How To Soundtrack A Villain: Killing Eve

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2020

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When BBC America reached out to do a piece about the music of Killing Eve, we jumped at the opportunity. The series antagonist, Villanelle, is an unpredictable assassin. On a dime she shifts from cold and calculating to child-like and jocular. Her personality swings are accompanied by a captivating psychedelic pop soundtrack. Whether you are familiar with the series or not, this no spoilers episode breaks down music from the 1960s that has earned its place on primetime. SPONSORED BY BBC AMERICA Songs Discussed Unloved - We Are Unloved Psychotic Beats - Killer Shangri-:ah The Ronettes - Walking In The rain The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Brigitte Bardot - Contact Betty Hutton - It’s Oh So Quiet Björk - It’s Oh So Quiet Jo Stafford - Some Enchanted Evening Duke Ellington - Skin Deep Roxette - Listen To Your Heart Jacqueline Taieb - La Plus Belle Chanson The Beatles - Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! Support explainer journalism — all things pop included — by making a contribution to Vox today: Visit bit.ly/givepodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.0	Welcome to Switched On Pop, I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:42.0	And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.
0:45.0	Hey, check out this song. It's from the soundtrack of Killing Eve.
1:03.0	Whoa. That's a lot happening there.
1:08.0	Choirs, organs, plucked bass, wandering chord progression. What does it all mean?
1:17.0	We're going to get into it. And it's going to be a fun adventure.
1:21.0	BBC America reached out to us to see if we wanted to do a piece on the music of Killing Eve.
1:27.0	And I enthusiastically said yes. If you haven't seen the show, Killing Eve is this spy murder mystery romance comedy comedy.
1:40.0	And it's a story of a cat in mouse between detective Eve and killer Villanelle.
1:47.0	Even for people who haven't watched the show yet, this is some fascinating music.
1:52.0	We're going to dig into the multi-national European spy thriller sound that has Euro, French pop, Italian pop, British dance music.
2:02.0	All kinds of really cool sounds. I'm like a deluxe stuff I'd never heard before from the 60s.
2:07.0	And what I wanted to think about today was how can the music of a show establish the emotion of a given character?
2:16.0	In this case, we're going to be talking about the character Villanelle. She's the antagonist. She is a killer in assassin supported by the music. She is psychopathic.
2:26.0	You should never tell a psycho better than the other psycho best. I doubt this.
2:32.0	Desirous.
2:33.0	You like me too much.
2:36.0	Detached. Most days I feel nothing.
	...

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