“I think that Euphoria is an element of music discovery,” music supervisor Jen Malone says. “And to be able to introduce some of the Gen Z audience to this amazing music is so exciting.”
Despite the immense popularity of HBO’s “Euphoria,” clearing a song for use in the show isn’t as easy as it may appear — especially when it comes to legacy artists and estates.puts it, the teenage drama series has “sex, nudity, violence, drugs, guns. There’s not one thing that was missing as far as red flags for approval parties.”
“The goal this season was to not repeat ourselves, and take it places that we haven’t really dug too much into before,” Malone says. That meant turning more to the classics, like ’90s hip-hop and late-’80s alt-rock. Indeed, “Euphoria” has dominated the discourse on Twitter for the past seven Sunday nights, with much of the attention going to the music. Memes have arisen about the extent of the show’s music budget, and songs like “Down the Line” by Gerry Rafferty and Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work” have become TikTok trends following their placements in Episode 1. Other musical moments, such as Lexi blasting Laura Les’ hyperpop banger “Haunted” in Episode 2, immediately trended on Twitter and sparked debate.
“We got a call from a label that 2Pac’s numbers were just skyrocketing on socials and on Spotify and it’s just like, ‘Yes, good kids! Listen to this music that’s so good,’” Malone says. As for scoring the 2Pac synch, Malone says the late rapper’s estate is “very protective” of how his music is used in film and television. But, she adds, “they were lovely and it was like, ‘We’re huge fans of Zendaya, and he would be a fan of Zendaya also and probably of this show.
INXS returns in Episode 4 for more Cal flashbacks, and his late- ’80s playlist bleeds into the mental breakdown of Cassie as she lip-synchs to Sinéad O’Connor’s “Drink Before the War.”