Music in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel

The use of music was a key component in the fictional Buffyverse established by the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Many actors of both series are gifted and professional singers/musicians (Anthony Head, James Marsters, Amber Benson, Andy Hallett and Christian Kane to just cite a few).

The "Buffy theme" is the music played alongside the opening credits of the show. The theme itself has no lyrics; it begins with several notes played by an organ, a signifier for horror in movie culture from the 1930s onwards. This is quickly replaced by upbeat rock music; an electric guitar riff signifies youth culture and a post-modern twist on the horror genre.

The theme was played by the pop punk band Nerf Herder. In an interview they explain how they came to produce the theme:

"They [the Buffy production staff] had hired some famous theme song composer to come up with a theme and they didn’t like the one he came up with so they were kind of on a low budget, and asked local bands to come up with theme song ideas."

In the DVD commentary for "Welcome to the Hellmouth," Whedon explained that part of his decision to go with Nerf Herder's theme was that Alyson Hannigan had made him listen to the band's music.

Nerf Herder later recorded a second version of the theme which was used for the opening titles from season 3 on.

The song sounds similar to a section of a German pop song from the Eighties called "Codo" by "Deutsch-Österreichisches Feingefühl" (DÖF), but in 2006 Nerf Herder said that they had "never heard of DÖF," and the similarity was coincidental.

Back in 1999, Nerf Herder lead singer Parry Grip gave the background on the writing of the melody. The original melody was not written specifically for the show; it had been in place before Whedon contacted the band asking them to submit a demo for a theme tune:

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