a form of time travel.

on the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack and nostalgic 90s movie music.

There were a number of deeply affective moments in I Saw the TV Glow, but I didn’t feel the urge to cry until I noticed two young teenagers in the row ahead of us exiting the theater during the credits as a gritty Frances Quinlan song played in the background. Like a lot of Zoomers, they looked queer and they looked 90s — one in a choker necklace and floral jumper, the other with shaggy hair and an oversized t-shirt. They could have been me and my best friend leaving a weird indie film that we didn’t quite understand, but that we felt, hooked on the music that ensnared us even as the rest of the storytelling left us with more questions than answers. I write about this kind of discovering in my memoir, Rust Belt Femme, how finding music that feels like your music is like finding a missing piece of yourself. I discovered some of those bands on the radio, then on mixtapes, but I also found that music in the movies. (Also from my book: “I’ve always thought the most romantic music is the music you hear in indie lesbian movies.”) I was so happy that these two teens got to experience their own version of it. 

Frances Quinlan, of the band Hop Along, is part of a genre I have always understood to be a sort of second wave of that 90s and early 00s girl music that transformed me when I was in my teens. It’s the music that has the sensibility of queer, feminist riot grrrls, but the ones who wanted to make music a little softer. Punk-inspired, grunge-inspired, but also kind of twee. An unapologetic girly contribution to boy-heavy music spaces. Even when it’s produced in a studio, it sounds like it came from a recorder on a bedroom floor. The kids today would call it a vibe, back then I understood it as my sort of sub-subculture. 

Unsurprisingly, many people are celebrating the soundtrack of this stunningly evocative Jane Schoenbrun film. I’m particularly interested in the choice to include—in a film set largely in the 90s—primarily contemporary music that feels like it’s from the 90s. The one song that’s actually from that era, “Tonight Tonight” originally recorded by the Smashing Pumpkins, is a cover by Snail Mail (who acts in the film) recorded in 2023. The film also features two bands in a live music scene, harkening back to a number of 90s movies (e.g. 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless) and TV shows (e.g. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, My So-Called Life) that did the same. Schoenburn told IndieWire that she wanted to “make a [90s] mixtape that didn’t exist yet.” There’s a Caroline Polacheck song that plays in a high school hall-wandering scene that seeped into me like an impossible déjà vu; like I had wandered the halls of my high school with this song in my head, desperate to get in my car so I could fast forward to the place it lived on the mixtape. The effect was a form of time travel in an already deeply nostalgic film. 

Queer theorist Lee Edelman famously postulated the figure of The Child as an antagonistic construct to any liberatory queer worldmaking project. There’s good reason for this—Anita Bryant crusaded against homosexuality under the banner of “Save Our Children,” and we see it again today with a reactionary campaign against trans kids supposedly to protect those same kids. Schoenburn’s film complicates Edelman’s framework, though; she offers a musical queer temporality to show how returning to the imaginative realm of youth (and youth culture) can offer a portal to future possibility. 

There is a lot more to say about the film, but there are plenty of smart critics who’ve already articulated beautiful responses to it. (Trans and queer critics feel especially important to engage since a lot of cis critics really seemed to miss the point.) I’ll also admit that I wasn’t sure how I felt about the movie—like, I kind of maybe didn’t like it?--- until I was able to do about a full day of processing. After several more days of processing, I’ve landed on this: it’s hauntingly brilliant.

So instead of a deeper review, I thought I’d use the experience as an excuse to dive back into some of the most impactful soundtracks from my youth. I’m skipping ahead past The Bodyguard (see: the entire album and especially this music video), Armageddon (“Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” was the perfect movie/music video mashup), and City of Angels (“Iris” still slaps), not because they weren’t bangers, but because they didn’t quite hit that “this is special, indie/alternative, and just for me (and thousands of other weirdos like me)” niche the way these others did. 

I think I Saw the TV Glow will do the same for a bunch of young people today. I’m so happy for them.

Reality Bites (1994) 

Lisa Loeb is clearly pop music but she had that 90s alterna-girl edge that fit well with the pre-hipster Gen X cast of Reality Bites. The movie felt aspirational in the way a lot of Gen X media felt to me. I wanted to wear cool clothes and be Against The Man with my friends. “Stay” has been my go-to karaoke song my entire adult life. 

Empire Records (1995) 

Music was central to this Save the Record Store movie, and this incredibly epic 90s trailer makes that clear. The Gin Blossoms song is truly perfect. 

Boys on the Side (1995) 

An example of a film that brings the music into the movie very explicitly. In addition to a wonderfully epic scene with The Cranberries “Dreams”, Whoopie Goldberg sings a heartbreaking version of the Bonnie Raitt single, “You Got It.” The soundtrack is gay as the day is long, surely a root for many us; also features: The Indigo Girls, Melissa Ethridge, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, and more.

Clueless (1995) 

The songs in Clueless are featured in such perfect moments, everyone probably has their own favorite (mine is the Jill Sobule “Supermodel” makeover montage), but it’s also a great example of a live music scene featuring The Mighty Mighty Bosstones at the peak of the 3rd wave ska resurgence.

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Romeo & Juliet (1996)

Baz Luhrman at his best. An impeccable brooding mixtape for burgeoning angsty teens of the 90s. Absolutely no filler on this thing. 

Foxfire (1996) 

Vaguely lesbian girl gang revenge movie featuring Mazzy Star, Candlebox, L7, Luscious Jackson, and starring Jenny Lewis. Behold: 

 

If Lucy Fell (1996) 

This one might be a little less known, but I was fully obsessed. If Lucy Fell is a quintessential indie rom-com starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Eric Schaefer, and Ben Stiller, and it hits every button. The entire soundtrack is from the indie girl band Marry Me Jane and it absolutely solidified my love of indie girl band music. I highly recommend the movie and the soundtrack! 

The comments on this make me really happy; “coolest chick album ever…what a mood” says one guy, and honestly, YES.

The X Files (1997)

The “Walking After You” video doesn’t reference The X-Files movie explicitly, but it feels alien-ish. I still adore this song but realize, in hindsight, the way the video sort of romanticized an apparently toxic relationship. The 90s! Anyway, the rest of The X Files soundtrack was also fire. (So many great 90s artists, but I have to shoutout Soul Coughing who never got as much love as I think they deserved.) 

Disturbing Behavior (1998)  

“Got You Where I Want You” is a perfect late-90s song and the music video was a great mashup with the perfect late-90s cast of Disturbing Behavior (Katie Holmes, James Marsden, Nick Stahl).

Great Expectations (1998) 

I have a vivid memory of checking this CD out from the library over and over and over. I’m not sure I ever owned it, but I played the shit out of it in 9th grade, feeling like a very deep and moody high school freshman. I mean, it was full of Tori Amos. And POE was already one of my absolute favorite singers, so I loved that she was on the album. 

Good Will Hunting (1998) 

An obvious and important addition to this list.</3 <3 This was right before I had found punk and indie culture, but got an early preview of it with Elliott Smith. It was music that felt like a place I wanted to be. 

Cruel Intentions (1999) 

This feels like a close second to Romeo & Juliet in terms of no-filler, non-stop bangers, excellent use of the songs in the film. We’ll all remember the crescendo of “Bittersweet Symphony” over Sarah Michelle Gellar’s crucifix coke necklace reveal. I mean! Plus: Counting Crows (“Colorblind” is one of their best, imo), Placebo, Fatboy Slim, Blur. *chef’s kiss* stuff. 

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) 

No sex scene will ever beat the pink blanket dreamscape with Tattle Tale’s “Glass Case/Cello Vase” in the background... (The actual scene isn’t available so this is just clips someone edited with the song in the background.)

 

Jawbreaker (1999)

The millennial Heathers, and a favorite childhood film of most of the best twisted weirdo adults I know today. I heard The Donnas in this movie before I knew anything about a riot grrrl, but it felt like a preview, and I’m so glad.

@allthegirlgroupsI was afraid of jawbreaker’s for a while after this movie 🤣 #thedonnas #jawbreaker #jawbreakermovie #1999 #rosemcgowan #tatyanaali #throwback

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10 Things I Hate About You (1999) 

I KNOW THEM I KNOW THEM! That’s how it felt when Letters to Cleo and Save Ferris were playing live in 10 Things I Hate About You. Kat was an angsty feminist teen with good taste in music, and I finally was one too. 

Things got quiet at the end of the 90s. Literally. Music just stopped playing as central a role in the movies. There are some exceptions—the Vanilla Sky soundtrack turned a very mediocre 2001 movie into a beautiful one (I did a recent rewatch, it’s very bad, but that Sigur Rós & Radiohead vibe still stands!);  Lost in Translation in 2003 (“Just Like Honey” was a character in that final scene); Closer in 2004 (the Jude Law/Natalie Portman “Blower’s Daughter” meeting), and Garden State in 2004 (I was just cool enough to be a little annoyed by the buzz around it, but I still liked the soundtrack); Happy Endings in 2005 (Maggie Gylenhaal memorably covers Billy Joel)—but it was a decidedly new generation. In the 2010s, the Blockbuster movie album made a bit of a comeback with The Black Panther  (which I loved) and new Spider-Verse movies; and, of course, there was Barbie. But the quieter hallmark of the 90s indie soundtrack has felt absent.

I Saw the TV Glow brings it back, but with new and necessary sensibilities—a dreamy 90s mixtape for this 2020s dystopia.