When writer-director-producer Ryan Murphy approached music supervisor PJ Bloom about the possibility of producing an episodic musical on show choir, he was more than bemused. He said he was not even sure whether it was a great idea or a really bad one. However, he went on to sign him, and Murphy’s Fox series ‘Glee’ went on to become one of the biggest new hits of the 2009-2010 TV season. It created not only the launching pad for a top-10 hit album but also set the foundation for a collection of top iTunes tracks.
Glee’s success was completely unexpected as music-driven TV dramas have been known to flop, with evidence in such failures in TV shows as ‘Cop Rock’ and ‘Viva Laughlin’.
However, the logistics of the show proved to be no easy task, with the securing of licenses of some of the biggest songs in the world by top artists for the episodic musical being their biggest challenge. The pilot show featured Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, which was a fair struggle to nail the rights for, but its appearance helped the show to produce one of its best selling iTunes tracks to date.
Other major songs that almost ended in a disaster included Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ and John Lennon’s rock anthem ‘Imagine’.
While ‘Glee’ remains popular amongst fans, Columbia Records is now issuing a second soundtrack album as well. Bloom holds steadfast to the fact that the show appeals to a larger audience and says its uniqueness goes far beyond its versions of familiar pop tunes. “It is not just the music — you have characters that touch everyone…our reality exists in a relatively low-income part of Ohio. We are talking about somewhat impoverished kids, and they are not always the best-looking. These are all very real characters, and these are cross-sections of the true America. I think people are able to make that connection.”