Rooney, Jet Visit "The O.C."

Rooney's debut album had been out for eight months when, in mid-January, it leapt up the charts thanks to a 200 percent increase in sales. Credit goes to the hot Fox teen drama The O.C., which featured a performance by the sunny California pop band on its January 7th episode.

Though it was the series' first on-camera appearance by a band, The O.C. has made a practice of promoting lesser-known acts, playing songs by Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, Jet and Spoon on the show. In March, Warner Bros. will release an O.C. soundtrack.

"Our soundtrack is a direct reflection of the music I like," says twenty-seven-year-old O.C. creator and writer Josh Schwartz, the youngest person to create an hour-long drama for network television. Schwartz says that music is such an integral part of his writing process that he often can't finish a scene until he finds the perfect song to accompany it. "Joseph Arthur's 'Honey and the Moon' helped me write the pilot," he says. "Sometimes I'll have a song in my back pocket -- like Solomon Burke's 'Don't Give Up on Me' -- and I have to wait until I write the right scene to drop it in."

The O.C. promotes the artists heard on each episode by offering a rundown of songs on the show's Web site. "There's not a lot of forums for new music," says Schwartz. "If the show can turn people on to music they haven't heard before, that's a good thing."

JENNY ELISCU
(January 30, 2004)