Selling Sonic Girlhood: Feminizing Indie Rock through Music Supervision on MTV’s Awkward
2021; Volume: 60; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/cj.2021.0061
ISSN2578-4919
Autores Tópico(s)Asian Culture and Media Studies
ResumoThis article examines indie rock musicians Bethany Cosentino's and Tegan and Sara Quin's work as guest music supervisors during seasons 2 and 3, respectively, of Awkward (MTV, 2011-2016), a dramedy about female adolescence.As recording industry professionals who were invited by MTV to participate in both sides of the licensing process for promotional purposes, Cosentino and the Quins negotiated several directives at once.They were selling their own material while promoting more obscure musicians within production practices that compress and subordinate songcraft to visual storytelling and within MTV's short-term programming and branding efforts to align female indie artists with teenage girlhood.Music supervisors' responsibilities are often mysterious, especially for the musicians whose recordings are licensed to commercial media.For example, in 2012 and 2013, indie rockers Bethany Cosentino and Tegan and Sara Quin served as guest supervisors for individual episodes of MTV 's Awkward (2011-2016), a dramedy about a teenage girl's social misadventures, during its second and third seasons, respectivelty.MTV aligned female indie rockers with the show's protagonist, Jenna Hamilton (Ashley Rickards), a smart, sexually curious high school student and blogger.For Cosentino, who was developing a following as the leader of Los Angeles duo Best Coast, the stint 218 JCMS 60.5 • 2020-2021 was a learning experience.Prior to her involvement, she did not recognize music supervision as "an actual profession.I just thought it [was] this cool thing where you get to pick your favorite songs." 1 Tegan and Sara, an industrious sister act who broke out of Calgary's punk scene in the mid-2000s with a few high-profile placements on Grey's Anatomy (ABC, 2005-), only experienced supervision work as licensors.Furthermore, as lesbian artists who withstood the music industry's sexism and homophobia, they were aware of "the profound impact that a good song and a good scene" could have on artists' careers and approached their assignment as an opportunity to showcase lesser-known female talent. 2 However, Cosentino's and the Quins' supervision work for Awkward was also an exercise in synergistic cross-promotion.By the time the episodes they supervised made it to air, they were concluding publicity cycles for albums that were turning points in their respective discographies.The Only Place (2012), Best Coast's sophomore effort for Brooklyn independent label Mexican Summer, found Cosentino and partner Bobb Bruno capitalizing on the critical success of their breakthrough debut, Crazy for You (2010), by sweetening their lo-fi (low fidelity) power tpop sound with bright harmonies and choruses.For Heartthrob (2013), Tegan and Sara's seventh album and first co-production with Vapor Records and Warner Bros. Records, the pair became synthpop titans.Rochelle Holguin, then Viacom's head of creative music integration for MTV, VH1, and Logo, brought both acts into Awkward's music department. 3 Cosentino's and the Quins' indie credentials allowed MTV to appeal to young women at a time when many of their competitors aired popular female-led teen melodramas with hip soundtracks, such as the CW's Gossip Girl (2007-2012) and ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017).The musicians were also selected because of their "syncable" music. 4 Television executives such as Holguin and Randy Dolnick, then MTV's Music & Media Licensing department supervisor, were well acquainted with Cosentino and the Quins because their work had been heavily licensed to advertisers, television shows, and films, including several teen programs and other MTV projects.Like many contemporary indie rock success stories, they built their careers from needle drops, a descriptor for individual recordings' integration into commercial narrative properties that connotes unimaginative 1 "Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino Talks about Guest Music Supervising an Episode of MTV's Awkward," MTV.com, September 8, 2012, http://soundtrack.mtv.com/post/best-coasts-bethany-cosentino-talks-about-guest-music-supervising-an-episo de-of-mtvs-awkward/
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