Mad Men is probably the best show on television right now. There are those that would say Breaking Bad, there are those that would say Community, both of these are great answers, but when push comes to shove, few shows in history can hold up to Don Draper and company. It's ostensibly about an ad agency in the 60s, but over time it has become a chronicle of where it all went wrong. Everyone looks back at the idyllic '50s as the last time America was really great. Those people are lunatics, mind you, but there's no doubt that it all seemed so much easier back then. All you had to do was shut your wife up, hit the kids and everything was okay. Mad Men, with its advertising backdrop shows how America's preferences change and shows the old guard getting pushed out for new, progressive ideas. Like a female copywriter or truly artful advertisements.
But why would I, a music blogger, chose to write about a TV show? It's pretty interesting the way the show has been using music this season. In a way, music on the show has always been interesting because of how it features music frequently, but only has passing mentions of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, two of the biggest acts in history that were in their heyday during the period the show is set. Take a look at the first episode in this season, "A Little Kiss." All anyone talked about the next day was Megan (Jessica Paré) and her performance of French song "Zou Bisou Bisou." It was a sultry performance meant to perk Don Draper up a bit on his birthday. It backfired because Draper's an asshole, but damn if it wasn't memorable.
What really caught my ear though was the song that ran over the credits. Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" thematically fit the show, as it's about a woman desperate to receive just an inkling of the devotion and care that she shows towards her man. Megan threw a big extravaganza for Don and all he did was say that she "embarrassed" him. [Side note: Originally, Dusty Springfield's "The Look Of Love" was supposed to be in the episode, but was cut because it didn't come out until 6 months after the episode took place]
it's also interesting to note that Dusty Springfield is one of the most popular artists of the Blue-Eyed Soul movement. It was a term that denoted white people singing traditionally african-american songs. Dusty even recorded a version of "Can I Get A Witness," a classic song performed originally by Marvin Gaye and written by the most famous african-american songwriting team in history: Holland, Dozier, Holland.
What makes this more interesting is the racial tension that has been bubbling under the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce offices this year. Earlier in the episode, the lobby of the firm was filled with african-americans responding to an ad that said that SCDP was "An equal opportunity employer." This was meant at a jab at another firm, but it led to the hiring of Dawn, a black woman, as a new secretary. Previously on the show, the only characters that has been anything other than lily white were The Drapers' maid/nanny and the firm's cleaning personnel. Given the way the timeline has been going it's not a stretch to say that the show will deal with Martin Luther King Jr's shooting before the season is up.
I don't know if this was meant intentionally or not, but it certainly says something that the show had two different attempts to to squeeze Dusty Springfield into the season premiere. In a show that's starting to tackle the racial issues of the day, it's telling that they went with a white woman singing songs that ape the styles of african americans of the time. This isn't the last I'll be writing about music in Mad Men, stay tuned for further articles that dig way deeper than they probably should.
No comments:
Post a Comment