The only thing more irritating than Harry & Meghan? The soundtrack

The musical soundtrack to Harry & Meghan is perhaps not the most newsworthy aspect of Netflix’s current docuseries. But, rather like the bombshell revelations dropped by the Sussexes throughout, it is impossible to ignore. The six episodes of Harry & Meghan, the final three of which were released yesterday, are stuffed with music: to take the second episode as an example, almost 40 of its 55 minutes are accompanied by music. It’s a breathless sonic assault.

Acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog has often talked about the importance of silence, space and mystery in film soundtracks. The makers of Harry & Meghan clearly didn’t get the memo. It’s more Hello! than Herzog, like being stuck in a lift with a perpetual loop of “Strictly results announcement” atmospherics being piped through the speaker.

The series uses two kinds of music: tinkly background soundscapes to telegraph the emotions being conveyed on screen (which are essentially “in love”, “unhappy”, “threatened” and “anything with royals in it”), and pop songs to magnify the vibe of the scene. Each episode also ends with a different track to sum up where the Sussexes are on their journey. 

The final episode, for instance, ends with Nancy Wilson’s breezy and life-affirming (You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am. It opens with the line, “My love has no beginning, my love has no end.” It’s a peach of a song, its upbeat impact only slightly undermined as the credits roll by a legal statement from representatives of the Sussexes’ former communications secretary Jason Knauf saying that claims made in the episode are “entirely false”. This is immediately followed by a counter-statement from Meghan’s attorneys disputing the claim that Mr Knauf’s people have just made in their statement. Gosh, their love really does have no end. Happy days.

So here is our analysis of the Harry & Meghan soundtrack. To adapt the Radiohead song, it’s Megxit Music (for a Film). As Thom Yorke famously sang, “Today, we escape, we escape…”

Incidental music

The dictionary definition of “incidental” is something that happens “as a minor accompaniment to something else”. Not here. The background music acts as a thumpingly integral part of the narrative: telling the viewer how we should feel before we’ve had a chance to feel it ourselves. A smattering of music in such documentaries is no bad thing. But this is so prevalent as to feel intrusive. It’s almost as if the filmmakers are trying to manipulate our emotions, which of course they’d never do.

The mood music is all so obvious. Harry wonders how the couple got into their situation – cue minimalist melancholy piano music in the background. He and Meghan talk about how nasty the press are ­–­ cue slightly more foreboding and dramatic music. Anyone mentions the Royal family – cue vaguely regal baroque music that brings to mind a square dance from a Jane Austen adaptation. Taken alone, the piano music wouldn’t be too bad. Some of it brings to mind Michael Nyman’s soundtrack to The Piano back in 1993, before ethereal ambient piano tracks were used in everything from mobile phone ads to reality TV shows. Here, I half expected Sean Pertwee’s drama-laden Masterchef voice to kick in at any moment. “Harry has served pan-fried hake on a bed of pickled tripe with a garnish of kohlrabi cooked en papillote…”

The pop songs

Some cracking songs here, although some of the use is almost laughably literal. In episode five, Meghan returns to London for her and Harry’s last set of engagements as working royals. Earlier in the series she had complained that she’d had to tone down the palette of her wardrobe to beige so as not to upstage other members of the Royal family. No longer. Here – with freedom beckoning ­– she wears blues, reds, greens. “Let’s just look like a rainbow,” she says as The Rolling Stones’ She’s A Rainbow bursts into life. “She comes in colours everywhere… She’s like a rainbow,” sings Sir Mick, just in case we missed the point. The use of Janelle Monáe’s Tightrope to signify Meghan balancing her pre-wedding life in Canada with her flouring romance in London is more subtle.

Meanwhile the song used to signpost Meghan’s arrival in London in episode one sounds like a track from the Austin Powers soundtrack. It’s a jaunty, swinging Sixties number played over footage of Carnaby Street. The song is called Stop! (Don’t Worry About It) and it was recorded in 1968 by Lonette McKee, an American actress who once appeared in L.A. Law, a forerunner to Suits. Intentional? Who knows, but it’s a clever use.

Other song choices are rather poignant. Also in episode one, there’s a section about Harry and Meghan’s last night out before their relationship is revealed. It’s a night when they “pull the pin on the fun grenade,” as Harry memorably puts it. This bit is soundtracked by Danish pop star Mø’s mid-paced track Last Night. “I want you to know that we gotta carry on/ So don’t let this be our final song,” Mø sings. Scandinavian musicians from ABBA to Robyn to Susanne Sundfør have a knack for writing sad bangers – melancholy songs that you can dance to ­– and this is no different. It’s a good choice, particularly given what’s to come.

The wedding and all that jazz

We find out in episode four that Harry and Meghan’s first dance at their 2018 wedding was to Land of 1,000 Dances by Wilson Pickett (although the still photos suggest they were dancing to a live band playing this, rather than Pickett’s version per se). It’s a fantastic, energetic song. “Got to know how to pony/ Like Bony Maronie,” it goes, while its “naa-na-na-na-naa” chorus would have been sure to see another few pins pulled from guests’ fun grenades. We also learn from the show that Idris Elba DJ’d at the wedding and Elton John played at the reception (Archie, the Harry and Meghan’s son, would later be a huge fan of Elton’s Benny and the Jets).

The wedding montages feature another joyous song, a version of gospel song This Little Light of Mine by The Staple Singers. Elsewhere in the series, jazz music is used to convey the couple’s happiness. They talk about their first date over versions of Anything Goes by US jazz singer Helen Merrill and I’m In The Mood for Love by the late Julie London, while footage of Meghan’s happy Christmas at Sandringham with the Royal family is coupled with a jazz version of Go Tell It To the Mountain. There’s not a huge amount of jazz after that, which is no doubt meant to tell us that happiness was scarce.

The credits

It’s interesting to compare the opening theme tune to Harry & Meghan with that of Hans Zimmer’s theme to Netflix’s other royal blockbuster, The Crown. They are similar in many respects. They feature swooping orchestras. They are stately themes that clearly aim to reflect the gravity of the institutions or individuals they are representing. What’s interesting, though, is that the Sussexes’ theme is a touch slower and a touch less overwrought. It features four chimes of a funereal-sounding bell near the beginning. It seems to be saying, “We’re almost the same, but not. We’re less grand and more bruised.”

As for the closing credits, here is a list of the songs that end all six episodes. They need no explanation because the titles literally tell the story by themselves. Episode one: You’re All I Need to Get By by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Episode two: Pledging My Love by Erma Franklin. Episode three: Stand By Me by Otis Redding. Episode four: You Don’t Own Me by Lesley Gore. Episode five: Everybody’s Talkin’ by Harry Nilsson. Episode six: the aforementioned (You Don’t Know) How Glad I am by Nancy Wilson. Having watched the programme, some folk within Buckingham Palace will no doubt be feeling that Firestarter by The Prodigy or Burning Bridges by Status Quo might have been more apt choices. Or perhaps even Who Are You? By The Who...

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