Time to be pretentious!

I’ve been wanting to do a post about music in television ever since I thought up the idea of creating a blog.

Well, here we go! This is the first in (hopefully) a series of posts that deal with ma favorite muzic, in ma favorite TV shows!

If you know me, you know I love me some Mad Men. It’s the perfect white people problem show for white people dealing with white people problems. And guess what, I am that white people. I became interested in this show the week after Entertainment Weekly plastered Mr. Draper and Miss Hollaway on their Summer TV Preview issue in the summer of 2008.

Because of their recommendation, I went to Wal-Mart and paid the whopping $45 bucks for the complete first season. I watched the pilot that night and once seeing the final shot of Don caressing his sleeping kids while an angelic Betty looked on from the doorway, I was hooked.

I could go on and on for days about how genius every aspect of this show is, but you are reading this upon the knowledge that I am going to talk about a “music moment” from the show.

Well, take a look at this season 2 *SPOILER FREE* beauty….

Ugh, groan, moan. I love this for so many reasons! No, not because I’m a pervert and it is a scene with women in various states of dress (that has something to do with it though!). I love this so much because, it is a show set in the 1960’s, but they use a contemporary song by The Decemberists.

THEY USE A CONTEMPORARY SONG BY THE DECEMBERISTS!

Alex Patsavas, you are truly magical. Until this point, the show had stuck to the formula of using songs that were from the time period in the show. This moment totally blew the equation.

(SPOILER FREE): “Maidenform,” from which this scene is from, is one of my favorite episodes from the series. It’s one of the first times the characters look through smoke-filled eyes and start to analyze themselves in darker ways. Having the episode start off with the three main women getting dressed and looking into the mirror is a beautiful way to show how each woman “sees” herself. While looking in the mirror, Betty is pleased at what she sees (“As far as I’m concerned, as long as men look at me that way, I’m earning my keep”). Joan is too busy getting ready for work to look in the mirror and see what she already knows; she’s the HBIC. And poor, poor Peggy can’t even stand to look at herself in the mirror.

To have all of this action go on while simultaneously playing a song about how beautiful a woman is and how we will all praise her is a perfect foil to the pathos that Weiner and co. are trying to convey.

Stop me now if I sound too white and pretentious.

Ok, I’ll stop myself.

Seriously, I could play the role of white-boy-Mad-Men-cheerleader everyday and never tire of it.

So, that was my humble thought and interpretation on one of my favorite musical moments. Now it is my turn to ask you, dear readers. What is your favorite musical moment from a TV show? Maybe yours is the amazing moment in Veronica Mars where Fatboy Slim plays over a slow-mo hallway chase or  it could be the theme song to The View. No matter how grand or small, I wanna hear!

So, shut the door and have a seat and let me know what you think.

(Photo credit: EW)

Dear Musical Gods,

There are times when I often wonder how much more awesome my life would be if I had a soundtrack added to it. I’m talking about a full on walking-through-the-halls-of-Seattle-Grace-Serena-van-der-Woodsen-I-killed-someone-strike-up-The-Kills soundtrack embracing me at all times. I’ve already had a couple of moments in my life where God graced me with the beautiful sounds of música while important events were unfolding:

Exhibit A) That time when Benny Benassi’s, “Satisfaction” was blaring while neon lights were blinding my eyes and a 30 ton carnival attraction nearly smashed me and some friends. I may have exaggerated the whole “smased” bit, but believe me when I say it was all very Final Destination 1,2,3, and “The.”

Exhibit B) That time when I was at the back of an Arcade Fire show and Win Butler yelled for people to rush the stage. I followed master’s rules and ran through the left side of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion to the near front of the stage – all the while “Rebellion (Lies)” was seducing my ears.

Exhibit C) That time when I broke down in my room about not having guidance in my life and iTunes shuffle started playing me “Eventually We Find Our Way” from the Social Network soundtrack.

Ok, maybe that last one was less movie-moment-soundtrack and more God-is-speaking-to-you-Zack-LISTEN!

Needless to say, my life would be more awesome if I could hire Alex Patsavas to just press play every time something remotely interesting happened in my day-to-day life. If she did I would definitely forgive her for the ridiculousness that was the all Kings of Leon episode of Gossip Girl.