By RACHEL REEVES
Creating a true crime-related project is no easy feat in this day and age. Thanks to the onslaught of streaming services, and general ease of transmission, true crime content has never been more plentiful. And arguably, demand has never been higher. With so many stories and options available at the push of a button, it is often a project’s creative choices that ultimately wind up separating the wheat from the chaff. While decisions like format and casting often dominate the public conversation, there is one oft-overlooked factor that is quickly proving itself to be a major player in a project’s success — the music.
With an unprecedented amount of creative freedom to break away from the more traditional crime procedural, network TV special-style format, the boundaries separating true crime from other genres have begun to blur at an exceptional rate. Whether it’s a docuseries, dramatic talking head re-telling, cinematic style miniseries, or some unique combo of all the above, the possibilities are seemingly endless. However, no matter how cinematic or stylized a true crime project gets, it can never shake, never forget the truth that lies at its very core.
This fine line separating fact from fiction is a tricky one to walk indeed. On one side resides taste, tact, sensitivity, and purpose. On the other, a minefield of tacky, morbid, exploitative potential. Oftentimes, it is the project’s music that holds the hand of the audience, grounding the story in reality and exposing the humanity within. To explore this idea further, let’s look at some key traits and recent true crime score standouts that include Hulu’s CANDY and THE DROPOUT, Netflix’s BAD VEGAN: FAME. FRAUD. FUGITIVES., and Peacock’s THE THING ABOUT PAM.
Curiosity and Understanding
People have always been fascinated with true crime. Whether historically reported in newspapers, on the radio, or overheard on busy sidewalks, these sordid true tales have never failed to capture hungry public attention. Offering a distanced form of schadenfreude (pleasure derived from another’s misfortune), these stories proffer comfort for many by reiterating that things could indeed be worse. But there, buried beneath the shock factor, there is a genuine human desire to understand the mind of the perpetrator in the pursuit of knowledge and self-protection.
A great example of how music can aid in this endeavor is Ariel Marx’s score for CANDY. On Friday, June 13th, 1980, Candance “Candy” Montgomery (portrayed by Jessica Biel) killed her friend Betty Gore by striking her with an ax — 41 times. As the dramatized series follows Candy both before and after the murder, Marx’s music provides glimpses into the internal headspaces of both women. Through deliberate instrumentation choices, potent melodies, and recurring themes, the “oppressive sameness” of Candy’s small, religious, Texas community and her deteriorating mindset becomes conveyed.
Composer Ariel Marx
“Sometimes [the music] is completely committed to her story and her forward-facing confidence or facade. And then sometimes, it does show a crack and it does show the violence peek through. Whether it was a kind of unfamiliar element that was added underneath something that was detuned, out of tune, atonal, or some little flourish that isn’t supposed to be there. Or the melody might take a pause in an awkward place, or repeat in an awkward place. Or maybe it was sputtering trying to get back to the confidence of her story.”
– Ariel Marx
Expertly demonstrating the full range of Candy’s potential, Marx’s romantic blend of strings, flute, percussion, and electronic elements feels almost sickeningly saccharine one moment, only to devolve and disturb the next. Working in tandem with Biel’s incredible performance, the music provides critical character insight into the complicated internal headspace that percolates behind Candy’s blinding smile and sparkling eyes. Not only does the music wonderfully serve the project, but it simultaneously holds power over reality itself. By skillfully sonically exhibiting Candy’s internal dichotomy and the ease with which she manipulated and fooled those around her, the weight and truth of Candy’s actions become all the more chilling.
Capture the Essence
Though based on fact, a true crime series is still a form of entertainment. Therefore, the rules of story, character development, emotion, and structure still come into play. While the protagonists in true crime-centric stories are often despicable in one way or another, the complexity of their character and personality inevitably become explored in complicated ways. One such true crime series to tackle this is THE DROPOUT. Starring Amanda Seyfried as the enigmatic Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes, the limited series follows her dramatic rise and disastrous fall from grace.
Charting Holmes’ development over the years is Anne Nikitin’s score. Though Nikitin is perhaps best known for her penchant for acoustic, organic instruments, and more traditional orchestral instrumentation, Elizabeth Holmes required something different. Deeply inspired by celebrity tech billionaires and the growing biotech industry, the integration of electronic elements into Nikitin’s music made sense. Digging a bit deeper into Holmes as a person, her outwardly cool and seemingly robotic disposition coupled with her later calloused and cold business decisions further supported something a bit more synthetic.
Composer Anne Nikitin
When I saw the first rough cut of the edit, I started thinking about the science route, and different locations like the labs and then trying to understand where Elizabeth comes from and what she’s doing and where she’s going with this. There’s a little bit of a sympathetic edge to the show, trying to show her in a kind of human light because she’s incredibly robotic in many ways. I was trying with elements of the music just to make her a bit more of a rounded character and not just this greedy, evil archenemy. I was inspired by all the different aspects of her and all the people around her [who] become the victims of her world and tried to give them themes and motifs that you can tinkle away or latch onto as an audience.
So intimately tied to Theranos as both personality and CEO, the conscious decision to integrate Holmes’ personal sound with that of the entire company (and show), makes perfect logical and narrative sense. Inextricably linked, Nikitin deftly navigates the interesting fated relationship Holmes and Theranos share with remarkable dexterity. Crisp, cool, modern, and uniquely singular, Nikitin’s score expertly balances tension, anxiety, and sympathy while reinforcing the astonished dismay and heavy repercussions of Holmes’ decisions.
Building a Mystery
Part of why people enjoy true crime stories is the fact that they are well, stories. More often than not, there is an element of intrigue and divergence from generally accepted social norms. And if a true crime story is getting the “Streaming Service Miniseries Special Treatment”, odds are that story takes a few unexpected twists and turns. Such is the case with Netflix’s BAD VEGAN: FAME. FRAUD. FUGITIVES.
At the heart of BAD VEGAN is chef Sarma Melngailis. After years of operating a highly successful and popular vegan restaurant in New York, things begin to spiral for Sarma when she encounters a mysterious man with some wild ideas. With elements of fraud, manipulation, abuse, gaslighting, international intrigue, money, immortality, and high cuisine, BAD VEGAN is simply a story that defies all logic and expectation. Thankfully, the production knew a talented composer would be critical to the show’s execution and enlisted the skills of composer Dan Romer.
Extremely versatile, Romer’s resume boasts everything from feature films, video games, animated pictures, documentaries, and chart-topping pop songs. This diverse skill set and honed expertise add layers of complexity to BAD VEGAN’s wild turn of events. Utilizing a myriad of filmed interviews with folks directly involved and some minor reenactments, pacing and the disbursement of information becomes critical to the show’s execution. Although editing plays a big part in this, it is ultimately Romer’s score that sells that pace, builds the mystery, and underscores which key emotional moments are critical to the story.
The genuine craft involved in scoring a production that is highly dependent on interviews with non-professional speakers in vérité style is one that does not get enough credit — and it’s one that Romer does here extremely well. Blending delicate piano, lush orchestrations, tension-laden rhythmic moments, and mysterious melodies with interview clips is tough. Emphasizing the right moments, the right reveals, and keeping the show’s secrets close to its metaphorical chest heavily relies on Romer’s music. While editing may be the Gatekeeper in this scenario, Romer is the unquestionable Keymaster who unlocks the story’s entertainment potential.
It’s About Tone
Music is so critically important to the true crime genre as it reinforces tone. With the wrong tone, the wrong message can get conveyed. By nature, true crime stories are based on real-world events and often involve real victims with real families. If the music and creative tone somehow forget this fact or don’t quite match up, the result can often feel too slick and icky for comfort. However, that doesn’t mean that a project can’t have a creative style. As an example, one needs to look no further than Peacock’s THE THING ABOUT PAM.
While murdering for money is certainly nothing new, the absolute absurdity and institutional negligence involved in Pam Hupp’s story lent itself to a more dramatized true crime project. (It also needed to separate itself from its Dateline inspired roots) With a star-studded cast including Renée Zellweger, Josh Duhamel, and Judy Greer, the showrunners injected a stylistic quirkiness into the show and further supported it with the music of Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli.
Composers Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli
“Pam tromps through town like a predatory larger-than-life force that will crush anything that comes her way. Her theme is a motif combined with a predatory march – she’s on a mission, marching to the beat of her own drum. The score is melody-driven; however, we chose to surround this melody with particular and absurd instrumental choices as the series of events that unfold in this story are both bizarre and unbelievable. Pam is constantly sipping her Big Gulp, therefore slurping is not just a part of her everyday lifestyle, it became an integral part of her soundtrack. We also added an occasional ‘ka-ching’ sound by sampling a cash register and commissioned an instrument maker to create a combination of a waterphone and saxophone.”
– Belousova and Ostinelli
Heightening the intentional absurdity of the series through playful instrumentation and an upbeat presence, Belousova and Ostinelli’s score supports the story and the creative vision at every turn. In other words, it does exactly what a good score should do. However, where Belousova and Ostinelli truly shine is in their ability to balance this part of their music with the more somber, grounded aspects of Pam’s story. Balancing the more bizarre and intentionally impish musical ideas with deadly serious, consciously reserved moments of space and weight, the show retains a crucial awareness and acknowledgment of its subject matter.
Looking at the genre with so many heavy, large-scale issues occupying a presence in the global consciousness, the increased consumption and creation of true crime makes sense. By often concentrating on one particular crime, one relatively small group of people, the scope of focus narrows. And much like the horror genre in general, these programs allow the viewer to exorcise fears and anxiety in a safe way, in a safe space. Despite the tired stigma of morbidity that desperately clings to it, shows like the ones mentioned above prove that the genre is evolving in sensitive and important ways.
As this evolution unfolds in real-time, so do the musical backdrops and sonic support systems. Raising the bar of what true crime sounds like, composers like Marx, Romer, Nikitin, Belousova, and Ostinelli are embracing a more cinematic approach and exploring exciting new creative possibilities. Delivering truly beautiful music and simultaneously, sensitive, supportive compositions, true crime scores such as these are demonstrating the potent power of film music in their own unique way. Reaching out from behind the crimes, the cameras, characters, and costumes, scores such as these reinforce and highlight the all-important humanity behind the headlines.
CANDY and THE DROPOUT are currently streaming on Hulu. THE THING ABOUT PAM can be found via Peacock. BAD VEGAN: FAME. FRAUD. FUGITIVES. is now available on Netflix.
