When did soaps stop using popular Music in scenes?

[Susan Hunter]

My favorite Days montage was set to Randy Newman's 'I Think Its Going to Rain Today'. It was during the time that Kim thought that she was pregnant with Victor's baby whom she also thought was her father.

I didn't care for the scenes at Doug's Place or Wings when Doug would sing a song, but in retrospect it was a great way to cap off the episode.

[frequentsoapfan]

Yeah GH has stripped music and replaced it with the oens they own in some epis from the 90s. And popular music dates the clips even the stuff from early 2000 you can tell exactly what year that was.

Plus I hate 3-5 minute end montages that are not needed.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I always loved scenes when characters were in a restaurant or something and current pop music was playing in the background. GH used to do that a lot at Kelly's in the 90's, it added to the realism of the scenes, as most fast food places will have the radio on. The music wouldn't be the focus of the scene, it just enhanced it a little.

The UK soaps still do this, as they don't use any background music of any sort (Hollyoaks being an exception). It's not uncommon to hear current pop music blasting at The Vic, the Caf, or club on EastEnders for example. Or simply characters having the radio on while they're in the kitchen or something. But I guess different countries have different copyright, royalty, and licensing laws.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Precisely.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

GH did a montage with "Dreaming With A Broken Heart" by John Mayer not too long ago. I think it was when Abby died cause Michael was breaking down over something.

Loved it.

[MissLlanviewPA]

There were two scenes with Robin on GH in 1992 after Robert & Anna were presumed dead, where we saw her in her room listening to REM's "Losing My Religion", and in the scene where she finally breaks down and accepts that her parents are gone, she's listening to Guns N' Roses' "Live and Let Die." That last scene in particular is pretty powerful, listening to the lyrics and seeing start to cry when Axl sings "But if this ever changing over in which we live in, makes you give in cry...say live and let die" (that last line is where she lost it). Montages aren't needed all the time,but for scenes like this, having her listening to something popular as opposed to having a particular background proved more effective, IMO.

And of course, the montage after everyone found out about their deaths was set to Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven"

And on OLTL in 2001 when Gabrielle came back, they played Michael Bolton's "That's What Love is All About" a few times, which was Max & Gabrielle's song. On Soapnet, however (like in the Trading Places episode), it was replaced with a song called "Miracle." Which given that the former was their love song as a couple, truly sucks .

One of Todd & Blair's songs was "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole (well, I think it was the version where Natalie added her voice, too), and that played in the flashback shown in 2002 (and Kassie herself sang it on the show), but when they showed the same flashback last year, I think they changed it.

Maybe montages aren't needed all the time, but background music could really make the difference. One of songs played in 1985 on GH when Robert & Anna saw each other again after seven years was Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly." How awesome is that?

And Todd & Blair's first love scene in seven years in 2001 had Enigma's "Gravity of Love" in the background--and it definitely added to the intensity of the scene.

[DRW50]

I remember when Brenda "died" in 1998 and they had to play "I Will Remember You." I rolled my eyes, as I was so tired of that song, and I didn't care about Brenda anyway.

[MissLlanviewPA]

I've seen that clip before, and while the way they showed her modeling clips was weird (weird shots together over other parts of the screen), I actually love that song, probably because I can sing like that song like Sarah McLachlan can, if I do say so myself. It's actually in my key!

[DRW50]

TMI!

[MissLlanviewPA]

Oops! I fixed it! I type too fast sometimes.

[MissLlanviewPA]

One montage I liked, even though the story itself was a ripoff/shouldn't have happened, is the montage over Joss' cancer battle/Jake's death to "Baby Mine" from Dumbo. on GH. I saw some clips of the story, and even though something like probably shouldn't have happened on that show, choosing that song? WRECKED me. There and in Dumbo.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Sarah MacLachlan's Building A Mystery was also played on GH, at least in the background at Kelly's in the 90's....

[greens_dupres]

I remember multiple Brenda death montages to Sarah McLachlan. I think they used Angel too. There were a lot of good GH funeral montages to popular music. BJ to Reba McEntire's If I Had Only Known Tears in heaven for Robert & Anna. That alone would probably kill the budget these days. I miss popular music on the soaps.

[SFK]

They also used Tears in Heaven for the funeral of Gloria's baby Anna Claire on AMC.

I can't remember for the life of me what was going on in the montage, but I was locked out and went to a neighbor's house in the late '90s and she was watching GH and tapping her foot when a montage using the Shoop song (Whitney) from the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack came on. ATWT used Count on Me (Whitney/CeCe) from the same album for the close of a big anniversary montage.

There was a rap/hiphop song called "Lucy" that they used for a Lucy sequence on GH. I remember feeling so surprised that they'd even know about that song to use it (♫Sugar is sweet, and fruit's are juicy, how would you like a little taste of Lucy? Luu-SAYYY....rap-rap!♫)

[JAS0N47]

One verse of "Always" cost "Days" $50,000 to use last year. So that's a little bit too much money to do more than once or twice a year nowadays.