September 24, 2006

Television

Top music critics turn an ear to TV

This week, experts rate which shows spin the best (and worst) tunes amidst their story lines. (Next week: TV and fashion.)

By Kristin Veitch

Next time you're watching your favorite TV show and a certain moment inspires you to cry, laugh out loud or get goosebumps, try a little experiment: Shut your eyes.

Hear that? Chances are, there's a really great song lurking in the background, toying with your emotions -- and you might not have noticed it before.

TV's Best Music Picks 1. The OC 2. Gilmore Girls 3. Grey's Anatomy 4. Rescue Me 5. Entourage

Viewers obviously don't only watch TV; they listen to it, too. So, as the fall TV season swings into high gear this week, we've tapped some of the nation's top music critics -- Jon Bream of the "Minneapolis Star Tribune," Eric Danton of the "Hartford Courant," Jim DeRogatis of the "Chicago Sun-Times" and Pat Ferrucci of the "New Haven Register" -- to reveal their take on the best and worst music on prime-time TV. We also asked two top music-turned-TV critics to forecast which of the season's new shows might really, er, pop.

The bottom line? These critics are impressed with the overall direction music on TV is taking. "TV is definitely indie cool now," says Danton, referring to smaller labels that have ended up on mainstream programming. "This is where bands are starting to come from as opposed to corporate radio."

"I agree," DeRogatis says. "I think it's great that at a time when MTV doesn't play music and radio doesn't play music well, 'Grey's Anatomy' is actually a hipper playlist."

Our critics' top pick? "The OC." The show's knack for finding -- and helping to launch -- little-known talent is the reason our critics gave it the No. 1 slot in the lineup of shows with the best music selection.

And three of the others on our critics' best list -- "Entourage," "Rescue Me" and "Grey's Anatomy" -- were nominated for "digging deep," as DeRogatis puts it. They find songs that "convey a feeling that's even stronger than what's written on the page," he says.

"Gilmore Girls" got props for standing out among all the networks, but especially among its brethren on CW (the new network formed by WB and UPN). "In the past, the WB was only promoting bands that were on their own Warner Brothers label," Ferrucci says, referring to the reason our critics put "One Tree Hill" on the worst list. "But 'Gilmore' stands apart. They had Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo on, and they really try to be unique."

On the flip side, don't tell "AI's" Simon Cowell, but the most popular show devoted to music itself inspired the most derision among our panelists. "'American Idol' has awful song selection," Bream says.

He also disdains MTV: "All of their stupid shows, 'Super Sweet 16' and 'Real World 3,700.' Their use of music is horrible."

One look at the critics' worst list proves that the other panelists agree.

So, what about the newbies? Doug Elfman of the "Chicago Sun-Times," a former music critic who now covers TV, says he has high hopes for ABC's "Six Degrees," NBC's "Heroes" and ABC's "Knights of Prosperity" (whose music selection "totally makes the show funny").

Another music-turned-TV pundit, Neal Justin of the "Minneapolis Star Tribune," tells us to keep an ear out for two of ABC's fall dramas, "Men in Trees" and "Ugly Betty." And the most promising new series has to be CBS' "Shark," whose music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas, just so happens to be the guru behind three of the five shows on our music critics' best list -- "The OC," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Rescue Me."

Kristin Veitch is E! Entertainment's TV expert. Catch her on E! News Wednesdays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., or read Watch With Kristin at eonline.com.