The Power of a Good TV Theme Song and Why It Matters

Think of any television show you love and I can guarantee you could perform a rendition of the theme song solely by memory. What about “How to Save a Life” from Grey’s Anatomy or the evermemorable “dun dun dun dun daaaaaa” of the Law & Order opening title sequence? Depending on the show you were thinking of, the theme song might not have been all that noticeable. Until now, you might not have even realized you knew it and could recount it so vividly in your mind. But just like an ad jingle, that’s their job and part of the genius behind what they work–to be as covert as possible about becoming an earworm in your head without you realizing it’s doing so. The best theme songs go a step further, becoming part of the cultural lexicon so that anytime they’re played on cable or you overhear someone streaming it in the next room, you know exactly what show is coming up next. But why are they so important and even more so, what makes them so good at being memorable?      

To answer that question, we must first acknowledge where they come from. Before film and definitely before TV, people broadcasted sound and stories to the masses through radio. People would not only hear the daily news, but also be entertained with radio dramas, otherwise known as radio plays, which were shows that specialized in telling fictional stories through only dialogue, music, and sound. Because it lacked any visual component, music was incredibly important to cue the listener that a particular show was starting. Thus, they were played at the very beginning to bookend that week’s episode in a particular time slot and from any commercial breaks. Radio became a daily pastime for the majority of the U.S., particularly during the second world war but fell out of favor in the 1950s with the popularity of television. (Later, it would return in the 2010s under a new name: podcasting.)  

But what was kept as a holdover from radio was the theme music. Especially because many radio shows were adapted to TV, it eased the transition as stories were transformed from one medium to another. Plus, it continued the trend that people were already used to when it came to episodic storytelling: signaling the start of a new show or episode with a theme song.   

When TV started finding its own footing, theme songs for shows transformed again into something entirely new and unique for each series. Now with the capacity for visuals, audiences began to see different kinds of theme songs. Songs would be composed for the show with original score and lyrics, or else an already existing song, both of which had to fit the premise and theme. Think Hannah Montana’s “Best of Both Worlds” that was about a girl embracing two halves of herself, or That’s So Raven’s “That’s So Raven” about a girl who can see the future. Across the board, these songs ranged widely in purposes: to credit the actors appearing in the show, to look back on previous episodes, to preview the current one, to explain the premise of the show, and/or spotlight each of the main characters of the show. But no matter what they were designed to do, they had to be catchy, easy to remember, relatively easy for any person to sing, and instantly distinguishable from anything else on TV. The best examples of this era, though I may be biased, were “Thank You For Being a Friend” from Golden Girls, “I’ll Be There For You” from Friends, and “Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs” from Frasier. These are pieces of art in their own right, both because how perfect they were for their perspective shows and how good they were at getting stuck in your head.   

This was largely the trend throughout the century and even into the 2000s, though there were the exceptions like Sex and the City, The Office, and Seinfield. If anything, they were ahead of their time in choosing to use jingles for their theme songs, all of which have become instantly recognizable and classic in the history of TV. I’d say that as far back as 1959, The Twilight Zone was a pivotal foreshadowing of how theme songs would evolve into these quick snippets of sound that are nonetheless just as difficult, perhaps more, to compose.    

But then, the inevitable–streaming services changed everything and TV along with it. The older generations may bemoan us for having short attention spans, helped no doubt by social media, the need for gratification, and the binge-watch model of streaming service culture. But I’d argue that we brought on a really important shift in the way TV is consumed outside of a cable structure. Because if we have a certain paid level of streaming service, our experience is radically different from the early days of TV because we no longer have commercials and no wait times between episodes, especially if they’re released all at once. Thus, no reason to be encouraged by the show itself to keep watching and no dead air besides, you guessed it, the theme song. 

From Stranger Things to Superstore, Succession to Abbott Elementary, theme songs have become a “blink and you miss it” moment and yet, depending on their length, still offer the ever-present “skip intro” button when watching. But rather than seeing is as further evidence that the younger generations are losing their capability to be patient, I see it as an important challenge for TV music composers today to, despite the shift in their audience’s expectations to receive more airtime for story, create theme songs that remain just as iconic as their predecessors. It’s not so much about a song’s length as how good it is at its job to get stuck in your head and inspire you to watch the show again. Part of that is reflecting the genre and feel of the show, like the Stranger Things’s song that captures the show’s 80s nostalgia with the hallmark synths of the decade and a low octave to hint at something dark, mysterious, and lingering beneath the surface. The other part is understanding us as the audience and how our tastes are shifting along with TV as a medium, but also believing that we’ll make an exception for anything or any length of time as long as it’s good enough to stick around for. Even now, what a theme song can do is constantly changing.  

We might not notice a show’s opening theme song, let alone just how many we have stored in our brain’s repertoire over our years of watching TV. But you’ll know it’s working if you recognize it from the first few notes, if it ignites in you an undeniable nostalgia, if you can recite it by memory. And most of all, if it keeps you coming back.