Grey’s Anatomy THE MUSICAL

Music’s Effect on Our Emotions

We have all been in a situation where we are watching a very dramatic or suspenseful scene in a movie or TV drama; the music is used to enhance the drama that is playing out on the screen even if most of the time, we aren’t really aware of the music at all.

Directors and composers do this so discreetly that we often don’t realize it…until it’s too late…

A lot of music in TV and film can be seen as a fourth dimension that activates our emotions and manipulates us. Directors and composers do this very subtly but very effectively, the difference of this is crystal clear when you either remove or change the music.

If you don’t believe me, here’s a clip from a movie with the background music taken away! See any difference? None of the films or TV shows that we watch would have the same effect on us without music, just imagine Jaws without the “dum-dum, dum-dum, dum-dum,” the suspense just wouldn’t build. If you STILL don’t believe me, here’s JAWS with and without it’s iconic music.

Music has been used in film and TV since almost the beginning of motion pictures, originally used to keep the audience from talking and to dull the sound of the projector. It adds to the emotional quality in film and TV and lets viewers know how they should be feeling during a certain scene. Here’s an example of how the emotion of the scene changes based off of the music! Music can connect people and hits us like no other language can. We need its beauty to bring resolution and meaning to our actions. In film, music controls our emotions and manipulates our feelings; fast and loud music arouses us while slow and soft music calms us. It unquestionably affects our emotions; we listen to music that reflects our mood (when we’re happy we may listen to upbeat music and when we’re sad we may listen to slower, moving songs).

The Music (Wo)man

Alexandra Patsavas is an American music supervisor who has worked on over sixty films and TV series (The Twilight Saga, The O.C., Grey’s Anatomy, and Gossip Girl). She has been nominated three times for the “Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media” Grammy Award, her first being for the compilation of Grey’s Anatomy Original Soundtrack, Vol. 2. Her work was made up of approaching bands and artists about recording covers and requesting licensing permission to include songs on TV shows, such as Grey’s Anatomy. So basically her job, when working with Grey’s Anatomy, is basically to figure out which songs are going to make us sob uncontrollably and ruin our lives forever.

Thanks Alexandra, we really appreciate that one.

Patsavas and other music scoring professionals potentially have the ability to make or break a song or artist; I personally can’t listen to several songs without thinking of the heartbreak I went through watching it on Grey’s Anatomy. Here’s a link of artists who got their start on Grey’s Anatomy!

Grey’s Anatomy basically made The Fray, so they should really be the biggest fans of the show EVER. “How to Save a Life,” arguably their most famous song to date, is stuck in my memory as the song that Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Burke, and Dr. Webber all performed surgeries to, Callie almost died to, and Derek DID die to. At this point, all Grey’s Anatomy fans should know that once you hear that iconic piano start to fade into the scene, you’d better grab some tissues because this scene is NOT going to be pretty.

I don’t think I will ever be able to listen to “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol again, I mean you don’t just watch Dr. Izzie Stevens sob over the corpse of Denny Douquette her dying boyfriend/heart patient/fiance/illegal lover in a prom dress and just move on from it. How could you not think about the shock, the anguish, the confusion, the rage towards creator Shonda Rhimes for the completely unrealistic and traumatic yet absolutely brilliant love story?

Grey’s Anatomy played a big role in popularizing “Breathe (2 AM)” by Anna Nalick (PSA if you’re watching Grey’s and you hear this song: RUN). It has been shown in several different episodes, but my heart rate is STILL dangerously high from “As We Know It,” where Meredith is holding a homemade bomb still inside of a patient! Damn you, Shonda, damn you Alexandra. You two gave me such a false sense of security as Meredith managed to hand off the grenade to the bomb squad and she watched as he walked away. We all started to breathe again, we were all happy with an episode ending on a good note for once, but then BOOM.

Since I can’t possibly talk about every song that has been ruined for me here’s a BuzzFeed article explaining some!

At this point, it isn’t even safe to turn on the radio anymore, because you’re living in fear that one of these songs will play in public and you will then be forced to explain to people why you’re sobbing uncontrollably in the grocery store.

The (Completely Unnecessary) Musical Episode

While we are talking about music and its effect on television, we need to talk about the train wreck that was Grey’s Anatomy Season 7 Episode 18: “Song Beneath the Song,” or “The Episode Where Callie Almost Dies And Everyone is Really Emotional So They All Just Start Singing and Crying.”

Basically if Glee and E.R. got together, this episode of Grey’s Anatomy would be their baby. Picture this: there’s blood, there’s medical melodies, and everyone is operating on Dr. Callie Torres (who is played by Sara Ramirez who won a Tony award for her role in Spamalot) while simultaneously singing The Fray’s “How to Save a Life (no one saw THAT one coming).” And although this may sound like a bad skit on SNL, it was an actual episode on Grey’s Anatomy. “I have been wanting to do it since we made to pilot basically,” writer Shonda Rhimes says. “We needed it to make sense for our show. Plus, I had to convince the network, which took me seven years.” And after watching said episode several times, I can say I can clearly see why the network wouldn’t buy it for seven years.

Okay so following a car crash at the end of the previous episode, Arizona wakes up to see Callie’s body smashed through the windshield and lying on the car.

Fast forward to Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, everyone needs all hands on deck for Callie’s surgery, with the exception of Mark who is the father of Callie’s baby who is also at a complete risk for fatality right now, and Arizona who is an absolute wreck because her and Callie got into a car accident that nearly killed them both immediately after she proposed. The entire episode is shown through the perspective of Callie who is watching herself from an out of body/third party position. And at this point everyone thought, “What better way to ensure this critical surgery goes well than to sing 2002 pop-rock songs.”

Since music has, overall, played a big part in the show, the concept for a musical episode worked. While some songs were far more appropriate than others, they each moved the story along in one way or another. Now don’t confuse this for me thinking that this episode was necessary or even good; on the contrary it seemed absolutely ridiculous! I mean during surgery, the whole cast sang “How to Save a Life” by the Fray while operating…The song seemed perfect for the particular scene, I mean granted the song is more about saving a friend from suicide rather than saving a patient on an operating table, but still!

Music in Movies Should be Seen Rather than Heard

Whether it makes us want to laugh…

or cry…

or dance…

then probably make us cry some more…

…the music in Grey’s Anatomy, as well as any media, makes it all worth it! We can see the effect of the music! The feelings that we, are viewers, get through either big musical numbers or little piano keys is a key component in the experience. Music manipulates us by making us feel happy, sad, empowered, or hopeless without us even knowing! In moving the story lines along, music should be seen, not heard.

Grey’s Anatomy “Seattle-Grace Mercy Death Hospital”

For twelve season now, fans of Grey’s Anatomy have watched the doctors as Seattle Grace/ Seattle Grace Mercy West/ Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital go through their surgical residencies, have insanely complex emotional baggage intertwined with their coworkers, change the name of the hospital nearly every season, and go through more tragedies than any person should ever need to deal with.

Personally, I have followed Grey’s Anatomy through all twelve seasons and I am a little fed up with writer Shonda Rhimes. At the risk of sounding dramatic and realizing that the show is completely fiction, I don’t know how much more of this my heart can take. The amount of times my heart has stopped, tears have broken, and I started yelling at my TV in disbelief is outrageous.

Surgery is a huge strain on the body as well as a huge risk in general. Surgeons spend years of schooling, hours of working and researching, to try and perfect their skills and strategies in order to ensure the safety of their patients and success of their operations. The residents at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital spend a good portion of their days leisurely going about their personal businesses, taking frequent trips to the on call room (sex dungeon), along with the occasional ground breaking surgery or two. For some reason, viewers find enjoyment in watching suffering and sadness, but at what point does it become unrealistic? At what point can I ask, “Do the doctors save any of their patients?”

Sure, there are the tear jerking and heart felt moments where the families are reunited, the intern makes a miraculous save on the operating table, and everyone get celebratory drinks. But those moments seem to be tucked in tightly with the sound of the monitor changing from lowering stats to flat lines, and the doctors yelling “Dammit!,” “He’s coding!,”   “I need two rounds of EPI” and finally “Time of death…”

Throughout my years of dedication, I feel that I have put up with a lot from the show. Deaths such as Heather Brooks, Reed Adamson, Henry Burton, and Charles Perry were sad and untimely, but fans forgave and forgot.

Other characters such as Adele Webber and Ellis Grey gave fans a peace of mind, that those characters have peace of their own.

But some deaths were much harder to forgive than others, examples being George O’Malley, Lexie Grey, and Mark Sloan.

There was no preparation for those tragedies, I was not told what to do or what to expect, how was I supposed to know what was about to happen? In regards to the COMPLETELY unnecessary, untimely, and cruel death of Dr. Derek Shepherd, it is still too soon to talk about.

I don’t see writer Shonda Rhimes getting my forgiveness anytime in the near future.

I will not complain about the survival of any characters, being that they are all few and far between, but Meredith Grey has survived a bomb, a drowning, a gunman, and a plane crash, without a hair out of place. “The Invincible Meredith Grey,” is both impressive and ridiculous. She held a bomb, still, inside of a patient’s body, only to have it explode after the hands it off, had extended exposure to toxic blood, drown in the harbor after a ferry boat crash, told a hysterical gunman to shoot her, a plane crash in the woods, an emergency C-section without any power, and operated during an earthquake. Meredith simply can’t catch a break.

In order to ensure the success of Grey’s Anatomy, it is obvious that the medical field needs to be dramatized. But it gets to a certain point in every fan when it seems like the headlines for each episode should just say, “This week on Grey’s Anatomy: EVERYONE DIES. The End.”

Grey’s Anatomy Season 12 Episode 3: I am woman, hear me roar!

Meredith has been promoted to chief of general surgery, is teaching an anatomy class, and is starting to adjust to her new life as a surgeon, sister, and single mother. She moved back into her mother’s old house with her sisters, Maggie and Amelia, and the audience is able to, once again, see Grey’s Anatomy in a lighter tone. We are able to see characters develop and relationships grow, such as Meredith and her sisters. The episode opens with this relationship as Maggie and Meredith wait, not so patiently, for Amelia to be ready. Meredith, proud of her new title, shares her contract with her sisters. They all look at Meredith’s contract and each gets, “the look,” according to Meredith. Each says that nothing is wrong, but Meredith doesn’t buy it. Throughout the episode Meredith learns, through interrogating each doctor at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital, that she is making far less than any other department head, and deserves much more than what was given. When Dr. Richard Webber learns of Meredith’s new salary, he immediately goes on defense and questions Dr. Bailey’s loyalty. Through her internship, residency, and personal life, Richard has been a father figure to Meredith and would obviously be concerned if she were being treated anything less than what she deserves. Bailey is shocked that Richard would make such an accusation against her, being that she too has mentored Meredith and seen her grow and mature throughout the past 11 seasons. Bailey tells Richard that she expects Meredith to stand up and learn how to demand what she deserves. Meredith needs to know her own worth and know that she can stand on her own two feet, because someone is not always going to be her advocate or catch her when she falls.

This sort of “sisterhood” among the female characters in critical in the development and success of each other. While the media often focuses on male dominant relationships in society, such as father-son, brothers, bros, uncle-nephew, and husbands, woman seem to take second seat to this; even when females are included in the relationship, it still seems to center around the males, such as father-daughter and husband-wife. What about woman??

We often forget how crucial female relationships are, such as sister, female friends, mother-daughter, and wives, when going through careers and personal lives, even more so when going through internships, residency, and surgical careers.

Grey’s Anatomy has always been known to “favor” the female characters in the shows, in comparison to many TV dramas. The character list is primarily female, which is interesting in a show like this which follows the lives of surgeons, while the medical field today is primarily male dominant (66% of physicians are male while 33% are female, according to recent studies). There is definitely a good number of male characters in the show, but they are typically introduced through relation to to females, a perfect example being Derek and Meredith. Woman in TV dramas are first seen as wives, sisters, mothers, and supporting character before ever developing into a character of their own. In comparison, Grey’s Anatomy introduces its women as strong, independent, and successful figures in the medical field, alongside their male colleagues.

Woman in today’s society, and in any field of work, are more often than not regulated and judged based upon how they look, feel, think, or act. Meredith is often criticized for being a whiny, spineless, and selfish character, despite her horrific childhood, tragic love with Derek Shepherd who is now dead making her a single mother of three, and incredible accomplishments in the field of medicine.

Characters such as Dr. Miranda Bailey is seen as a strong, independent, driven, and respected character, most likely do to her cold demeanor. Both of these characters are incredibly strong and able woman and should be seen as such. By giving the audience a look into the lives of each doctor, we are able to see different tiers of their character, through personal struggles, past experiences, and general stress of being a surgeon. The audience has seen these two characters as well as all of the woman portrayed on the show at both extremes, thriving in medicine and proving their worth through their success, as well as breaking down, unable to carry the weight of everything on their shoulders any longer. The show sets a principle for woman in the fact that we can be successful, we can be a mess, we can be successful and a mess simultaneously, and it is okay.

Grey’s Anatomy not only shows that woman are strong, beautiful, and powerful doctors, but also that woman of color are doctors, woman with different body images are doctors, disabled women are doctors, and lesbian woman are doctors. As Dr. Bailey pointed out in season 12 episode 3, we need to be able to advocate for ourselves and know our own worth, that we are strong, capable, and deserving; we are more than what the media says we are.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 12 Episode 1 “Sledgehammer”

Four months have passed since the end of season 11 and the death of Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd. Fans have been waiting on the edge of their sets to see how writer Shonda Rhimes will open the season that will determine whether the show will go on or not.

Whether it is the medical practice or the steamy drama among the doctors, Grey’s Anatomy never fails to disappoint. Throughout the years, controversy surrounding gay and lesbian rights has been in the headlines. This controversy seems to be in an uproar in the past few years, but in reality has been something of an issue for years; the AIDS uproar made people stop and ask questions, while popular culture such as TV shows like Glee gave voice to many afraid or ashamed to speak. In the past year, the voting in of legalizing gay marriages in all 50 states put a blanket over the idea that homophobic ideas were diminished in society. This past week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy was an example of the problem that we still face.

The story opened up with the doctors at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital getting calls that two young girls had been hit by a train; one girl, Jess is conscious when they arrive to Grey-Sloan and explains that she got her foot stuck in the tracks and a girl she didn’t know tried to push her out of the way. Aliyah, who is unconscious and broken apart from the hit, needs major surgery to put her back together. While prepping the girls, Dr. Callie Torres notices that the two girls have matching heart tattoos on their forearms. Jess explains that the two stood in front of the train on purpose; they wanted to be together “dead or alive,” showing the audience that these two young girls were lesbians. Jess says that didn’t want to die but they saw is as the only way they could stay together; Jess’s parents were about to send her to a gay conversion therapy camp; Callie understands the effects that these camps have on young people. Callie, who is bisexual, makes Jess feel better seeing Callie as a smart, successful, beautiful Dr. who is okay with who she is.

As the doctors dive further into the story of the patients, medical as well as personal, they learn that the two girls are victims of bullying. In surgery, the doctors have the girls open on the table, and an emotional dialogue. Dr. Maggie Pope can’t understand why Jess’s mother bullies her child and husband the way she does, while Dr. Callie Torres points out that Dr. Alex Karev had bullied the late Dr. George O’Malley. Their dialogue continues and reveals more about how each of the doctors was a victim of bullying at one point in each of their lives. Writer, Shonda Rhimes, does this a lot in her characters, making each of their lives intertwined and personally connected to each other as well as their patients.

After surgery, Jess’s mom yells again, because Callie called Child Services. The mother yells at Maggie rather than Callie, seeing Maggie as an easier target. Maggie punches Jess’s mom in the face, leaving the viewer to believe that this was because of all the anger towards all of the bullies in her life built up. The doctors see Maggie as the “Hero of the hospital” for punching a homophobe in the face, but Maggie herself feels astonished and ashamed. Maggie tries to talk to Jess’s mom but she is so angry that she threatens to ruin Maggie’s career and call the police; Jess’s dad then stands up for everyone. He threatens to leave her and take Jess with him if she doesn’t stop the camp talk. He points out that their child would rather attempt suicide than be sent away and they need to cut the shit and stop judging her or being afraid; they needed to love their daughter for who she is.

Grey’s Anatomy has always pushed controversial topics through both the doctors and patients and shed light on issues many people hide under the table. People need to realize that the issue f homophobic attitudes and prejudices are still in society, no matter what the law now says.