In the most recent episode (review with spoilers here) of AMC’s hit show Mad Men, they re-created the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and it may be the most chilling and evocative dramatization of the event I’ve ever seen. It was definitely the first time I found myself realizing that for the people who lived through that moment, it was a real and raw and shocking thing– not something that had already accumulated dust on history’s shelf or started growing dim with distance. I could feel what the characters were feeling: vulnerability, surprise, uncertainty about the future, despair, etc. And as I caught myself empathizing with fictional people, I started questioning how they were spinning the web I was caught in. Through their clothing, and their hairstyles, and the dialogue, and the acting– and the music.

Although the music during the average episode of Mad Men is subtle enough to fade into the background and just become part of the whole, each episode ends with a carefully chosen song that rises in volume as the credits roll and ties into the theme of the evening. This week’s song about not being in love anymore contributed to the sense of melancholy the show left me with, and it also inspired me to see who else was talking about the music of Mad Men.

You can buy a soundtrack CD on Amazon (see the cover art above), AMC keeps a running list of the songs they’ve featured this season, and they’ve got Mad Men-inspired playlists available on iTunes.

Music is such a huge part of the television and movies we watch, and Mad Men is definitely doing it right in their selection of tunes.