ for the rest of the day then.
We must really love music in our TV shows as ITV Yorkshire has even released more than 20 Heartbeat albums over the course of the 90s. If we hated the music, why would ITV have made so many albums? A lot of us must have been buying them.
Music of the past and present
I don’t just enjoy the music in TV shows that are set in the past. The first episode of the BBC’s Waterloo Road has Kaiser Chiefs’ I Predict A Riot playing right from the start. Plus, One Direction started trending on Twitter the first time one of their songs played in Coronation Street’s Rovers Return.
The BBC even has an app, BBC Playlister, where you can the save songs that play during BBC shows to a playlist so you can listen to them later. I could go on. To me it feels like everyone enjoys music in TV shows. And, let’s face it the shows would seem very flat and unemotional without it.
Do you enjoy a bit of One Direction in the Rovers while watching Steve McDonald eating his hotpot? What about Gerry and the Pacemakers playing when Claude Jeremiah Greengrass is up to no good over in Aidensfield?
This is a guest post from Which? super-supporter Lee Beaumont.