It’s 2006. You’re sitting cross legged in front of that giant tube television that has miraculously survived most of your adolescence, and your mom is watching the season two finale of Grey’s Anatomy. At first she had to hush you, but you’re transfixed now. A blonde woman in a pink dress walks into the room, and a gentle melody plays in the background. “It was me,” she confesses, “… I thought I was a surgeon, but I can’t… I thought I was a surgeon, but I am not. So, I quit.”
And even though you don’t understand, you’re moved.
It’s 2007. You’re sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket in front of your family’s recently purchased plasma flat screen. The volume is almost all the way down and you have the closed captioning on. You don’t want your parents to find you, or your little brother who will definitely tell them what you’re doing. You’re not supposed to watch Gossip Girl. Two teenagers sit in the back of a limousine, a dark-haired boy and girl, a sly grin on each of their faces and a tender rock ballad plays in the background. The girl leans over, kissing the boy on the mouth, the music swells and your heart cracks.
And even though you’ve never hated anyone the way you hate this boy and girl, you’re kind of freaking out a little bit. In a good way.
It’s 2012. You’re sitting in a dark theater with a few of your friends. Your popcorn is long gone, and the movie is almost over. You’ve sat in a chair just like this once a year for the last four years, watching these characters play out their glorious melodramas on the screen, and now you’re watching as each of their beautiful faces lights up the screen one final time. A beautiful song about eternal love plays in the background, and you get to remember how Bella Swan went from a very lonely girl to a blissfully happy vampire.
And even though you promised yourself you wouldn’t, you’re crying.
Wait, was that last one just me? Whatever.
The point is all of these moments were punctuated, not just by beautiful cinematography, great acting, and very well rendered special effects, but by music.
There are a lot of thankless jobs in the film industry and I could go on for hours about how little recognition is given to Writers, Editors, and Animators, but today I’m gonna go off on something a little more specific and arguably even less “important”. The thankless and often never even mentioned job of Music Supervisor.
A Music Supervisor, for those of you I lost, according to the Guild of Music Supervisors is “a qualified professional who oversees all musical related aspects of film, television, advertisements, video games, and other existing or emerging media platforms as required.” Specifically, a musical supervisor acts as a liaison between artists/labels and directors/producers to create a soundtrack and, along with a music editor, fill “spots” within the media that could be best served by music besides score.
Basically, a music supervisor is a talent scout in charge of making a killer mixtape.
And no one is better at it than Alexandra Patsavas. Or so Shonda Rhimes would probably tell you, since Patsavas has been the music supervisor her three greatest hit television shows.
She is responsible for some of the most iconic musical moments of television and film history – Izzie quitting in the season two finale of Grey’s Anatomy, Chuck and Blair’s first kiss on Gossip Girl – and the refined musical taste of an entire generation of women.
Because really, the Twilight Soundtracks were that good.
The Grammy’s kind of think so too. Patsavas has been nominated for the Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media three times. She should’ve won at least twice, again the Twilight Soundtracks, responsible for two of her nominations, were that good. I can’t speak to Grey’s Anatomy Original Soundtrack Vol. 2, but it was the only television soundtrack nominated that year, in a category that is not often fond of television soundtracks, so it probably is also that good.
No one makes a mixtape like Patsavas.
Or breaks a band.
When the season two finale of Grey’s Anatomy premiered, Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” was still a relatively unknown song, but it didn’t stay that way. Patsavas is often credited with revitalizing the use of television and film as a promotional tool for music, and there are several bands who can credit her with their success.
Remember The O.C.? Remember The Bait shop, that weird concert venue that Seth worked at for like five minutes? Remember how The Killers played there? And Death Cab for Cutie? And Modest Mouse? To be on The O.C., whether a performance, or just to have a song included on the soundtrack, was such a recipe for success that The Beastie Boys released “Ch-Check It Out” on the show before the radio.
Josh Schwartz, the creator of The O.C., was very aware that the success of his show owed significantly to the music and when he moved on to his next project, Gossip Girl, he took Patsavas with him.
By this point Patsavas had developed a relationship with the music industry that preceded her. On Gossip Girl she was able to get such groups as No Doubt, The Airborne Toxic Event, Florence and the Machine, and Sonic Youth to make an appearance. Even Lady Gaga. When she was hired onto the Twilight films, she was able to not only enlist several talented musicians but convince them to write original songs for the project.
Chris Weitz, when talking about the New Moon Soundtrack, said he thought they’d made maybe “the greatest break up mixtape of all time,” and remarked on Patsavas’ skill: “[She’s] an amazing music supervisor who is consistently finding and breaking great bands.”
She helped break Imogen Heap. And inspire one of the greatest SNL sketches of all time.
In The O.C.’s season two finale, circa May 19th 2005, Ryan, and honestly you don’t have to remember all of this, goes to his brother Trey’s apartment to confront him after learning that Trey sexually assaulted his girlfriend (or maybe they aren’t together at this point it’s hard to say they were very on again off again). Ryan and Trey get into a fight, a pretty violent one. Marissa shows up, in a futile attempt to stop Ryan from getting himself hurt, to find Trey on top of Ryan nearly choking him to death. She begs Trey to let him go, grabbing at him and sobbing, but he doesn’t listen.
Then Trey pulls the giant rotary phone off the couch side table, with the obvious intent of bashing it into Ryan’s head, and Marissa notices the gun.
(I don’t know why I’m transposing this for you… I could just include the clip)
The moment Marissa shoots Trey in the back, a cultural tsunami began its arc as the song “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap started to play.
In 2007, SNL had a bit of a reimagining.
This time I’m just posting the clip.
This sketch has become one of the internet’s favorite playthings. Yes, I used the word playthings. It’s been parodied, giffed, and referenced thousands of times, always to a captive and pleased audience. It’s been over ten years since this sketch first aired, and around the ten year anniversary the minds behind it, a comedy team known as The Lonely Island, reminisced with the Huffington Post on the origin of the sketch and it’s shocking success.
“…Shoutout to Josh Schwartz for creating The O.C.” Andy Samberg concluded, “and shoutout to Imogen Heap for creating an incredibly, timeless, classic tune.”
And shout out to Alexandra Patsavas, for her help in making iconic moments in television and film with the right background music.
He didn’t say that, that’s why it’s not in quotes. I said that.
And while Chris Weitz, Josh Schwartz, Shonda Rhimes, and the Grammys, may know Patsavas, the people most affected by her work remain in the dark.
So, I’m here, telling you. There are a lot of unappreciated artists in the world, I mean do you know the names of either of the guys who wrote the A Quiet Place script other than John Krasinski? Did you know they’re the two credited for story, not Krasinski? Do you even know what that means?
But now you know the name Alexandra Patsavas, if not how to pronounce it. (Exactly how it looks, short vowel sounds) And next time you binge watch Grey’s or pop in a Twillight movie you’ll know that there is a person, a talented and hardworking person, behind the music moments that take your breath away.