The words of the profits are written in the studio wall.

One trend I have noticed in modern television is the use of rock or popular music to help set the tone of scene. In fact, I have noticed that, more often than not, popular music has usurped the more traditional symphonic or orchestrated scores that television shows used to have.
You can see what I am talking about if you compare the background music of say The Andy Griffith Show or Hogan’s Heroes to House or Scrubs. Hell, it seems at points that Scrubs can not end a show with a recap of the moral of the story overlaid with some pop or folk ballad.
The easy argument you could make is that popular music applies more to current viewers. People are interested in hearing music that they relate to rather than more subtle tone painting. However, am I the only person that thinks that by replacing an orchestrated score with popular music is actually kind of a bad idea?
Sure there are plenty of places where popular music is well placed or it even redefines a scene. Look at the use of Stealers Wheel’s Stuck in the Middle with You in Reservoir Dogs. It’s hard to image that scene without that song. But the use of popular music or, more specifically, current chart toppers really dates an episode or scene to me. I can watch a show and it is hard not to hear a song and think “Oh, this was made in 2003.”
With an orchestrated score, the music has a more timeless quality. It is hard to place a specific piece in a given timeframe unless you have intimate knowledge of the history of the piece. To use a show I mentioned previously, I cannot watch an episode of Hogan’s Heroes and pinpoint the exact year the episode was made from the musical score alone.
I guess my compliant of using popular music in television arises from the fact that the music used rarely has a timeless quality to it. Sure, that song is popular now but is it popular ten, twenty, or thirty years from now? Unless the track to be used is carefully selected and does have this quality of timeless I have been discussing then you are just dating your show as being old (not new?) faster.