The FX series The Bear has used a lot of music throughout its two seasons. This current season features needle drops by artists ranging from AC/DC and R.E.M. to Van Morrison and Taylor Swift, but the show’s executive producer says surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard to get the rights to use these songs — even the Taylor one.
When TV shows use previously recorded songs, they have to license them, which requires a lot of paperwork and sometimes a ton of money. However, when it came to using “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” — for a scene where the character of Richie, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, sings along to the tune in a car — The Bear executive producer Josh Senior says it was easier than he expected.
“A lot of people ask that question and I wonder why they’re asking,” Senior tells Billboard when asked if it was difficult to license the track. “Her team was like, ‘Great. This is cool. How much money do you have? You have that much money? Let’s go."”
“She was exceedingly generous and cool with one of our actors singing along to the song,” he adds. “Those are things that sometimes people just say no to, and that was probably one of the easiest songs to clear.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
