“It’s a composer’s most ideal situation, because you get to come up with the creative landscape. But Succession has none of that sense of reproduction. Often, TV and film music is initially filled in with what’s called a “temp track,” a placeholder that a composer will then re-produce in what Silverstein calls a “paint-by-numbers” approach. That established background may have provided him important creative leeway. Britell has uncannily captured Succession’s deranged reality in a fresh and original way, says Silverstein, sonically encapsulating the show’s themes.īritell is known for his distinctive film scores: he’s behind the sound of movies like The Big Short, Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk.
To understand how - and why - the score has become a cult-favorite composition that may just go down in TV history, in the vein of those from Game of Thrones and Mad Men, TIME turned to former film and TV composer Drew Silverstein, who co-founded the music AI startup Amper Music, and music theorist, psychologist and lecturer Stefanie Acevedo.
