With last week’s news that Alexandra Patsavas — the music supervisor for The O.C. and Grey’s Anatomy — was launching her own label, I got to wondering if there was any way to quantifiably quantify the effect of her shows’ soundtracks on an band’s success. But up to this point, the groups that have seen the greatest benefit — arguably Death Cab for Cutie, Snow Patrol, and the Fray — have been challenging test subjects, as their popularity had been at least somewhat confirmed prior to the TV appearance in question: Snow Patrol had already toured with U2, the Fray have been a band since approximately 1976, and Death Cab were no great secret to anyone who’d even marginally been paying attention.
So how happy is my inner scientist about yesterday’s release of Norwegian singer and Grey’s mainstay Kate Havnevik’s second album, Melankton? Very, very happy. And I hope you’ll join me after the jump to begin a new segment I’m calling "PopWatch’z Adventurz in Cultural Anthropop-logy."
Havnevik (pictured) really does make the perfect case study, an ideal clean slate able to be examined with very few biases or tangential information to corrupt the data: She’s almost completely unknown on this side of the Atlantic, with a surname that’s decently hard to spell (always a fun game for Americans). Her music, while quite Björky, maintains a solid amount of challenging individuality, and has not yet, to my knowledge, been featured in a commercial (iTunes or otherwise). She’s a female vocalist lacking any sort of hoochie vibe, and does not seem to have a predilection for spelling; on the flip side of that, her name is not "Norah Jones." Finally, and most significantly, Timbaland is in no way involved with her career.
But if you watch Grey’s, you’ve already heard four of the 12 songs on Melankton — five if you watched The O.C. — a phenomenon that lends an air of déjà vu to the album on first listen. It’s this phenomenon that can only fuel Havnevik’s success, for if there’s one thing people like better than exciting new music, it’s music they already know they like.
Will this familiarity lead Havnevik to the kind of success enjoyed by the boy bands listed above? I have absolutely no idea. Here’s where you come in! Please to take the following survey!
1) Have you ever heard of/listened to Kate Havnevik prior to this fascinating blog post? YES/NO
2) Please go to her MySpace page and listen to the track "Unlike Me." Does this song sound familiar to you? YES/NO
3) Do you now or have you ever watched Grey’s Anatomy? YES/NO (If NO, seriously? Why are you reading this blog in the first place?)
4) If you hear a song you like while watching Grey’s, will you use the Internets (or other methods) to find out what it was? YES/NO
5) Have you ever bought music because you heard and liked it on a TV show? YES/NO (If YES, what?)
6) Do you think a band like the Fray would have broken out eventually, even had "How To Save a Life" not been shoved down our throats for months thanks to those damn Grey’s commercials? YES/NO
7) Have you finished listening to the Kate Havnevik song yet? YES/NO
Did you like it? YES/NO
9) Would you buy her album on the strength of the Grey’s Anatomy Seal of Approval? YES/NO
10) Did you buy The Secret because Oprah told you to? YES/NO (If YES, please spend the next 30 minutes focusing on getting me a pony, and then seek medical assistance.)
11) In your opinion, which band has best utilized television as a marketing opportunity?
Thank you! Your participation in PopWatch’z Adventurz in Cultural Anthropop-logy is valuable. We’ll announce Kate Havnevik’s first-week sales and the results of our survey next week!
Comments (1-30) of 31 Add your comment
You have to check this out
it rocks
With a handle like Pimpbot I would’ve thought that the link you posted would have something to do with the latest in pimping technology, not the Tiny Tunes version of They Might be Giants’ Particle Man.
1.No
2.Yes
3.No
4.No
5.No
6.No
7.Yes
8.Yes
9.No
10.The Fray
quantifiably quantify? hello, can i get an editor?
And what the hell is with The Secret? Does anyone believe in that garbage? And if you do, could you wish me up a pony too? (I’m gonna name her Butterscotch)
mtv is just as responsible as the oc or even “garden state” for pushing certain music on masses of viewers. like greg laswell’s cover of “girls just wanna have fun” which ran on the hills this season, many artists have a great opportunity to make it big with a 15-second clip of their song in the right place. or mtv using “wolf like me” by tv on the radio in their two-a-days previews. the examples are everywhere and for the most part the music is decent. it sure beats simple plan.
themtvreality.blogspot.com
1. No
2. No
3. (and the only reason I’m posting.) No. Because the O.C. is everything Anatomy will never be and Patsavas’ indie/Seth Cohen work severely outweighs any and all piano-thumping “oh that’s sweet! Let’s listen for it on top 40 next week” bands that Gray’s Anatomy has offered up. As an old loyalist to the EW OC TV Watch, I’m hoping Annie would back me up on this.
I’m sold on her…sounds good.
as a side note: ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ with an ‘e’……not “Gray’s” with an a
1) NO
YES
2) YES
3) YES
4) YES
5) Sure have. I consider it a good way to find new tunes for my ipod. Running up the Hill covered by Placebo (the OC); Hallelujah covered by Jeff Buckley (the OC); Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol (the Black Donnellys), many many more.
6) Wasn’t The Fray featured as Vh1’s Artist to Watch awhile back. That’s one of the first places that I remember them from. They also featured James Blunt way way back and even though I already liked You’re Beatiful, the continuous airings of that segment during a marathon of ANTM prompted me to buy the cd.
7) YES
9) Probably.
10) No
11) Death Cab for Cutie
I haven’t watched any of those shows, but I’ve been very aware of Kate Havnevik for quite some time. Half the Music Supervisors in LA (or at least half of the edgy ones) are DJs on KCRW in Santa Monica. If you listen to that station (also online) you’ll hear tons of new songs, even by unsigned artists, that will end up in commericals, movies, and TV shows 6 months later.
5) Have you ever bought music because you heard and liked it on a TV show? YES/NO (If YES, what?)
- Supernatural, just about anything they play. It’s more remembering songs that I’d forgotten, or hadn’t heard in a long time, but I usually end up seeking out the CDs. Bad Company, Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, AC/DC, Kansas, Queensryche, Ozzy…
And yes, while I watch Grey’s intermittantly, I try to ignore the music. It irritates me the way it covers up dialog and is TOO LOUD during an emotional scene.
All I know is that two of my favourite artists, Mike Doughty and Tegan and Sara, were featured on the first season of Grey’s, which has caused me to hunt down the names of other artists featured on the program. What I want to know is, why are MD and T&S not huge after their exposure? They’re the best!
Slezak, where is the Snap Judgement on the new Maroon 5 single, “Makes Me Wonder”?? Aol Music started streaming the track YESTERDAY under thie new songs section, and its HANDS DOWN ONE OF THEIR BEST TRACKS EVER. Its uptempo & ready to be crowned the first big Spring record leading into summer! I can’t wait for their new cd to drop May 22nd!!!
cool…you edited it! I feel so special
I’d swear I heard The Fray doing “Over My Head (Cable Car)” on WAB long before “Save a Life” aired on Gray’s.
oops, GrEy’s, not GrAy’s
Oh Pimpbot! When I first saw that clip in 1990 it was at a time that my main man was trying to convince me that “they might be giants” was the best band on Earth. I may not love them, but that was a pretty good album.
And your handle does beg the question: What’s better? One $300 hookerbot, or 300 $1 hookerbots?
Because there seem to be a good many Grey’s fans on here, I have a question. I’ve looked everywhere for it, but can’t seem to nail down the song/artist that played during the three episode arc where Merideth is actually in the water at the beginning of the seond episode I think. Any help with that would be fantastic!
whitney, #10 rocks.
…and consider the pony yours.
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. Yes
7. Yes
8. Yes, I like some of her other stuff better though
9. Yes, but I also have a Grey’s Mix on my iPod…sad…I know.
10. HELL NO
11. I think shows like Grey’s and the OC are great exposure for artists. But commercials are also great. Artist like Goldfrapp, Jamie Lidell, and MIKA, they are all in heavy rotation on commercials for Verizon, Target, etc. Any exposure is good right? BUT is Verizon cool because they feature MIKA in their adds or is Jamie Lidell cool because his song is used by Target? Does the artist do the branding or does an established brand…brand the artist?
1. No
2. No
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes, Breathe Me by Sia, after hearing it on Six Feet Under and THEN The Hills
6. No
7. Yes
8. No
9. No
10. No
11. The Fray
Whitney, I hope you were adopting the character of a foreign survey taker, ’cause otherwise the grammar is ridiculous. “Please to take the following survey!”? “Internets”?!? Yeah, you is a good riter. Anyway, on to the survey.
Yes
1) No
2) No (All the music on Grey’s sounds alike to me).
3) Yes
4) No
5) Yes (From Scrubs: Stroke 9, Rhett Miller and Old ’97s)
6) Yes, since “Over My Head” was used on the WB ad nauseum.
7) Yes
9) No
10)No
11) The Fray (in first because I bought their album) and Death Cab for Cutie (in second because even though I’ve heard and read about them, I couldn’t pick out one of their songs if I was being held at gunpoint).
1)NO
YES
2) YES
3) YES
4) YES
5) YES – Remy Zero “Save Me” immediately comes to mind, but I am sure that there are others. Most of the time I will say, to no-one in particular, ‘I have that song’.
6)Don’t know.
7) NO
9) Maybe
10) NO!!
And that means no pony for you!!!
I love the fact that snow Patrol is now a well known band because of Grey, but geez they have been huge in other parts of the world before Grey even came along. It did jump start their career in norht america, but I would for them to be known only for Chasing Cars. It’s not even their best song.
1)YES
2)YES
3)YES
4)YES
5)YES, tons of Grey’s Anatomy songs and a few from Scrubs
6)YES
7)YES
8)YES
9)YES
10)NO
11)Snow Patrol
Beloved Withney:
1-NO
2-YES
3-YES
4-YES
5-YES: appart from having all the soundtracks to my fav shows (more than 20 cds) I have bought Sia’s album after hearing Breathe Me in the 6 feet Under finale, and the Perishers’ CD after hearing sway on Veronica Mars. My favorite artist is now Citizen Cope, I bought his 3 cds after I heard Son’s gonna rise on the OneTreeHill soundtrack, although I don’t watch the show.
Oh, and after falling in love with the short lived Young Americans back in 2000, I discovered Guster, Jonny Land, Jeremy Kay qnd the Getaway People. And to this day, Goodbye by the Crash Poets is still my favorite song.
6-Yes, but certainly not that fast or with such huge success
7-YES
8-YES. Well, it’s alright.
9-NO
10-NO
11-Hard call. Probably the Fray, but I think the precursors were Sixpence none the Richer.
1. Yes – but only from downloading her music after it aired on the o.c./grey’s
2. NO
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. Yes – i had their album months before the promos ran, they are awesome
7. Yes
8. Yes…
9. No – not the whole album at least
10. No
11. Imogen Heap on the O.C.
1) N
It’s ok.
2) Y
3) Y!!
4) Y, and that’s what I did after the pilot because I couldn’t get what I soon discovered is “Life is Short” by Butterfly Boucher out of my head. And of course after I heard “Chasing Cars” but I was already familiar with Snow Patrol, I just needed to give them a second spin.
5) Y, Butterfly Boucher & Snow Patrol (and Frou Frou, The Postal Service because of a movie trailer)
6) The Fray had already broken out before Grey’s and Scrubs used “How to Save a Life” with “Cable Car (Over My Head)”, and it’s kind of funny how popular belief is that without the Grey’s Anatomy promos they wouldn’t have become so famous. However, that could have happened regardless, because “Cable Car (Over My Head)” was playing rather aggressively on Top 40 radio stations and with “How to Save a Life” being the better song, Grey’s role was that of a catalyst.
7) Y
9) N
10) N
11) Snow Patrol!
1. n
2. n
3. of course
4. never have with Grey’s, but have with other shows.
5. n
6. they already had (VH1 You Oughta Know), though Grey’s helped.
7. y
8. not bad
9. no, but i’m cheap.
10. n
11. moby