Introducing: Under Supervision
A new series on the use of song in visual mediums
This summer, I’m starting a new interview series called Under Supervision. It’s about the use of song in visual media: film, television, video games, commercials, Monday Night Football, what have you. This is often the work of real and enviable people called music supervisors, who select and license songs for their proper use. Until relatively recently, it was an obscure and unheralded job. During the so-called “peak TV” era of the early 2010s, networks and streamers sought to distinguish their properties by deploying popular music in their soundtracks, inadvertently kicking off a needle-drop arms race that continues to influence culture even outside of television.
The idea for Under Supervision began with a hunch that just about everyone who consumes media has a moment, that moment, where a song fits a scene so perfectly that they haven’t been able to get it out of their head since. For each new issue in the series, I’ll interview a friend, writer, filmmaker, musician, or any living soul about their personal favorite, what it says about them, and whether they have a song they like to put on when they want to feel like an on-screen protagonist.
I’m willing to bet more than a few of us do.
The first issue of Under Supervision will drop on Friday, June 13, exclusively here on Mushmouth.
Until then, Bonzo Goes to Bitburg then goes out for a cup of tea.