'The
O.C.' gives some bands a ticket out of obscurity
August 11, 2004
The debut CD of California rock band Rooney was
languishing. In January, without a hit single, the self-titled album
had fallen off the Billboard 200 chart, having sold just over 150,000
copies in seven months in stores.
Then the band appeared on the hit TV show The
O.C. on the Fox network. The band played two songs in a plotline
involving the characters' trip to a Rooney concert. The TV program
kickstarted a chain of events in which the album re-entered the
charts and sales ultimately doubled.
Fox's frothy
intergenerational soap opera, set in the suburbs between Los
Angeles and San Diego, showcased alternative rock throughout
its first season. It played music by bands that are obscure
by the usual network-television standards and listed the acts
in a special episode-by-episode music guide on the show's
Web site. The show's second season, which has just started
production, will probably focus even more on music. Bands
are eagerly lining up for spots on the soundtrack and on camera..
The O.C. has become an influential and ambitious
outlet for a type of underground rock that, until recently, was
largely ignored by commercial radio. And The O.C. isn't the only
show featuring adventurous music these days. Other programs, from
HBO's Six Feet Under to the WB's Summerland, also make a point of
emphasizing music that isn't necessarily in the Top 40. For the
bands, these TV dramas have become an increasingly key vehicle to
mainstream exposure, as commercial radio playlists have tightened.
Meanwhile, for TV producers, the use of hip bands
such as Interpol, Fountains of Wayne and Joseph Arthur has become
a quick, inexpensive way to confer upon a program the kind of coolness
not normally associated with network TV. The point isn't corporate
synergy: In most cases, the bands' labels aren't affiliated with
the network or production company behind the show.
Music industry
insiders say a band with some name recognition, but without a big
hit, can command a licensing fee of around $30,000 for each song used
on TV. The fee is split among a variety of parties. For established
stars, the fees can go much higher. The O.C. and several programs
on the WB offer bands the opportunity to flash the album cover during
the closing credits -- sometimes in exchange for a discount on the
licensing fee.
Bands and music executives single out The O.C.
for praise because its writers and producers use the music as overt
elements of plot and dialogue, not just as atmosphere. They believe
that kind of treatment drives record sales more effectively, in
part because it makes the appearance seem less like a clunky sales
pitch.
Jordan Kurland, founder of Zeitgeist Artist Management
Ltd., fondly recalls the first time The O.C. incorporated a song
by the Washington state cult band Death Cab for Cutie, which he
represents. "It was playing on the car radio, and Seth and
Summer [characters on the program] started arguing about it,"
Kurland remembers. "He said, 'Don't dis the Death Cab.' "
The makers of The O.C. say they began including
relatively obscure music for a simple reason: It's what they listen
to. "For the first seven episodes we didn't have a music supervisor,
so we were taking music off my iPod," says creator and executive
producer Josh Schwartz. In fact, he says, he is often unable to
write a scene until he finds the right song to accompany it.
Soon the show hired a music supervisor, Alexandra
Patsavas, to keep the musical pipeline full. Bands and record
companies now jockey to be included in the 15- to 20-song compilation
CDs Patsavas sends The O.C. producers each week. "We get
hooked up a lot more than we used to," says Schwartz. "Free
CDs, free [concert] tickets."
Death Cab has sold just over 184,000 copies of
its most recent album, Transatlanticism. Its previous CD, Photo
Album, has sold 81,000 copies. TV can't take all the credit for
the sales gain, but it is an important factor. Matt Wishnow, president
of Insound, an online retailer specializing in independent rock,
says that for bands with established fan bases but not much radio
play, the TV appearances are "a big driver of incremental
sales."
For
Rooney, appearing on The O.C. was a "catalyst" for other
important developments, says Andy Gould, the band's manager at Beverly
Hills agency the Firm. And TV affords benefits that radio doesn't,
he adds. "They've become more famous than any one song of theirs,"
Gould says. "Which I believe is the key to developing new artists."
In the first week after its appearance
on The O.C., Rooney's sales almost tripled.
