The comedy series Nobody Wants This has become defined by its relatable romance and the undeniable chemistry between its leads, Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. But it’s also known for its soundtrack and the earworms that fill it. So when music supervisors Manish Raval, Tom Wolfe, and Jonathan Leahy of Aperture Music joined the Erin Foster–created show ahead of its sophomore outing, they had their work cut out for them. “[The series] came fully preloaded with an amazing cast, an amazing first season, an amazing palette of music that they had already established in season one,” says Raval. “The only agenda we had was, ‘How do we take what they’re already doing so well [and] take it to the next level?’ ”
The answer was to create a wholly original soundtrack of new music from today’s most popular artists, including Kacey Musgraves, FINNEAS, Selena Gomez, GIVĒON, and ROLE MODEL. “Erin is really a fan of today’s music,” says Raval. “I think that lends itself to us really anchoring the show in today’s culture and today’s way of speaking.” Nestled alongside chart-topping hits from Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift, and Sabrina Carpenter, the original songs come from a stable of performers who fit in perfectly with the rom-com’s atmosphere — and who were already fans. “When you get a show like [this] where you galvanize …. artists who like the show as well, it makes it so much easier to then try to solicit them to make original music,” Raval says.
He and his team encouraged the musicians to share unreleased music rather than write anything new. “We never wanted to have artists write directly about a moment that was happening [on the show]. That ends up helping because a lot of these songs that play in these scenes, they’re not specifically talking about the moment that’s happening in the show,” he explains. “They’re talking about a very universal feeling or emotion. And I think that’s what we’re responding to as the viewer and as a listener.”
To score your own love story, queue up this Nobody Wants This playlist.
This track from the Grammy- and Oscar-winning musician FINNEAS underscores the emotional beat when Noah announces he’s resigning from Temple Chai and stepping away from his dream job to pursue his life with Joanne. “We didn’t have any idea that that’s where the [this] song would go, but the combination of this music and that scene ended up becoming such an amazing, powerful moment in the show,” says Raval.
This cut from Swift’s Reputation album pairs perfectly with matriarch Bina’s quest to break up Noah (Brody) and Joanne (Bell), particularly the moment she announces, “I have scissors.” Raval and the music supervision team went big for the moment, and it highlights the importance of complementing the series’ comedy rather than overpowering it. “It was just really about [finding] a way to enhance the joke there and not really play the joke,” he explains.
Original music by some of the biggest established and rising stars in music plays throughout the finale, which features an emotional whirlwind of an engagement party. The episode’s sonic tone could have gone in multiple directions, but once they placed this song by Selena Gomez, “Suddenly that episode really took on a shape,” Raval says. “It was just this amazing moment, the way the season ended with this last episode with all of these songs. [It] was this huge victory for us.”
