I have the opening Jan Hammer theme on my TIDAL playlist and jam to it often. Sounds so great in my car.
Episode 3 of season 1 introduces one of my least favorite characters of the show, Noogie. I really like the song selections though, especially "King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown". The Bob Marley classic "Jammin'" is another highlight.
I love the television series- I thought that The Church’s ‘Under the Milky Way’ would’ve been perfect to use for one of the episodes. The Jan Hammer incidental and soundtracks are definitive of the 80s and very well done. The songs used in the episodes were generally good and fun and there were some surprises like them using The Damned.
I thought "What a mad idea for a thread". Now I think "Oh my God! What a soundtrack!" It would make for a great boxset that really encapsulates the sound of the 80s. I'm really interested to read the thread going forward. Keep it up!
I wanted a thread like this and I thought it's going to be a fun thread. It is ... but the music chosen for episodes 1-3 is really cool. 80's flashback and some new stuff including those latin tracks. Keep 'em coming!
Only three tracks in episode 4 of season 1, but I like them all! The episode itself is very good too, with Crockett's family almost being taken out by a donut chomping hitman! Yikes!
It was a game-changer. Most television programs did not license hit recordings from popular recording artists. If a song was licensed for a television show, it typically was remade by a different artist that tried to emulate the sound of the original recording. That said, I am not sure if it was less than it would be today, I just don't think television producers and networks wanted to budget for it prior to Miami Vice.
Jan wanted to be a star for years, dating back to his time in Mahavishnu and with Jeff Beck. This show finally presented that opportunity. That said, his musical compositions for Miami Vice were mostly very well done, and captured the essence of the era, the locale, and the individual episodes in an impressive fashion. There may not be a show that ever had such effective thematic music.