Since the show's been going for over ten years now, I'm focusing entirely on seasons 1-5 in this post as that was when the show (and soundtrack) was at its strongest. However, I may look at later seasons in the future. I should also note that whilst I might mention the score in these posts, this is primarily a look at the licensed music for the show and the history surrounding certain musical decisions.
If you've heard of Supernatural but have never watched it, your experience is probably poor to middling at best. Whilst the show's fandom has been engulfed by affected teenage girls and the united forces of tumblr pages themed around anything with David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch and a pumpkin with a weed logo and curly hair in it, the show isn't just Twilight Unchained. I first got into the show when a friend of mine explained to me over Twitter that the show consisted of two brothers driving around, killing monsters as they listen to Classic Rock and whilst the show deals with moments of forced emotion now and then as mid-season plot arcs develop, this description remains valid from the season 1 pilot to the season 5 finale and beyond.
So why does a show about two hunky brothers (Sam and Dean Winchester) fighting vampires, ghouls and racist trucks feature a soundtrack consisting of Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and many more from, to quote Sam Winchester, "the greatest hits of Mullet Rock"? The short answer is because of Eric Kripke, showrunner for the first five seasons and renowned Classic Rock fan. The long answer is because in the pilot episode, Eric made sure to include a scene where Sam and Dean discuss Dean's taste in music, even going as far as to include a line in the script stage directions instructing TV executives to "take your anemic alternative Pop and shove it up your ass". Eric reasoned that featuring a scene would make it part of the show's mythology and, sure enough, he was spot on. However, since then, Dean's love of 70s Rock has played an important part in the shaping of his character and the show in general.
Before I get too much into that, I should probably tell you exactly what the show's about from a specific plot related point of view. Also, if you're considering watching the show, maybe skip this entire section as I'll be briefly touching on a couple of plot spoilers in my description of the first five seasons.
In Supernatural, monsters exist. Vampires, zombies, Bloody Mary, ghosts, demons, wendigos, Pagan Gods, werewolves and creatures spawned through cursed artifacts and/or black magic. However, they don't just walk about the street; they hide and occasionally pick off unlucky sods to feast on their flesh or just plain old revenge. Hunters, as you probably figured out from the word 'Hunters', find these monsters and kill them before they kill too many teenage boys or "TV attractive" women. That's where Sam and Dean come in; they're hunters and have been ever since their mum was killed by a yellow-eyed demon. Their dad, John, vowed to find and slay the demon that killed his wife and in the process, trained his two children to be hunters along with him.
Season one deals with the now adult brothers getting back into hunting together after Sam left to go to college (motivated by the death of his girlfriend, also by the yellow-eyed demon) and their father went missing whilst "on a hunt". However, over the course of the show's first five seasons, the plot evolves into SO MUCH MORE. We get plotlines and arcs involving psychic children, selling souls, a plan to open a gateway to Hell, angels bringing the dead back to life, a conspiracy to break Lucifer out of his prison and the motherfucking apocalypse.
In four seasons, the show transforms from a show looking at urban legend folklore and Western mythology in heartland America to one dealing with Christianity and global peril...all whilst featuring two brothers driving around in a muscle car killing monsters and listening to Classic Rock. Whilst the show took on more of a freeform plot structure in later seasons, the way a simple show about wanting to avenge their mum on behalf of their dad transitioned into one about two archangels settling a millennia old grudge whilst still feeling like it was all part of the same interconnected story provided some fantastic examples of storytelling with a wide variety of characters you cared about until they almost certainly died in a blaze of glory...and whilst the show changed around them, the soundtrack (for the most part) did not.
SPOILERS OVER
Season one contained a solid collection of greatest hits but most tracks were often used at the end of an episode after the brothers had vanquished the beast or near the start as they rode into town, the sound of Ratt, Quiet Riot or UFO blaring through the Impala during a standard establishing shot. Music was largely incidental but there were a few uses now and then that felt deliberate, perfectly employed to capture the mood and themes of the scene in a way that I can still picture in my head just under a decade or so after watching them for the first (and only) time.
These instances include the use of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" - Iron Butterfly during a cold open in which police stealthily surround the house of a serial killer who turns out to be Dean Winchester (dun dun DAAHHHHHHH), "Bad Company" - Bad Company when a character you thought was pretty cool turned out to be a throat slitting demon in disguise, "Bad Moon Rising" - Creedence Clearwater Revival during the season finale cliffhanger and, my personal favourite, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - Blue Oyster Cult as a Reaper pursues a jogger in the woods, draining their life to cure a faith healer's patient. Some of these uses might sound a little on the nose but the way their used in the show couldn't be more fitting and awesome.
As I mentioned earlier, the soundtrack helped shape the feel of the show and gave the audience a better understanding of Dean's character. You realise that the man has spent almost his entire life trying to be his dad, to the point that he's literally driving his car, wearing his clothes and (you guessed it) listening to all his music. It's an extra layer to integral character development and now and then, comes in handy when the brothers are trying to solve a case...OK, it mostly just came in handy when Dean realised that the symbol for Blue Oyster Cult was part of some fake mystical symbols painted somewhere, but it's better than just having their music as background noise.
After season one's strong start, season two kept that train a-rollin' with more of the same. This time, since the show was building its own mythology, we had more "Previously on Supernatural..." montages at the start of the episode which gave us an opportunity to watch supercuts of the brothers killing monsters to the sound of "Wheel In The Sky" - Journey or "Foreplay/Long Time" - Boston. Not only that but season two marked the start of one of the show's staples; using "Carry On Wayward Son" - Kansas, the unofficial anthem for the show due to the nature of the song's lyrics and the fact that Sam and Dean are actually from Kansas, during the season recap at the start of finales, a trend that's been used in every single season to this very date (I think. I haven't finished season 12 but I'm pretty sure they have done).
Aside from this new use of music, previous uses have been echoed. We still get incidental tunes as the brothers discuss cases or drive off onto their next adventure and we still get amazing music moments such as the use of "White Rabbit" - Jefferson Airplane or "Renegade" - Styx but the show didn't need to deviate too much. It was in its second year so fans expect to see more of the same with some improvements here and there, which is exactly what they got. Season three should've been incredible, right? Weeeellllll...
Season three had a couple of negative factors despite being pretty solid overall. For starters, the writer's strike meant the season had a reduced number of episodes which meant less budget for expensive Classic Rock hits. However, even though the casual uses of Billy Squire or Rush were reduced, this did mean that specific song uses struck with more precision and (often) hilarity. Plus, season three had a heavier plot to deal with now that [SPOILERS RELATING TO WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF SEASON 2] so random Classic Rock songs in the background of important scenes as opposed to comical ones probably would've distracted viewers from that.
Still, season three features "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" - Bachman Turner Overdrive in the background as Sam walks in on his brother having sex with twins, "Hocus Pocus" - Focus as the brothers and amateur ghost hunters set up cameras in a documentary style episode, "Wanted Dead Or Alive" - Bon Jovi as the brothers bond over what could be their last ever hunt together in the season finale ("Bon Jovi rocks...on occasion" is one of my favourite lines from the show) and most important of all, "Heat Of The Moment" - Asia at the starts of the worst day of Sam's life...and no, that's not a grammatical mistake.
By now, the show had garnered a fanbase of teenage girls and dudes who liked Sci-Fi/Supernatural drama with splashes of action throughout. As a result of this and the aforementioned budget issue, Classic Rock songs slowly began to fade away from the show's mythology as it became more about the drama between the brothers and the impending doom they were facing. Instead of being one of the show's many unique attributes, the use of iconic Classic Rock hits was more of a nostalgia fuelled punchline enhancer and sadly, this continued through season four.
Despite being one of the stronger seasons the show's ever had, the soundtrack was hit and miss. The season opened with a couple of well known hits such as "You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC and "Lonely Is The Night" - Billy Squier in opening montages but it was clear that Classic Rock was no longer being sought out. The show even had an episode set in the 70s but the closest thing to proper Classic Rock it featured was "Ramblin' Man" - The Allman Brothers Band, a song used in season one already. Then there's "Eye Of The Tiger" - Survivor, a song used as background music in an episode that only became popular after a hilarious post credits outtake featuring the actor playing Dean miming along with the vocals.
Aside from random muzak and no-name bands that were licensed for certain scenes, there aren't really any memorable music moments aside from the ones I've mentioned and "Ready For Love" - Bad Company that plays whilst Dean bones an angel. Instead, the job of amplifying the emotion in a scene via music was left to the Supernatural score. Fortunately, it did the job well although unfortunately, this meant that Classic Rock was no longer needed in the same way as it was before. At this point, it made diminishing sense thematically due to Dean's character changes, although the show didn't go full-blown ridiculous by making Dean a fan of Indie/Alternative.
There's an episode where Dean bonds with a guy over their love of Led Zeppelin and another where he reveals his favourite songs are a tie between Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" and "Travelling Riverside Blues". Hell, even one of the songs in the score entitled "Dean's Dirty Organ (Brother's Guitar Theme)" - Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz that's used throughout the entire series sounds like the show's own homage to "Good Times Bad Times" - Led Zeppelin, since they couldn't license any Zep songs without breaking the bank. The show was aware of its past but wouldn't let it get in the way of the climactic tale it was telling, which brings us neatly onto season five.
Season five was the culmination of all the previous seasons; the big bad was as big as you could possibly get (even though the show tried to go bigger in season eleven and failed miserably) and the individual stakes for each character were sky high for a multitude of reasons. Similar to the previous season, we got a concentrated burst of great Classic Rock tunes in the first few opening montages such as "Thunderstruck" - AC/DC and "Long, Long Way From Home" - Foreigner and a couple of great little uses now and then too, such as "Spirit In The Sky" - Norman Greenbaum when Sam and Dean walk through a war-torn village and "Simple Man" - Lynyrd Skynyrd during a montage contrasting the lives Sam and Dean are living having gone their separate ways. However, much like season four, these are all in the first three episodes. After that, it's somewhat of a Classic Rock drought.
Once again, it's not as if there were a lack of opportunities for this. There's an episode where fans of the brothers' adventures are having a sort of Supernatural-Con at a hotel, all dressed up as Sam and Dean and staging their own little adventures. There could've been a great moment where a cheesy but well known Classic Rock hit starts playing from the radio (something by Bryan Adams or Jefferson Starship, since it's since been established in the show that Dean dislikes that band) and all the fake Deans pretend to love it whilst the fake Sams groan, only for the real Dean to hate it due to it being too corporate and the real Sam to kind of dig it as a guilty pleasure. I dunno, would've been better than generic Blues based background music.
We get a few more Classic Rock tracks this season and a few memorable moments such as "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" - Bob Dylan in an episode where the brothers literally die and go to heaven or "Oye Como Va" - Santana as the hunters prepare to take on the big bad before they literally summon Death. However, the most memorable moment has to be the use of "Rock Of Ages" - Def Leppard in the season finale. It's not the best Def Leppard song but it works in the scene and defines Dean perfectly in that moment. Overall though, I think it's fair to say that as the quality of the writing and storytelling of the show increased, the great usage of 70s/80s Rock steadily decreased with a couple of anomalies peppered about here and there.
Luckily, in 2011, cast and crew members behind the show responded to fan complaints about the decline in Classic Rock usage and around the seventh season, we start getting a few more tunes creeping in (only for them to creep back out a couple of seasons later). However, you won't find a better collection of Classic "Mullet Rock" in the Supernatural's history than in the first five seasons...although mostly seasons 1-3.
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