Open Letter To Matthew Weiner & The Staff Of Mad Men

By Cameron Reed

Thursday September 4, 2008

mollylambert:

You should never use anachronistic music.

You’re better than that.

Using modern music takes us out of the show. Mad Men excels at demonstrating the perverseness of the culture using real artifacts from the time. No later indie rock or punk song will ever be as subversive or weird as ACTUAL MUSIC FROM 1962 which sounds so weird and alien and uncool to us.

Using “Lollipops And Roses” to close the episode the other week was brilliant. Not only did it stick in my head for days, I only now just learned that it won a Grammy.

“Lollipops and Roses” (1962, Grammy Award, Best Pop Male Performance)

See? Stuff like that is brilliant. So much more brilliant than a Decemberists song that takes me out of the narrative and into some dorm room from the past. There was one episode last season that ended with “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and it was SO WRONG because we all know that album came out in 1963 and it was only still 1960.

Again, it just opened a gap in the fantasy world that annoys me because I am nitpicky and will sit around thinking about things like this. You’re better than that. Stick to accurate songs of the period. Those songs are just SO FUCKING WEIRD.

Also Mad Men has been reminding me of Twin Peaks a little bit. Not just because of the creepiness of “oldies station” culture. All these long ambiguous takes that could mean LITERALLY ANYTHING. Not that I’m complaining. It’s great. Those are just my notes. CARRY ON.

Watching it now. That just bugged the shit out of me.