WSJ.com – Ticket Out of Obscurity explains how Fox’s The OC has lifted underground rock bands from obscurity:
The makers of ‘The O.C.’ say they began including relatively obscure music for a simple reason: It’s what they listen to. ‘For the first seven episodes we didn’t have a music supervisor, so we were taking music off my iPod,’ says creator and executive producer Josh Schwartz. In fact, he says, he is often unable to write a scene until he finds the right song to accompany it.
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In the first week after its appearance on “The O.C.,” Rooney’s sales almost tripled. With the imprimatur of a hip, young show, the band landed appearances on the “Tonight Show,” the “Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn” and “Today,” giving the album a second wind, and propelling it to respectable sales of over 333,000.