Category: FILM & TV SONGS

Every year thousands of songs are used in film, TV series, and commercials. Find out how to write a song that will work with hundreds of scenes by studying these successful film and TV songs.

Poison and Wine – The Civil Wars

John Paul White (left) and Joy Williams of The Civil Wars. The duo's second album will be released on August 6.

Singer-songwriter duo The Civil Wars won the 2012 Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance and another for Best Folk Album. Joy WIlliams and Paul White were working as solo singer-songwriters before teaming up to create a unique blend that lets each of them shine. This is a great example of collaboration! They obviously share a love for folk music and were able to find a way to pool their talents and make a whole that’s different from their work as solo artists.

The emotional, atmospheric quality of the tracks makes them perfect for film and television. And indeed, “Poison & Wine” has been featured Grey’s Anatomy, Vampire Diaries, The Client List, Pretty Little Liars, 90210, and more. So let’s take a look.

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“Come On Get Higher” – Matt Nathanson

“Come On Get Higher” by Matt Nathanson has over 200 million streams on Spotify and millions of downloads. Nathanson’s songs have been regularly featured in TV shows like One Tree Hill, The Vampire Diaries, and NCIS. He writes songs that come from the heart and connect with listeners by being both totally believable and completely entertaining.

Watch on YouTube.

Read the lyrics.


Recorded by Matt Nathanson
Writers: Matt Nathanson, Mark Weinberg
Shortcut # refers to my book “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting.”

GROOVE

One of the things that attracted me right away to this song is the hip-swaying, easy-going rhythmic groove. There’s a sensual feel to this groove that underscores the intimate physicality of the lyric.

If you play guitar, try playing along with this song and learn the strum he’s using. You can hear it clearly at the top of the song. If you play keyboards, look through a library of rhythm loops for one that has a similar feel and try playing the chords along with the loop.

This type of groove (based on 16th notes with a laid-back, swinging feel) is very current in both the Pop and Country genres (Shortcut #113). Try writing a song to a groove like this. Once you get comfortable with it, you’ll start to notice how this groove affects the melody you write. More on that in a minute.

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