The music in Jenji Kohan’s new flagship show, Orange is the New Black, is particularly noteworthy. Good music isn’t rare on TV. Typically though, music on TV only aims to tell you how to feel during a specific scene. Orange is the New Black doesn't do this, or at least this doesn't come off as the explicit goal of the show. Instead it delivers tracks at key points conspiring together to support the aesthetic, never to overpower it. The show does this while winking and nodding with it’s choices, which only serves to accent them in my memory. Even going as far to have the inmates talk about the music used on the show in their own terms, which is just some of the best writing of the show. This self-awareness is key. It’s so hard to control how people will feel about the work you create, no matter how many times Scrubs plays The Fray’s How to Save A Life this won’t make me feel remorse for J.D. It’s just not going to happen, sorry Bill Lawrence.
Having fun with the music & being elated by it happens on Orange is the New Black, but none of the choices up to this point have been reused to strictly control how you feel about a scene. The Regina Spektor’s themesong each episode, it harkens for me back to Waylon Jenning’s Omaha which I love, sets the tone for the show. You know what sort of show you're about to watch by listening to the sample of that song each episode, if you didn't already. Kohan never hits you over the head with the music, not even when she’s sampling Boss’s I Don’t Give a Fuck. Instead of recycling the the music like most shows, Kohan is just keeping to her aesthetic while matching her scenes to great music. While sampling The Dutchess & the Duke, Leagues, or Tune-Yards they’re obviously(to me) placed to breakup just how morbid the show can get with these good tunes. It does this while never breaking with the aesthetic which seems easy but few shows come to mind that do it well in this way. Orange is the New Black isn't just worth watching, it’s worth hearing.
