In last week’s episode of Succession, Kendall wanted the playlist for his 40th birthday party to be “all bangers all the time.” Did he succeed? You can judge for yourself, as HBO has released “Kendall’s Birthday Mix” on Spotify. There’s no Billy Joel, but there is the Chemical Brothers, LCD Soundsystem, Alison Wonderland, and KRS-One.
Assuming Succession takes place in 2021, Kendall would have been born in 1981, meaning his formative music-listening years would be in the mid- to late-1990s. There is absolutely no chance that he didn’t agonize the night before the party over whether to include “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 on the playlist. He made the right call to leave it off — even if the episode ended with him feeling blue, da ba dee da ba di, after — spoilers, but you’ve probably seen the episode already — not being able to find his kids’ birthday present in the rabbit wrapping paper. Everything’s great.
You can listen to the playlist below:
And here’s the tracklist:
1. “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)” by Grandmaster Flash and Grandmaster Melle Mel
2. “Man of the Year” by ScHoolboy Q
3. “Fotomat” by St. Maximus
4. “Go” by Geek Boy
5. “Here Comes the Warm Dreads” by Lee “Scratch” Perry and Brian Eno
6. “The Club” by Keith Goodey and Julian Napolitano
7. “NY Lipps (Kawazaki Dub)” by Soulwax
8. “Big Conspiracy” by J Hus and iceè tgm
9. “MC’s Act Like They Don’t Know” by KRS-One
10. “Radio Babylon” by Meat Beat Manifesto
11. “Troublemaker” by St. Maximus
12. “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down” by LCD Soundsystem
13. “Don’t Glaze Me” by Dizzee Rascal
14. “Hey Boy Hey Girl” by the Chemical Brothers
15. “Lost Dimension” by Magic Castles
16. “Anything” by Alison Wonderland and Valentino Khan
Musicians haven’t always had a great history crossing into movies and TV. Not everyone can be an Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning thespian like Lady Gaga. Perhaps that’s why The Weeknd has been taking baby steps. He played himself, briefly, in Uncut Gems. But now he’s got his own HBO show, where he’ll play someone arguably more magnetic than a pop star: a cult leader.
In development since the summer, The Idol is set against the backdrop of the music industry in Los Angeles. It centers on a self-help guru and leader of a modern-day cult (The Weeknd) who develops a complicated relationship with an up-and-coming pop singer (Depp).
The Weeknd is already working with one of HBO’s rivals, being the subject of Showtime’s The Show, which will look at his spectacular mid-pandemic Super Bowl show from this past January. Joining him on The Idol will be co-creators Reza Fahim, his producing partner, as well as Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, who also helmed the Netflix drama Malcolm & Marie. The show’s six episodes will all be directed by Amy Seimetz, the actress and director, whose credits include The Girlfriend Experience, Atlanta, and the acclaimed film She Dies Tomorrow.
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Cristobal Tapia de Veer composed the music for HBO’s Hawaii-set breakout hit The White Lotus, but the anxiety-causing voices were originally meant for Kanye West.
“I went to his place where he works” in California, Tapia de Veer revealed on the Broken Record podcast, “and then I was trying to understand what he wanted.” But because West is “always talking about a million things at the same time,” he didn’t know what he was there for. It had something to do with Nike and a prototype for a new shoe and “how this Nike shoe relates to music,” so Tapia de Veer started to work on something “really striking” on his laptop. He continued:
“I had those voices and I tried to find a way to play melodies that is really striking, and this happened by accident and I was like, at that point I knew that this was like gold. And I was like, ‘OK, this I’m going to show to Kanye.’ I was there for like a week and I had to leave, and there was problems, and Kanye started firing people and his lawyers and everything was too long… It was a mess”
Anyway, West never called Tapia de Veer back, so when The White Lotus came up, he knew “those tribal voices” would be perfect for the show. “So I went back to my system and started finding the right melody,” he said. Tapia de Veer found it: creator Mike White said that he wanted “music that makes you feel like there’s gonna be some kind of human sacrifice at some point… Cristobal nailed that — and then some.”
You can listen to the Broken Record episode above.
