TV Music Roundup 1:

Chuck vs the Cubic Z

Song: Beat the Devils Tattoo

Artist: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Music Supervisor: Josh Schwartz

As promised, I am going to dissect the use of music on various t.v shows during this awesome t.v. season. Now one of my favorite shows for new/unique music is Chuck on NBC. Chuck is a show about a normal computer nerd who inadvertently becomes an asset to the CIA when he downloads their entire database into his brain. The show centers on Chuck’s life at his “cover job”(working at a Best Buy type store called the “Buy More” in their Nerd Herd dept), and on his spy missions with Casey and Sarah, his two handlers. Chuck ended up falling for Sarah from day one, and at this point in the show (Season 4) they are dating. This show is a gem from creator Josh Schwartz (creator of The O.C, and Gossip Girl). Josh is one of my music supervision idols. Not only is he young, and the creator of various awesome shows, but he also puts all of the music to his shows himself. I’ll admit, I didn’t really think about music supervision until I watched The O.C. That show opened up my eyes to various bands I didn’t know existed and I really appreciated the show for that. It is also consistency ahead of the music game above all of Alex Patsavas’ shows (for example Greys Anatomy), and uses music thoughtfully as opposed to various lengthy “emotional tracks” employed in Greys.

This week’s music focused mainly on the use of one song Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Beat the Devil’s Tattoo. This song was not only used as the focal point of Chuck’s episode but was also featured in Josh’s other show, Gossip Girl.  From my previous knowledge of Josh I gathered that he has a thing for BRMC. Firstly, they are emotional without being kitschy, and they have an ironic blues sound to their rock music. He previously used their songs Weight of the World and a personal favorite Salvation in season 3 of The O.C.  While I do appreciate the use of this awesome band’s presence in any television show, I’m surprised by the use of this song in this context for two reasons: 1) This song is much darker than the songs previously used on The O.C with lyrics like “I bled the needle through/You beat the devil’s tattoo” and “Sleepin on a razor/There’s no where left to fall.” 2) I wasn’t sure why this particular song was necessary to move the episode along. It happens to be that the opening bars of the song are really recognizable and probably most used throughout the episode. All in all this was an odd choice for me. Even though I love BRMC, and happen to find this song extremely interesting, I don’t really understand why it was necessary throughout the entire episode. I’m also surprised because that song was released in March of 2010 (waaay before they started shooting season 4) could it be Josh is losing his competitive edge? 

What did you think of Beat the Devils Tattoo on Chuck?