I’ve been watching a lot of great series on streaming platforms and TV in terms of narrative and filming production, but most of them do not have a strong appeal using soundtrack. ‘Kissing Game’, an original Netflix series is a wonderful exception.
It’s an oasis in the middle of the desert. The series creators use the soundtrack as a mechanism of the storytelling. It’s a kind of omniscient wisdom character.
‘Kissing Game‘ (Portuguese: Boca a Boca), for those who haven’t seen it yet, is a Brazilian drama thriller TV series created by Esmir Filho and starring Caio Horowicz, Iza Moreira, Michel Joelsas, and Luana Nastas. The series is set in a fictional ranch town called Progresso, and after a party, Bel (Luana Nastas), a girl wakes up the next day with a slightly different hangover. She was infected by a mysterious virus transmitted through her mouth, which hospitalises her and puts her life at risk. Other teenagers and Bel’s classmates such as Fran ( Iza Moreira), Chico (Michel Joelsas) and Alex (Caio Horowicz) who went to the rave and kissed her and other guys, start panicking about the virus spreading, while Bel’s body deteriorates at the hospital. They fear that they’ve got the virus, and their big secrets and conflicts will be discovered by the conservative population.
“I started creating the series with music,” said the director Esmir Filho to the Rolling Stones Brasil in July. “I wished to make a story about a rural region, but with electronic and pop music playing in the background”, he completes. Gui Amabis, who is the music producer, was important for this, composing tracks with synthesizers, but also with national instruments, such as Brazilian strings and blowing horn (also known as the ‘Winding Horn’ or the ‘Blast Horn’) .
We can find Brazilian artists on the playlist such as Troupe Chá de Boldo, Baco Exú Do Blues, and a 100% original composition by Letrux, (I love her songs compositions!) exclusively for the series, that is called “Vamos fazer um causo” (Let’s have a story). To finish the musical mosaic of ‘Kissing Game’, it still has foreign songs on the tracklist to show how the themes, despite being local, can be enjoyed internationally by anyone, such as The Knife (‘Is It Medicine’ or ‘Social Skill’), SOPHIE (‘Faceshopping’), Mary Komasa (‘Come’), Toni Tonga (‘Dusty Snow’) and Kindest Cuts (‘Handsome killer’). The mix of Brazilian and international songs gives an independent and modern atmosphere for the series.
The series became worldwide hit since it was released in July 2020.
Check out the soundtrack and shake your body:
If you have any suggestion or complaint, please feel free to send an email to me at info.audiovisualmaniacclub@gmail.com
