Manish Raval and Tom Wolfe are the duo behind Goosebumps: disappearPlaying in the sandbox of '90s music, under the guidance of a music supervisor, is an opportunity to channel their childhood. "That's our Achilles' heel," LaVar said hollywood reporter.

The two music directors' connection and appreciation for the endless library of turn-of-the-century hits comes especially handy in the Disney+ and Sony TV Studios series, which explores young Gen-Xers, Millennials and the '90s through RL Stines Gen Z Audiences Multiple timelines for the show.

"Enter goosebumpswith no real direction or concrete vision in mind. We just knew we had a popular book series to support," LaVar said. "But we did know we wanted to jump back and forth with time periods and that a lot of the story would be rooted in music. So when we jump back to the '90s, we hear the hits of the '90s. While we're in today's era, we make sure our audience knows we support today's music.

"Even if it's just in a public space," Wolfe added, while joining LaVar in noting that their musical choices are less influenced by lyrical specificity and more about whether the song is the right "vibe," rhythm or musical instrument. “You want to feel like everyone knows what the public space feels and sounds like.”

The show's time-jumping structure, established in Season 1 and carried over into Season 2, lends itself to LaVar's so-called "one-two punch" approach to setting up the first episode, as well as -- in the Season 1 premiere. And in the case of the finale credit track – the final episode.

“With (Travis Scott’s) Goosebumps , we knew we had to use it, but the fun part was ending up bookending it with Skylar Gray’s version,” LaVar said. "There was an unspoken feeling that we were going to use a Travis Scott song. And then we saw the Skylar cover and said, 'Why don't we end the season with this?' "(Series producers) liked the idea."

Now in season two, dubbing disappearerPin-drop shots like the Beastie Boys' "Pass the Mic" and Tommy Richman's "Million Dollar Baby" pull apart the past and present respectively The storyline kicks off this suspense drama set in New York.

"When we were getting ready to open for the show, we wanted a very '90s hip-hop style New York song, and we were looking at some really solid contenders. But unfortunately, we couldn't use them because of the language. They There’s no clean version,” LaVar said. "When we were making this episode, Tommy Richmond's song was just starting to take off, so we knew this song would be that way now and would be a perfect fit for the storylines we needed to solidify these characters in today's world."

This approach was inspired by Season 1, in which REM's "Drive" and Sam Smith and Kim Petras' "Unholy" set the tone for a teen horror comedy set in the Pacific Northwest. This combination of music helped establish the period and guide audiences across the decades while — just like the Beastie Boys disappearerThe New York setting – a subtle nod to some of the musical influences and contributions of the first season’s location.

"It established a certain sound that was going to be with us the rest of the season — this grunge sound with Cloudy Weather and other '90s music," Raval said. "And then to solidify 'Today,' the Sam Smith song came up because we're going back to a big party scene throughout the season and we knew we needed to kick off that moment with a song that represented the present."

LaVar noted that he, Wolfe, Winston and Letterman auditioned other songs from the season — "We looked at a hip-hop song, a Sam Smith song, a The Weeknd song," he said tell us THR.

But similar to their approach to selecting other music for the show, "there tends to be a visceral reaction. All of us in the room, usually when we hear a particular song, just say, 'Okay, let's go with it,'" It was a very cinematic Sam Smith moment, and it suited both the swooping shots of that town and the idea of ​​the storyline being as modern and contemporary as possible.”

The movie could easily describe what the show as a whole looks like with music supervision, both in season 1 and now under David Schwimmer disappearer. Laval narrates THR This is partly influenced by the showrunners. "When we saw the first cut of the first season episode, it was so cinematic. The director, Rob Letterman, is one of the show's creators and producers and he's a film director, so we It immediately felt like being in a movie,” he added. “For the music supervisor, we can just jump in and start playing.”

This approach is also reflected in the show's use of catchy, giddy tracks from both established and emerging artists to lead viewers to the end credits. The show "is not arbitrary," Wolfe said. "We leave it to you to hear the final moments."

"The really amazing idea of ​​the end credits is that it's the last thing the audience gets before they leave the couch. How do we want to leave them? ... That's a great asset for a music supervisor, and we love that. To their credit, Rob and Hilary always wanted to value that moment," LaVar said. "Every now and again, it'll be a little Easter egg. We'll put '21 Savage' in the background very nonchalantly at the beginning of the episode - just a one-off - but it'll come back at the end and make it You think."

In addition to Letterman's directing background and style, part of the reason the show keeps using well-known hits is the musical director and co-showrunners' shared taste in music. "Hilary and Rob, the show producers, and Tom and I all have very similar feelings. They're also music fans and we're the same music fans, which makes our jobs a lot easier. We can talk about Digable Planets and Liz Phair, " he said. "They know who they are. They know these artists' favorite songs."

But more realistically, the feeling of a big screen goosebumps Music is a constant challenge in this job: budget. "We were given a pretty generous music licensing budget," Wolfe told us THR. “They didn’t limit us at all.

“When you know you have the support of a studio, it makes all the difference,” LaVar added. “The budget is very substantial, which allows us to target the stars.”

While budget constraints may be less likely goosebumps Music directors handle, and in these cases, they "reach out to our trusted labels and publishers and say, what do you have that we haven't heard of that might be cool and would work within a certain budget?"

Or, take Taylor Swift’s “Down Bad,” Tormented Poets Department On the album, you set it as the backdrop for a four-minute sequence and then pray.

"The first time we used a Taylor Swift song in the second episode of Season 2, we used it for four minutes, and it was a happy accident. We said, 'Let's just start here,' and we let the song continue to play. . It played out a lot of scenes and a lot of different emotions between the characters. I remember Tom and I having a panic attack right after. LaVar recalled. “I remember after sending it off, Rob wrote back and said, ‘Are you sure we can use this?’ She didn’t know but just said, ‘Yeah, let’s try it,’ and hope it works, and then she’d say yes. Lucky me Yes, she did."

In some ways, because of their ability to get greater click-through rates and goosebumps Focusing on multiple generations, the anthology series serves as a period piece and time capsule, sonically capturing two unique moments and their musical trends.

One is from a time when genres like grunge, alt-rock and hip-hop were at their peak (and there's another pop adaptation based on a Stings book), while the other encapsulates a recent musical moment that relies on hybrid genres, niche International influence in indie and pop sub-genres as well as wider Afrobeat, K-pop, reggae and Latin artists.

The result of being so reliant on this kind of vibe to set the stage is who the streaming series can count as artists on its playlists. Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Billie Eilish, SZA, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, En Vogue, Khalid, Phoenix and Ezra Koenig, and Alice in Chains are among the soundtracks for the first season. disappearer"Doja Cat," "System of a Down" and "St. Vincent," released on January 9, are filled with familiar performances and chart-topping singles.

"Travis Scott, 21 Savage, Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter — these are the artists that represent the voices of our kids on the show this season. And in the '90s, there were rock kids, metal kids, grunge kids," Raval said. "Kids do listen to certain types of music, and I think with music today, someone who listens to Taylor Swift and Charli XCX might also be listening to Tommy Richmond. I think the lines have blurred and genres have become Vague."

While tighter genre boundaries seemed to help the music supervision process, Raval said that while the duo loved their '90s connection, they found their work more creative with the show's contemporary, older spin on Stines' character land free.

"We strictly adhered to some of the genre rules of '90s productions because we felt it was right at the time," Raval said. "But for Tom and I, when we're trying to find music that represents today's audience or something that represents today's music, it's very freeing that we don't have to be wedded to a genre. Childish Gambino and Taylor Swift It's completely realistic that they can exist in the same series - and be listened to by the same children."

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Goosebumps: disappear All episodes are now streaming on Disney+.