Chapter Three: TV is the new Radio

I apologize for all the moping in the last post there. But it brings up an interesting idea: there’s tons of music getting played on TV all the time that the radio wouldn’t touch. The first time I noticed it, MTV was playing the bassline of Ben Folds Five’s “Uncle Walter” during transitional scenes of “The Real World.” I was incensed, because at the time, I couldn’t believe that someone at MTV clearly had a copy of the first Ben Folds Five album, and yet I was stuck watching tons of stuff on MTV that either wasn’t videos at all, or was crappy videos. I’ve gotten over it since then, but the trend has become more and more prevalent.

Recently it’s been staggering. Since this semester started, I’ve seen The Postal Service, Wilco, Jeff Buckley. The Long Winters and a whole lot of other great bands on regular, mainstream TV shows. Just like MTV back in the day, it’s not just singles that the record company is looking to bolster. It’s actual great music that punctuates the scene it’s in. Oh yeah, and there was that Ash song on VH1’s 100 Hottest Bodies countdown. I even saw “Good Feeling”, the best Violent Femmes song ever. At least the best one that’s not about murder. You want to know where I saw that? A really touching scene on Jack and Bobby.

It’s odd: I’ve been hearing the best music in the world on what I’ve always been led to believe was the worst TV. Last night, the new Star Wars: Episode III trailer was on Fox, and it was going to be on during The O.C. Now, I like trashy TV. But that, to me, was a bit far. I did watch it, though, and I was astounded by the music. Not only did they play the “So new I’ve barely file-shared it” Beck single, Guero, in the background of one scene. But even more astounding was the thirty-or-so seconds where they played “True Love Will Find You in the End,” another Beck song, but even more obscure. That one came from “The Late Great Daniel Johnston,” a tribute to the still more obscure guy of the same name. Wow.

What I’m thinking is, there have to be “higher-ups” all over at TV networks and other places that have perfectly good taste in music. Heck, good taste in everything. Watch Scrubs, and check out how the actors wear funny shirts from this website Or how Rory was wearing a supercool “Reading is Sexy Shirt” on Gilmore Girls the other day, which I found for Jaci (and Holy Crap—when I went back for the link to that shirt just now, the internet was buzzing with people trying to find it. Wow. Lookit this link. Jeebus. My point was, the people writing these shows and programming their music know exactly what’s good in the world. Why can’t radio catch on and play us some hot tunes? I have a really hard time—harder every day now—figuring out how so many people in mainstream media programming can know exactly what’s good and what’s not, and yet you can’t hear good music on them until it’s been out for a year or it’s been…I don’t know, Namechcked by Natalie Portman* or endorsed out loud by Heather Locklear in “Uptown Girls. You can’t hear decent new music on the radio (outside of NPR), you just can’t. But, radio notwithstanding; it’s all over the place. I have no idea why. It’s simultaneously disheartening for the radio and awesome for the TV. And for them internet T-shirt vendors, who stand to make a killing if that keeps up. Anyone want to go in on a professional T-shirt press with me?

*Gilmore Girls, a great show which features awesome music very frequently, also had a Spring Break episode where Rory went into a bar where The Shins—The ACTUAL Shins were playing. And they really played an entire song. Now, I’ve got to go cower for mentioning how much W.B. I watch in this post. At least I didn’t mention Smallville.