Emerging artists find voice in TV dramas

NEW YORK -- When Casey Stratton was a struggling singer-songwriter a few years ago, he had idealistic notions about artistic integrity. High on his list of what would jeopardize it: licensing his music to television.\n"When I was younger, I used to be really weird about stuff like that, like, 'I will not cheapen my work by putting it on TELEVISION!'" he recalls with a chuckle.\nThat was before the producers of the teen-oriented drama "Tarzan" called and asked to use the bittersweet ballad "Hollow," from his debut album, on the WB show. Stratton gave the go-ahead, and while the exposure from the show (which was canceled last year) didn't catapult him to stardom, it drew enough attention to help generate some buzz for his self-titled album (released January 2003).\nAnd it helped Stratton change his views on using his melodic, emotionally charged tunes on TV.\n"It doesn't really matter now. It doesn't hurt anyone and it was good for the scene," Stratton said. "And it was a good stepping stone."\nOther artists are finding out the same, as more TV shows especially those heavy on melodramatic teen plotlines rely on musicians to intensify the emotion of a heart-wrenching breakup, intense makeout scene or tear-jerking tragedy.\n"Our challenge is always to make the show contemporary and to make it resonate somehow with kids," said Mark Schwahn, creator, executive producer and writer of the WB drama "One Tree Hill," centered around two half-brothers who grew up on opposite ends of the wealth scale, the girl that comes between them and the soap-opera surrounding their lives.\nJohn Schwartz, creator, executive producer and one of the writers for "The O.C." which follows the wild, reckless and beautiful kids of the pampered set in Orange County, says the trend speaks to the way a new generation of TV producers has been influenced by film.\nThe shift is proving to be a boon to new, alternative artists, who tend to be the kind of musicians tapped for such shows partly because of producers' eclectic tastes, and partly because of their shows' tight music budgets.\n"The reason why we use a lot of undiscovered music or brand new music is because those albums are just breaking, and the artist and the labels want that advertising, they want that promotion," Schwahn said. "These are wonderful acts, but they haven't had the exposure that Britney Spears has had or any of the other huge acts."\nArtists not only get a small payment, but also the exposure which can be worth much more.\nProducers said the incorporation of music is not a cross-promotional marketing gimmick. Music is so central to how Schwartz and Schwahn depict a story that they sometimes write scenes around a particular song that's moved them.\n"It becomes so incredibly difficult to get independent or off-the-beaten track music onto radio or MTV that television and commercials and that kind of stuff has become a really interesting avenue for launching new music," he says.\nAnd Day is ready for the opportunity no matter what the show.\n"Even now, if a soap opera wants to use my song, I'm kind of like, OK," Day said. "I just see it as a great promotion, and it's an easy way for me to make money ... just send me a check"