Music supervision in film and television feels simultaneously the most legalistic and the most alchemical. A music supervisor is often tasked with finding tracks written into scripts, navigating all the labels and rights holders, and getting exactly the permissions needed to make the writers’ and showrunners’ dreams come true. Great music supervisors , however, not only find creative workarounds when budgets or permissions won’t bend but also inspire the creative teams with their own ideas.
They find music that adds to the tone of a show’s world, they place songs that reveal something essential and intuitive about the characters, and, if you’ll pardon us, they discover just the right track to make specific sequences sing. Whether a TV series has bespoke musical numbers or songs, the music supervisor is often an essential player in unifying a show’s sound and making sure both songs and score pack their desired punch. So, the IndieWire Craft team reached out to the 2024 Emmy-nominated music supervis ors to ask them to name a track in the episode they were nominated for that they’re particularly proud of.
There’s a rich variety in genres and tones among the nominees — “ Fallout ” could not be more different from “Fargo” or “Only Murders in the Building,” which has little in common with “Baby Reindeer” or “ Mr. and Mrs. Smith .
” But the work of all the nominated music supervisors shows just how big a part song choice plays in getting us to go.
