Johnnie Pippin
It's an accepted fact that music plays an important role in our everyday lives as well as in most facets of life itself, including our entertainment, driving to work, as a background to shopping, dinning at a restaurant, and even in our workplace. Music is an intricate part of the memories we all have and have come to love. And thus it is no exception that the soundtrack of one popular show is starting to filter out into our real lives.
We the viewers of Lost have been inundated with a creepy opening instrumental from the first episode that aired on September 22, 2004 to this present season. Whenever we hear this sound, we know we have become LOST.
ABC's Lost is a cultural phenomenon these days, so music placement is crucial to getting a certain point across at pivotal moments of the show. For example, in this season's episode, Everybody Hates Hugo, we see Hugo (or Hurley, as he's known) going through the food storage room of the bunker and devouring all kinds of delectables while Slim Smith's My Conversation plays in the background. Moments later, we see Rose humming the same tune while she is tending to her laundry on the beach. Coincidence? Maybe. However, we are talking about a show that employs hidden clues, Easter eggs, and random occurrences through each episode to suggest that there is always a little more going on than the average fan might comprehend.
Rose is not the only person seen singing or humming throughout the series. In part two of the first season's finale, titled Exodus,the audience gets to hear Sawyer singing the classic reggae tune Redemption Song by Bob Marley. What better song could one sing while floating in the ocean on a man-made raft looking to be rescued?
Another time we see music cleverly infused into the story line is that moment we first see the now infamous hatch from the episode Man of Science, Man of Faith. The audience glimpses Desmond, the lone inhabitant of said bunker, as he pullsout a record from a vinyl collection and starts playing Mama Cass Elliott's Make Your Own Kind of Music on the 1970's hi-fi record player. A foreshadowing of things to come for our Losties? An homage to when the items in the hatch were made? This gesture could represent both, or could indicate none of these things, depending on what you believe. But by now we have also heard this song break back into our culture from a television advertisement by the candy bar Snickers. The company is using it to sell their candy; some of the viewers who hear this song recognize where they have heard this song before and may do a double take.
Not all of the music on Lost is a lyrical song though. In fact, most of the music is instrumental, written and arranged by Michael Giacchino. Giacchino has a real knack for infusing his brand of heart pounding, emotional roller coaster ride music into just the right scene or illuminating perfectly a character.1 Giacchino's little melodies do a lot more than just make the viewer listen; they make the viewer think. His music stimulates our brains and makes the audience want to hear more of these songs, because we sense that if we could hear more of the song, we might actually understand more of what is taking place within these characters and their newfound surroundings, which each get their own theme music if you will. Haven't we all wanted our own personal theme music at some point in our lives? A song reminds
us of a time well spent, or a feeling that returns. New technological advances such as the iPod and other mp3 players may be the closest we will come to this very idea (unless one can afford a four piece free roaming band to follow one around). But I digress. Giacchino has encapsulated an emotion within each story line and plot whose ability to wake up, frighten, or surprise his audience stems just from the very essence of the music.
Last season's fourth episode made a lot of people fall in love with one of Lost's main characters. Walkabout was a John Locke focused episode with some very passionate and melodic instrumentals. One particular instrumental was used to show a revelation of sorts. One powerful arrangement, when watching the episode, gave its audience a very emotional and internal moment in the life of a 'resurrected' human being. The music accompanied the revelation that, to the surprise of Locke and the audience, John was able to walk again. Although we don't yet know what happened to Lcoke's legs to leave him paralyzed and in a wheelchair, we do know he was able to walk early in his life and can walk again after crashing unto the island. For me personally and other fans of the show that I have spoken with about Lost, Walkabout is one of the finest episodes so far of the two seasons aired.
With any show or movie, music helps pass the time or set the tone of a particular scene, and Lost is no exception. Most of the time one simply hears a faint instrumental playing in the background, while at pivotal moments a particular artist or band's song will be inserted onto a scene as background music, serving the same function as an instrumental cue in film. One example is Hurley listening to his Walkman on the beach in the episode ....In Translation. At the end of the show, we see Hurley as he puts on his headphones and listens to a couple of verses of Damian Rice's song Delicate. As he looks around the beach at some of the survivors of Oceanic 815, Hurley's batteries finally die out and he is left to deal with the fact that he may not be able to listen to that song or his Walkman for a long, long time. Does the song fit the scene? One could argue that point. The scene is a poignant attempt to show some needed solitude. Does Delicate make the scene flow a little better? At first it does, but once the batteries die, Hurley understands that it is part of a bigger picture- that he as well as the other survivors are indeed truly lost.
In conclusion, the genius behind the music involved with Lost, Michael Giacchino, as well as the songs used within the episodes have created a surreal path for the plot lines, intricate details, and character flashbacks for the series. Is all this a main part of the show? That should be left up to the audience to decide. But then again, you just never know with the powers that rule the series. Music could just be the key to some of the mysteries that make up the cultural phenomenon called Lost.
