Muzak

I'm over 30 and music should be none of my business. This should be the age where I start to slip into the music graveyard, listening to the same 10 albums from my glory years while discovering the silky pleasures of Yanni. Yet, somewhere along the line I screwed up, because at age 30-something I’m listening to more music then I did when I was 23. (23 being the average age of when people listen to the most music) I’m not alone either music is in our public conscious more so than I can ever remember.

Television is a huge reason why. Recently TV has discovered what film producers have known for years; music can help sell your show/movie but also help tell the story. Even 10 years ago it was tough to find any TV dramas using songs. Now shows like Buffy, The O.C. and Veronica Mars are used as sales tools by the industry encouraging viewers to listen to the next great thing. As cynical as I am, I find this completely refreshing. The music directors on shows like these take their time to pick music that fits the scenes unlike say 90210 where in the middle of a serious scene Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam would start playing in the background.

Comedies have also gotten in on the act. Looking back I think Friends deserves partial credit. When Ross and Rachel first declared their love it was to U2’s “With or Without You," and I remember thinking I can'’t believe they paid the royalties to use that song (and boy does this show bite). While Friends was more of a one time groundbreaker, Scrubs is a trendsetter. The fantasy aspect of Scrubs lends itself to many musical opportunities which allows the show to use both obscure 80's hits and new indie darlings.

Its rare these days to watch a show and not walk away with some kind of musical impression. Even Lost a show that relies on its orchestral design almost exclusively had one the great musical moments of the year when season 2 opened with Mama Cass' "Make Your Own Kind of Music." The key to this revolution is the ability for instant gratification and that'’s where iTunes comes in.

iTunes is a great invention period! Not only does it allow us to digitally update all the best songs from our cassette tape collection (Heavy D, I'm looking at you), but it also makes it criminally easy to latch on to new music. However as with all great things one most use it wisely. For every Death Cab for Cutie song I downloaded last year there was a Gwen Stefani song to match it. Did I really need to download "Hollaback Girl”? Still the fact that I can watch an episode of Veronica Mars, hear a classic Elvis Costello song I haven'’t listened to in years, and then put it on my iPod all in the span of 5 minutes is pretty freaking awesome.

Music is everywhere. People invest weeks of their lives on American Idol and rush out to buy the winner's song not just because of the music (please not the music) but because they like the person. Movies like DiG! show the struggle of great little bands. TV shows like Love Monkey use the music industry as a workplace and don't even get me started on all the reality shows following musicians. The beauty of this all is that I have discovered more music old and new in the last few years than I have in the previous 10...oh and the best thing is that a Brian Jonestown Massacre song is the same price as Madonna’s new single and just as easy to find.