Welcome to Thanks, I Love It, our series highlighting something onscreen we’re obsessed with this week.
Bridgerton fans may not recognize the name Kris Bowers, but they ought to.
The Emmy Award-winning composer, known for his work on shows like When They See Us and Dear White People, is responsible for the beating heart of Netflix’s popular period drama — the uber-stylish, horned-up salve so many of us needed to start this year.
The sound of Bridgerton has wowed audiences, with its classical covers of modern pop songs gaining an especially enamored fanbase. Bowers’ cover of British soul singer Celeste’s “Strange” (featuring cellist Hillary Smith) has over 1.5 million plays on Spotify at the time of writing.
Scoring a show that combines soapy, Shonda Rhimes-style drama with the pageantry of Regency-era London is surprisingly suited to Bowers’ wheelhouse. The Juilliard-educated pianist has spent much of his career blending traditional jazz with more modern influences, earning a reputation for his intriguing film scores and collaborations with artists like Jay-Z and Kanye West.
But the circumstances of working on this particular series posed a challenge to Bowers, who caught up with Mashable on the phone a few weeks into the still-raging Bridgerton fervor.
“It’s really because of my team and the musicians that played on the score that we were able to get it done.”
“Just the amount of music we had to record and write in the amount of time [we had] given the additional obstacles of COVID and working remotely, that was something I was pretty intimidated by myself,” Bowers says.
“It’s really because of my team and the musicians that played on the score that we were able to get it done.”
Bowers learned how to manage a socially distanced orchestra on Hulu’s Mrs. America early last year. Working on Bridgerton, Bowers was thankful for the experience. But coordinating precision and musicality across hundreds of miles, he admits, can only get so easy.
“There are times where [we] might compose something that we know we’re going to be able to talk through in the room,” Bowers says. “A lot of that stuff now has to be figured out beforehand.”
Providing his musicians with strict roadmaps, designed not to restrict their artistry but to make layering their work possible for Bridgerton mixing engineer Steve Kay, Bowers carefully crafted and recorded his score as the pandemic raged on. It paid off, to be sure — contributing a distinctly compelling sound that helped fuel so much of what makes the series binge-worthy.
“I was always fascinated by how many jazz musicians kind of looked down on pop music.”
Image: LIAM DANIEL / NETFLIX
“I really had fun with the battle-type sequences, like ‘The Duel‘ or any of the boxing matches,” Bowers says of his personal favorite moments in Bridgerton. “The percussion on those is really, really fun.” Having strong themes to go with specific plot points and characters, Bowers notes, also did wonders for the score’s cohesive feel.
“A combination of a [distinct musical] palette and [distinct musical] themes really helped create a continuity through-line, even as we were changing aspects of the genre or instrumentation.”
“I very quickly realized how much skill and effort and knowledge and talent goes into making [pop songs] sound as good as they do.”
Of course, much of fans’ attention has been on the more recognizable tracks performed by Vitamin String Quartet — which include covers of Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next,” Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You,” Shawn Mendes’ “In My Blood,” and Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” — as well as fusion band Duomo’s classical take on the Taylor Swift single “Wildest Dreams.”
Those songs, Bowers says, were selected for the resonance they would have with young adult audiences, making it possible for them to relate to the 19th century characters “in an instant.” But they also presented an opportunity for Bowers and his collaborators to combine the best of two genres that explore musicality in seemingly disparate ways.
“As a trained jazz musician, I was always fascinated by how many jazz musicians kind of looked down on pop music — same with classical musicians,” Bowers recalls. “The first time I tried to make a pop song, I very quickly realized how much skill and effort and knowledge and talent goes into making those things sound as good as they do.”
In melding the popular music of today with the technical excellence of a classically trained orchestra, Bowers was able to establish a recognizable musical identity for the Bridgerton universe. The show, he hopes, is “paying homage to [pop] with the same level of respect as we do any genre of music.”
“We may know that she’s Lady Whistledown, but do we want the score to be obvious about that?”
Image: LIAM DANIEL / NETFLIX
Looking ahead to a possible Season 2 (which has yet to be confirmed by Netflix, but this reporter simply refuses to live without), Bowers is eager to reinvent some of his own music.
“I’m incredibly excited for Penelope next season,” Bowers says, with the giddiness characteristic of a true Bridgerton fan. “Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen [the Season 1 finale], but I’m looking forward to seeing how her theme [best heard in ‘All is Fair in Love and War‘] melds with the Lady Whistledown theme [‘The Latest Whistledown‘], and how we decide to use them both in Season 2 [now that the audience knows Lady Whistledown’s is really Penelope.]”
While Penelope’s Season 1 theme is more understated, typically used when Bowers wanted to emphasize her pining for her unrequited love Collin, Lady Whistledown’s is a sassy battlecry. Mirroring how Penelope handles those two sides of herself — her true self and secret identity — will be central to Bowers’ (and our) journey into more Bridgerton scandal, the composer says.
“As an audience, we may know that she’s Lady Whistledown, but do we want the score to be obvious about that? Or do we want the score to come from the perspective of the other characters who are still seeing her as Penelope?” Bowers ponders aloud. “I’m really excited next year to see how those themes reveal themselves as Penelope’s character continues to develop.”
Bridgerton is now streaming on Netflix.