Sound Track To My Heart

Music in film or television has an enormous impact.
The Exorcist without that haunting, eerie score would have been a flop. Pea green vomit would have provoked laughter, not chills.

I got hooked on House MD one weekend when I found myself alone for an evening. And one of the integral elements is the use of music. In context, sometimes new and unknown. Sometimes classic. It heightens the pathos when applicable and lulls us when we least expect it...setting us up for that exquisite fall.

101 Pilot - You Can't Always Get What You Want  - Rolling Stones
102 Paternity  - One  - Three Dog Night
103 Occam's Razor  - Happy Birthday to You  - (played by House on the piano)
104 Maternity n/a n/a
105 Damned if You Do  - On Saturday Afternoons in 1963 -  Rickie Lee Jones
106 The Socratic Method  - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
106 The Socratic Method  - Silent Night  - (played by House on the piano)

So, The Stones, Three Dog Night (The tune was actually written by Harry Nillson, who would have be 69 years old this past week) Rickie Lee Jones and two pieces Hugh Laurie got to shine on.
A nice mix.
The actual 'house' music (that which is written by the people that work on the show) is kept to a simple formula for each emotion that is needed. The drum heavy 'ticking' piece for thoughtful insight or contemplation. The folksy guitar strumming when we are being prepared for a crying moment - either happy or sad, a minor or diminished riff for sad and major for happy. And then when the show closes and the moral of the story is laid out, the use of the licensed material.

Grey's Anatomy, misses the mark completely. Well, not completely.
Just, mostly.
The music is more often than not of the in-house variety. Very little money is spent on ASCAP fees. They rely on the strumming folk guitar for far too much. And it varies very little. To their credit, they do employ an evocative background thrum.

And yet...us girls cry when we watch. The depth of writing? The soap nature of the show? The craft of the cast.
Because it is certainly NOT the music. In truth, it is all of the above.
The cast is very good, for the most part. The weekly movement of the story line is General Hospital for the 21st century.
While House MD focus on the character's Holmes like abilities and how the world revolves about him, Grey's is much more the soap. We are given a different group to focus on and bond with. You have favorites, you root for outcomes to relationships and the medical cases.
House MD has much more jargon and equipment, they are frequently in a patient's guts or taking images or some medical procedure.
Not on Grey's. It is the personal story. The interaction between that week's cast of characters.
Sadly, the poignant moment is often bereft of moving music that matches.

I can't tell you how many times I have run to lookup the name of the musician/ track when I hear something I like on House MD. I have yet to look for the author of a piece on Grey's.

Is it just that this particular show can overcome that lack of applicable music? A fluke? Or a tasteful blend of little sounds, and music and a really fine show.
Probably a little of both.