When it comes to television shows or movies, the soundtrack can make or break how a person views the production. The acting, camerawork, and editing are all equally important, but without good music playing over the background, even the best scenes can fall flat.
This is not just for the music scores, but also the soundtracks with the best pop, rock, country, or classical songs playing against the scenes. Whether used to contrast the scene or enhance it, the shows with great soundtracks remain memorable years after the final episode of a series airs. Here is a look at 15 hit shows with amazing soundtracks.
Updated on January 1st, 2021 by Shawn S. Lealos: The idea of music in TV shows is not new and it seems to be getting better as time goes on. While there are many shows that offer up the best in new music as a collaboration with record labels, there are even more shows today that are choosing music specifically to highlight what the show is about and give viewers something else to love about an otherwise great series. Netflix soundtracks have been especially great about delivering shows with scene-specific songs that elevate each scene into something bigger and better than it could have been without the track, and it just keeps getting better and better.
Sex Education
One of Netflix's newer shows has a fantastic soundtrack, and it is a show that likes to use music for humorous reasons. This would be the comedy Sex Education, which stars Asa Butterfield as a teenager and Gillian Anderson as his mother, also a sex therapist.
This causes him all sorts of problems at school. The soundtrack is full of great, fun songs that fit the theme, from "Push It" by Salt-N-Pepa, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart, and the classic "Hanky Panky" by Tommy Hames & The Shondells.
Lucifer
Lucifer is a movie about the Devil, now living on Earth and helping an LAPD detective solve crimes. The Lucifer theme alone is worthy of a devilish soundtrack, and the series does not disappoint.
This TV show, which started on Fox and moved to Netflix, has songs from The Clash, The Black Keys, Florence + The Machine, Elle King, Edwyn Collins, and many more. For a show about the former Prince of Hell living in Los Angeles, it is a perfect mix of songs.
Stranger Things
Stranger Things is a Netflix series that has been accused of pandering to people who live on the nostalgia of the '80s. It is a horror series that focuses on teens in a town haunted by monsters and owes much of its existence to people who are fans of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King.
The show has thrown in tons of references to movies and TV shows from the '80s, and John Hughes soundtrack on TV.
One Tree Hill
If there is one thing that was a constant from the '90s, it was that record labels often used TV shows to promote singles from whatever pop band was hot at the time. From Beverly Hills 90201 to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it was almost like free commercials for the latest music.
For One Tree Hill, the music was coming hot and strong, with everyone from Jimmy Eat World and Sheryl Crow to Keane and the Foo Fighters. There is also the title track by Gavin DeGraw, "I Don't Want to Be."
Miami Vice
While people who watch Stranger Things can get their fill of nostalgic '80s music, fans of a certain age could get a great soundtrack in real-time with the Don Johnson TV series Miami Vice.
The songs that made this show so much fun to watch included two standbys with Phil Collins' "In the Ait Tonight" and former Eagles' member Glen Frey's "Smuggler's Blues" and "You Belong to the City." Add in music by Sheena Easton, Ted Nugent, Chaka Khan, and more, and this is the definitive '80s soundtrack.
Supernatural
Shows on The CW are known for getting the best in current pop music in their shows. However, there is one show on The CW that doesn't care one bit about contemporary pop music because it loves the good old classic rock and roll.
Listening to the Supernatural soundtrack makes a person feel like they are riding in Dean Winchester's Impala listening to his cassette tape collection. Kansas' hit Carry On Wayward Son and AC/DC's Highway to Hell is just the start, and this soundtrack is any rock lover's dream.
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad won viewers over with the former school teacher who learned he was dying and began cooking and selling meth to give his family a nest egg. The violence and shock value of the series was cutting edge, but there was something else about the show to love.
The Breaking Bad soundtrack didn't just stick with one style or genre of music and had a mishmash of songs that included country, hip-hop, Latino, and more to give a backdrop to the violence that played out on the small screen.
Atlanta
Donald Glover rose to superstardom thanks to his role in the FX series Atlanta. The fact that Glover is also a DJ under the name mcDJ and a musician under the name Childish Gambino. With that pedigree, Atlanta had no choice but to go all-in for its soundtrack.
Glover and company were able to bring in a lot of top-line hip-hop stars to add music to the hit TV series. Included on the soundtrack are names like Future, Usher, Young Thug, Migos, Outkast, Jeezy, 2 Chainz, and many more.
Empire
Empire is a television series about a music producer and the talent that he manages. The show then had cast who could belt out tunes on their own, and much of the soundtrack comes from those cast singing and performing in scenes on the show.
What makes the music soundtrack for this hit series so great was the fact that Timbaland is the man who curated the rest of the music for the show. He brought in music from names like JAY-Z, Prince, Wiz Khalifa, Pharrell Williams, Mary L. Blige, and Drake for the soundtrack.
Watchmen
There are a lot of great hit shows with amazing scores, but it gets no better than when Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are involved. The two men scored movies like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network. They also teamed to score HBO's Watchmen.
However, when Reznor scores a movie or TV series, he doesn't just play original instrumental music for it. He takes songs and turns them into something very different. In Watchmen, Reznor mixed new versions of songs by David Bowie for the show on top of his own work.