Crime Series Score
Located in 1 route
The moody, atmospheric music of crime and cop serials — from smoky detective jazz to neon synth and gritty modern underscore. Signatures include noir trumpet and walking-bass jazz, propulsive synth arpeggios for the chase, brooding drones for the underworld, and a strong, stylized main title that fixes a show's identity in the mind. The tone runs cool, dangerous and morally shadowed, using genre-specific color — desert guitar, Latin rhythm, distorted textures — to place each series in its criminal milieu.
History
TV crime scoring began with Henry Mancini's finger-snapping jazz for Peter Gunn (1958), which made cool jazz the sound of the small-screen detective, and Morton Stevens' brassy Hawaii Five-O carried it into the 1970s. Jan Hammer's synth-driven Miami Vice (1985) redefined the genre for the MTV era, and the prestige-cable boom brought singular scores: Rolfe Kent's Dexter, Little Barrie's garage-rock Better Call Saul, Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans' dread-filled Ozark and Rodrigo Amarante's bolero "Tuyo" for Narcos. From jazz to drone, the crime series has remained one of television's most sonically distinctive homes.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Peter Gunn(1958) — Henry ManciniSpotifyYouTube
- Miami Vice Theme(1985) — Jan HammerSpotifyYouTube
- Hawaii Five-O Theme(1968) — Morton StevensSpotifyYouTube
- Dexter (Main Title)(2006) — Rolfe KentSpotifyYouTube
- Ozark (Main Title Theme)(2017) — Danny Bensi and Saunder JurriaansSpotifyYouTube
- Tuyo(2015) — Rodrigo AmaranteSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Jon Burlingame, TV's Biggest Hits (1996)
- Alan Sepinwall, The Revolution Was Televised (2012)
- Emmy Awards music categories