Mad Music – Tiny Orchestrations (Episodes 4 & 5, Mystery Date and Signal 30)

On 05.09.12, In Mad Men, Mad Music, Music, Television, By Shane

Mad Music - a blog entry about the music of Mad Men.Real life has been jumping in the way of my best intentions to blog regularly about the great way AMC’s Mad Men uses music to advance the stories themes and subtext. In fact, I’m already five episodes behind the curve. I’ve continued to maintain and update my Mad Music playlist on Spotify, however. So, if you have subscribed to the playlist you’ve at least had the opportunity to see some of the new songs I’ve added after each episode.

A lot of things were happening in Mystery Date and Signal 30, including morbid fascination with mass murder, Don to the rescue in a plumbing emergency, fever dreams, late night brothel tours, and a fist fight between Pete and Layne. But how did it all play out musically? Let’s have a look.

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Mad Music – The Kids are Different Today (Episode 3, Tea Leaves)

On 04.11.12, In Mad Men, Mad Music, Music, Television, By Shane

Mad Music - a blog entry about the music of Mad Men.

Sometimes the most important song in an episode of AMC’s Mad Men is the one that isn’t played during the show. Such was the case with Season 5′s third episode, “Tea Leaves,” where we waited backstage at a Rolling Stones concert with Don and Harry, humming along to a lyric we had yet to hear.

In fact, I took the liberty of adding three songs to my Mad Music Spotify playlist that did not appear in this episode, but share significant DNA with the show’s current storyline.

This show followed a few important themes this week. We’ll break them down by the songs I connected to each theme. We’ll begin by selling out.

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Mad Music – The Tide is Nigh (Episode 1 & 2, A Little Kiss)

On 04.05.12, In Mad Men, Mad Music, Music, Television, By Shane

Mad Men logoIt was a long wait for Mad Men’s fifth season to finally arrive on AMC, but the season kicked off with an episode full of memorable scenes, some surprising answers to the fourth season’s questions and a set up for what promises to be a tumultuous year in the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and the world at large. Welcome to 1966.

If you’ve seen the first three episodes (the two-part premiere and the Betty-centric “Tea Leaves” episode), then you already know one of the key themes the show will be exploring this season is the emerging generational culture clash, along with the idea of relevance in general.

So, let’s dive right into the music of the two-part episode “A Little Kiss.” Hey, Sally…what’s playing on your clock radio this morning?

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Mad Music – Deconstructing Mad Men, one song at a time

On 04.04.12, In Mad Men, Mad Music, Music, Television, By Shane

Mad Men logoI would love the chance to shadow Matthew Weiner as he concocts a season of the hit television series Mad Men. Weiner’s attention to historic detail is slightly beyond obsessive. The show, set in a 1960s-era advertising agency is so filled with references to actual events of the period that you can soon forget the characters themselves are fictional.

Also, Weiner loves to load the references – whether obscure or well-known- with layers of symbolism to reveal extra dimensions to the story being told. While any other period piece drama on a television network would be content to drop in a song from the era to serve simply as dressing to set the mood, the four previous seasons of Mad Men have shown us that the music of the show is as much a part of the storytelling device as the lines delivered by the actors.

It’s a safe bet that a snippet of a song from the period heard briefly on the radio as a character turns the dial is there to help provide storytelling detail, no matter how trivial it may seem.

And, it’s not just music. Weiner does this with all sorts of historic events of the day. He also uses colors, and recurring themes of conversation. In short, he isn’t satisfied with simply telling a story through the traditional way. He’s going to use every tool in the toolbox that television makes available to him.

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When your job interviewer asks for your Facebook password

On 04.04.12, In Media Appearances, Social Media, By Shane

I’m about a month late in finally getting this posted, but the story isn’t obsolete by any means. Last month I was invited to talk to Beth Haynes on WBIR’s News at Five about the developing story of how a Maryland government employer had asked job applicants for their Facebook passwords as part of the interview process.

At the same time, there were stories developing of new social media policies for student athletes at the University of North Carolina requiring the students to submit their social media updates to coaches for review.

Was the right to online privacy in danger? Yes…and no. The answers are never quite as simple as we’d like them to be, but I did my best to try to explain the situation in 3 or 4 minutes. Basically, I believe that practices like the Maryland Department of Corrections’ job interview shenanigans will eventually be marked as out-of-bounds. However, I also believe that the University of North Carolina’s policy may quickly become standard operating procedure within the confines of the NCAA.

The story continues to capture people’s interest and illustrates just why defining “privacy” will be one of the trickiest legal issues of this century.

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