Big Name Composers Tune Into Small Screens With TV Series Theme Songs

It has been a while since we heard some good catchy music in TV theme songs, but times are changing, and so is the inclination of big music composers. A lot of big names from Hollywood are switching to composing music for TV series theme songs given the space for creativity and the amount of narrativity required. Songs from shows like ‘Friends’, ‘Cheers’, ‘Bonanza’ and ‘Mission: Impossible’ have stuck with us for all these years, and the music composers are trying to trace back to the soul of these catchy earworms. 

Many recent shows like ‘Only Murders in the Building’, ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Succession’  and ‘WandaVision’ have melodies that are impossible to get out of your heads. Siddhartha Khosla, a triple Emmy nominee, asserted that he enjoyed the process of composing the theme song for ‘Only Murders in the Building because “It’s funny, whimsical, dramatic, lonely, mysterious, all of these things. I gave them a piece of music, and the next thing you know, the animated sequence is being built around it.”

‘Game of Thrones’ is another show that has an entire fanbase of its own, with people recreating scenes from the show, and making their renditions with the song on TikTok and Instagram. A cello trio garnered a total of 26 million views on their YouTube channel, and a cat meowing the theme song received around 6 million views for their cover of this famous Ramin Djawadi theme song. 

Nicholas Britell, the Emmy winning composer of the theme song of ‘Succession’, stated, “I really believe they’re an art form in their own right, the introductory musical idea of a TV show. Not every project needs one, but if it works, and there is the opportunity, it’s a way to bring the audience into the world of the show.” The songs offer an insight into the story, and give more depth to the theme of the narrative. 

--Riya Sohini