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How important is music in The L Word? Bianca Camminga investigates…

There are TV shows and then there are life changing events that just happened to be televised: cue The L Word.

Yes I am a fan, hell the only reason I didn’t go to the convention and throw myself at Helena Peabody’s feet (I know she has a real name but I don’t care to use it) is because my partner threatened to leave me. And I wasn’t completely convinced that Helena would take me in, so I made the obvious choice.

The thing about The L Word, at least for me, is not the beautiful women, the fairly good storyline, or the lesbian drama we all have some sort of understanding of. For me, The L Word is all about the music.

Music we can relate to

By music I don’t just mean that Betty-penned theme tune which makes lesbians sound like they are just doing things ALL the time (laughing, loving, breathing, dreaming etc) but rather the songs which define so many of the scenes in the show.

I am willing to stake my musical laurels on the fact that almost every viewer has at least one band or song which they have acquired from The L Word. (Not to mention those of us who have compiled a chronological playlist of every season’s playlist.)

Let’s face it The L Word, musically, has offered this generation what the kd Langs and Melissa Etheridges offered the last.

We have had to stretch for out musicians who are creating music that we can actually relate to. Yes, yes I hear you say, “what about Tegan and Sara?” but that’s just the thing - if I hadn’t heard them on The L Word, I probably would have only discovered them about a year later than I did. Because, I don’t know about you, but I never really got that into One Tree Hill.

Scene by scene

Not convinced? Let me give you a few examples.

Think about the scene when Shane bumps into Carmen who is working on the set of a music video. Shane snaps her fingers and says the magic words and hey presto! Next thing they are in a deserted sound booth and Carmen has her pants around her ankles. Now think about the song that comes on in the background. Thumping bass, the guitar chimes and then in perfect timing the camera turns from the steamy session to focus in on the sound of The Organ making their L Word début.

Jenny and Marina around the pool, late at night, what can be considered Jenny’s first foray into the dark side (this is about the same point that a slow growing dislike for Jenny is conceived in the pit of my stomach). Suddenly Kinnie Starr comes through the tube “Is it alright for me to feel this way, Put my head in your lap, the world will go away Well well, we can go there, we can go anywhere…”

Finally the pièce de résistance: Bette wakes up in the hotel room with ‘that’ carpenter and the ever wondrous Dusty Springfield croons ‘just a little loving’. I rest my case.

Profiling underground bands

The show has been an international springboard for a number of acts, especially female acts who in the current music industry are still largely side lined or excluded from what is considered mainstream music because they have names like Bitch & Animal and rock the guitar and not the voice synthesiser.

Songs like God-des and She’s amazing lady lovin’ anthem ‘Lick It‘ is a case in point. I struggle to think of a single other mainstream show that would successfully use the song of a lesbian duo with the lyrics ‘Lick it, better lick it right/touch it, better touch it right/kiss it, better kiss it right/do that pussy right‘ as the L Word has.

With the end of the L Word slowly approaching, perhaps all is not lost. There are rumours of a single character-focused internet spin-off show (Jenny with her own Betty theme tune?).

This may be enough for those hardcore bloggers who do a running commentary of every note played on every episode, but for some of us the end of the L Word is a mournful affair.

Realistically there are only so many badly timed, musically blasé video montages you can watch on YouTube before you will actually have to let go. Maybe it is time to move on, find new music, try new things - I mean, I am literally counting down the days till the new Lilo album comes out…

Posted in: Exclusives, Music, Tv & Film |