USA Network's programming has been top of the heap as of late, by which I mean almost all of their original series end up being really solid - especially if they're summer starters. I know I watch a lot more of USA these days than some other channels I used to frequent (Cartoon Network, I'm looking in your direction). And they're original series are good at being light and entertaining while mixing in just the right amount of seriousness.
Something else they all do is product placement. Now, I'm not completely demonizing their use of this advertising method. I don't really see what's wrong with making sure every time someone on
Royal Pains drinks vodka that it's Grey Goose brand. That's fine and mostly unimposing. Hell, back in grad school we used to make bets as to where the Red Robin ad would be in each episode of
Psych. It became an in-joke, really.
However, something bothered me about the most recent episode of
Royal Pains. See, what's been bothering me about that show and
In Plain Sight as of late has been their terrible music choices. Not just in the sense that the songs are bad but in the sense that the tone of the music shifts between wildly inappropriate to overly ham-handed. And while I've been doing my best to just ignore the music and enjoy the shows, at the end of RP this last week the music was unavoidable. Y'see, they were sneaking in an ad for a Verizon LG phone that would play music and so you see a close-up as Jill turns on the player function. It actually serves double duty as it also advertises the album displayed onscreen and being played for the audience's benefit. This point is driven home when Hank then walks in and comments that he loves the music. Except...except it just feels
off. It doesn't feel natural but neither does it feel campy so it just feels out of place in that moment. Worst of all, it is drawing my attention once again to music that doesn't fit but was chosen, no doubt, because the band is signed with some imprint of Universal Music Group (which is owned by the same conglomo that owns USA).
So, here you have an example of when the product placement
doesn't work. However, what I find to be the most confusing about this is that the music isn't
always terrible. USA's pretty damn good with picking theme songs and promo music for all of its original series. It just, apparently, is not so consistent within the shows (yes, I know each show has its own music person).
Anyway, I decided then to post some of the theme songs to celebrate music on USA done right.
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giddy![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
keepaofthecheez AND I CANNOT STOP LISTENING TO IT! (It's "Bale Out" all over again!) 
tired
amused
calm
exhausted
stressed
sick
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excited
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contemplative