Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Certain Songs #1307: Nerf Herder – “Buffy The Vampire Slayer Theme” | Medialoper

Album: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Album
Year: 1997

So my first thought when I read that they were going to reboot Buffy The Vampire Slayer was “what are they going to use for the theme song?” Because while Nerf Herder’s original theme song is definitely part of that show’s iconic aesthetic, it’s also incredibly 1997, and there is just no way that you could make a realistic show about high students in 2018 and use a surf-punk instrumental as your theme song.

Right? Part of the many many things that made Buffy The Vampire Slayer such a great series was the verisimilitude of normal turn-of-the-century high school students juxtaposed with the fantastical (and metaphorical) monsters they battled.

So no matter what they do about the theme song, there’s gonna be a huge controversy, but then again there’s gonna be a huge controversy regardless. Grr argh, indeed.

That said: it was perfect for I guess what will eventually be known on future message boards as BTVS:TOS, as the echoing guitars, pounding backbeat and modulations all match the visual kinetic energy in the opening credits, and set you up perfectly for whatever weirdness was about to happen. Which usually was a commercial, but still.

And given how many times we’ve watched and rewatched Buffy The Vampire Slayer over the years, this probably rivals The Simpsons theme as the song we’ve listened to the most in our household. Especially Rox, who has probably watched the entire series a dozen times since discovering it in reruns during the summer of 1999 because she couldn’t stand to watch even one more SF Giants game with me.

A little while after that, I started watching: I think I came aboard somewhere during S4 — after “Beer Bad,” luckily — and stuck with it for the rest of the run, using that newfangled DVD technology to catch up with the glories of the second & third seasons, the latter of which I still think might be the best full season of TV to ever air on a U.S. broadcast network.

Also: Nerf Herder is still an ongoing concern — with original members and everything — which is not something you’d expect from a self-described “geek rock” band named after an insult Leia delivered to Han Solo during The Empire Strikes Back.

Oh, and yes I know that Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Album didn’t come out until 1999, but I dating the song to when the series came out in 1997, so there.

“Buffy The Vampire Slayer Theme Song”

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