NERF HERDER. BtVS/Angel Writer/Director/Contributor..
The Buffy theme tune was written and performed by the Californian band Nerf Herder who were formed in 1994 by bassist Charlie Dennis, drummer Steve Sherlock, and singer/guitarist Parry Gripp. They took their name from a line in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irvin Kershner) where Princess Leia called Han Solo a “stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy looking nerf herder.”
According to Nerf Herder’s official website, Joss Whedon was disappointed with the theme music composed for the show and he contacted the band to come up with something after being constantly subjected to their eponymous debut album Nerf Herder (1996, My Records) during filming breaks (courtesy of Alyson Hannigan according to Whedon’s DVD commentary for “Welcome to the Hellmouth”). They sent in a rough demo on cassette using a Casio and guitars which he liked, and it was recorded for the show. Not only was the process quick and cheap, it also set up a trend that would continue throughout the show’s history, that of giving a break to relatively unknown bands.
Music co-ordinator John King’s comment on why this theme was chosen, encapsulates the indie aesthetics of the show and the aim to appeal to a particular youth demographic: “It just encompassed the whole attitude of the show. It was young, hip and trendy, but in the coolest way” (Holder, Mariotte & Hart 2000, 439).
The theme tune is available on the compilation Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Album (1999, TVT Records).
For more about the indie aesthetics of the show see Dechert (2002) and for a discussion of various aspects of Buffy’s theme music see Halfyard (2001) who makes a persuasive argument for the crossing of gender boundaries and the reworking of generic horror conventions.
The song ‘Vivian” from the How to Meet Girls CD (2000) features in “Who Are You?” (Season Four) when Faith (in Buffy’s body) is dancing at the Bronze. In Season Seven, Nerf Herder play the Bronze in “Empty Places” when Faith takes Dawn and the S.I.T.s out. The tracks featured are “Rock City News” and “Mr Spock” from the album American Cheese (2002).
The following dialogue is taken from the Buffy Dialogue Database:
NERF HERDER: (singing) Living on a wing and a prayer, out on the strip nobody cares. Scabbing off a valley chick, sleeping on the practice room floor. Pretty soon the record company will be banging on your door.
KENNEDY: (dancing) What kind of band plays during an apocalypse?
DAWN: (dancing) I think this band might actually be one of the signs.
NERF HERDER: (singing) Rock city news. You gotta pay your dues.
Bibliography
Dechert, S. Renee, 2002. ‘“My Boyfriend’s in the Band!” Buffy and the Rhetoric of Music’ in Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ed. by Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 218-26
Halfyard, Janet K., 2001. ‘Love, Death, Curses and Reverses (in F Minor): Music, Gender, and Identity in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Slayage: The Online Journal of Buffy Studies, 4 (December 2001), http://slayage.tv/, accessed 17 July 2003.
Holder, Nancy with Mariotte, Jeff and Maryelizabeth Hart, 2000. The Watcher’s Guide volume 2, New York: Pocket Books.