Like many teen dramas before it, The Summer I Turned Pretty knows the power of underscoring every beat of adolescent angst with the perfect gut punch of a needle drop. And much like Manhattan is the unofficial fifth lead of Sex and the City, Taylor Swift’s discography may as well be a main character in the Prime Video juggernaut.
During one iconic moment from the show’s third and final season—which came to an end on September 17—Belly (Lola Tung) and Conrad (Christopher Briney) nearly kiss as she helps clean him up after a surfing accident. Amid thumping heartbeats, heavy sighs, and no shortage of sexual tension, Swift’s “False God” begins playing—the very same song that soundtracked their first almost-kiss in season one. During the golden age of TikTok fan edits, the reprisal read as an in-universe wink to The Summer I Turned Pretty’s fans, who have received its soundtrack with nearly the same fervor as its central love triangle.
You can thank music supervisor Melyssa Hardwick for many of the show’s iconic tracks, which have run the gamut from chart-topping pop hits to throwbacks, including the likes of Fleetwood Mac and Radiohead. Hardwick has been working with series creator and author Jenny Han since the beginning, serving as Amazon Studios’s former head of music before taking over as music supervisor for season 3.
“I feel like there’s such a love of music with the YA demo, and even older,” she says. “[The Summer I Turned Pretty’s] soundtrack is songs for summer for every teenage girl.”
Here, Marie Claire speaks with Hardwick to discuss her and Han’s must-have songs, working with Swift, the upcoming The Summer I Turned Pretty film, and more.
Taylor (Rain Spencer) and Belly (Lola Tung) dancing in The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3.
Marie Claire: How has your collaboration process with Jenny changed from having a more overall executive role to working as the show’s music supervisor?
Melyssa Hardwick: Jenny asked to have a music conversation before [the show] even went into production. She had a vision, she had a plan, she had a dream. So she really wanted to talk about how she wanted to approach it, which was great, because at the time, I was budgeting for music licensing.
For seasons 1 and 2, my job was to, one, manage the budget, and two, protect Jenny and what she wanted to do musically. We hadn’t really proven ourselves as a studio yet when it comes to YA, specifically YA music, so everyone was a little bit nervous.
A lot of the time, [the studio executives] would ask for songs to come out, and I’m like, “Song’s not coming out. Jenny wants this song.” One of them was “Teenage Dirtbag” [in season 1]. They’re like, “I don’t know. It feels a little dated.” And then [that song] became a viral thing, and we had proof of concept after season 1.
We had 150 music spots this [season], so it is definitely still a lot of work. But to be able to really focus on Jenny’s vision was amazing.
Hardwick says "Sign of the Times," Oh, Darling," and "Dress" were among the must-get songs in season 3.
MC: You mentioned the budget earlier, which has factored into fan conversations about episodes featuring these big names like Taylor Swift and The Beatles. What can you say about season 3's budget?
MH: It’s definitely the redacted number dollar question. I can say it was a conversation from the beginning, and we had a very healthy budget. But even if you give someone a healthy budget and they’re not good creatively, it’s not gonna have the impact that Jenny was able to have. She has her finger on the pulse of pop culture. This is the kind of person you wanna give money to and let them run.
I can’t obviously give numbers, but we do pay for every song. We clear every song. We don’t have any sponsors. I’ve seen a lot of [social media posts] where they’re like, “[They’re] sponsored by Air Tag.” I’m like, “I wish we had Air Tag money! I just had a budget.”
But the whole team was aligned, and there was no pushback. I mean, I’ve been doing this for 20 years. There’s always pushback on the music budget, because it’s the last thing to go in. It’s like the sprinkles on the cake. So it’s like, “Do we really need sprinkles on the cake? Our two-tiered mirror glaze?”
I know there are a lot of conversations [happening] with record labels or studios. They’re like, “How do we have a Summer I Turned Pretty?”
I really do hope it gives other people the opportunity to have the music budgets they should have on their show, specifically YA. It’s worth the money at the end of the day, so hopefully we proved that.
Jenny Han wanted songs of summer throughout the decades. The beach house has seen so many summers go by, and so many songs were in there.
MC: Did you and Jenny have any other must-have needle drops for season 3?
MH: This season, Jenny really, really wanted Harry Styles. She texted me, “I wanna do ‘Sign of the Times.’ I wanna play it when Conrad is leaving to go to Paris.” And then she sent me [the song lyric], “Welcome to the final show.” Even now, I tear up every time I talk about freaking “Sign of the Times.” That was my top priority song for the season.
And then she decided she wanted “Dress” [for Belly and Conrad’s sex scene]. We had edited the scene to the original version, but we were waiting to hear, “Are we gonna do the Taylor’s Version?” No one had heard it except for a few of us. Even when we were mixing the episode, that scene was muted, which was totally awkward in case anyone was wondering! We were there with the Amazon executives and [it’s] just silence and making out.
The other one was “Oh, Darling” by The Beatles, which is in episode nine. Obviously, The Beatles, being the biggest band in the world forever, are very mindful and selective about what they put their songs in. So when that one cleared, I was very excited.
And then “Out of the Woods.” In the script, it was written, “Song that will change your life.” And I’m like, “What song is this going to be?” And Jenny texted me, “I think I wanna try ‘Out of the Woods.’” After we edited it, we were like, “There’s no other song.”
We do put in decoy songs for all the Taylor songs until [the episodes] actually air, to avoid leaks. I did have to find decoy songs for all 11 of the Taylor uses this season, but there was no backup song.
"I feel like Taylor is the soundtrack of girlhood at the end of the day, and Jenny writes about girlhood," Hardwick says of why Swift's music works so well in TSITP.
MC: There’s an interesting balance between including contemporary pop music and then music that nods to millennial and Gen X viewers’s teenage years—Radiohead, U2, stuff like that.
MH: U2 was Jenny’s first CD that she bought herself, which is so cute, so I’m glad we got that one. Radiohead is my favorite band. It’s one of Chris Briney’s favorite bands.
That [balance] went back to our original conversation [about the show]. We start season 1 with [Electric Light Orchestra], so we’re not starting with a new artist. We’re starting with a legacy ‘70s artist. And that’s all Jenny. She wanted songs of summer throughout the decades. The beach house has seen so many summers go by, and so many songs were in there.
“Teenage Dirtbag” was a huge one. “Kissing You” by Des’ree, which is in the fireplace scene in season 2. Jenny was obsessed with the [1996] Romeo + Juliet soundtrack. I was like, "Can we? Is that sacreligious?" It’s off such a big soundtrack.
It’s songs for us when we were teenagers, but also Lola when she was a teenager, which wasn’t that long ago. Another thing [Jenny] talked about was discovery. Having this generation discover music that we listened to, like Fleetwood Mac, and, this season, The Beatles and U2.
Taylor really bets on women, and she also bet on Jenny and me. One thing I see with Jenny and with Taylor is that they really care about their fans. They care about the experience. They care about what they’re going through.
MC: I can’t ask you about The Summer I Turned Pretty’s soundtrack without getting into the Taylor Swift of it all. Jenny has been open about how much of a role Taylor’s music played in her writing process. What role do you see her discography playing in the show?
MH: Jenny and I are both super protective over the process with her, and the relationship. If Taylor ever wants to talk about the process, we’ll totally let her do it. I’m completely in awe that we get to use as much music as we do and she trusts us. I was like, “You guys can say no to us if you want to.”
I think [her role in the show] is huge.
[Taylor’s team have] been incredible partners with us, because they hadn’t seen the show when they gave us the first songs in the first season. Jenny says this, and I will completely back it up: Taylor really bets on women, and she also bet on Jenny and me. One thing I see with Jenny and with Taylor is that they really care about their fans. They care about the experience. They care about what they’re going through.
That was why Jenny wanted Taylor in the first place. She had written the books to Fearless, but also, so many of her fans had been like, “Can we get a Taylor Swift song?” They wanted it for To All the Boys, too. Luckily, we were able to get it for Summer.
I feel like Taylor is the soundtrack of girlhood at the end of the day, and Jenny writes about girlhood.
Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Belly in season 3.
MC: Jenny has mentioned that SZA’s “Open Arms,” which plays in the season 3 premiere while Belly and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) are in bed together, is a bit of an Easter egg in terms of foreshadowing the events of the season—you know, when the song shifts at the end with lyrics that reference going to Paris and feeling conflicted about a partner. Are there any other similar soundtrack Easter eggs you’d like to call out?
MH: I think “You’re Losing Me” [in the premiere] was a big one that people were upset with at first, like, “Why is this song being used?” But then, as the season started going, it was kind of an Easter egg, kind of foreshadowing. Her heart stopped there. That is how she felt in the moment with Jeremiah. Something severed in that moment, and her heart stopped beating. Then you have [the Belly and Conrad scene with] “False God” come back in with the heartbeats. So I think the heartbeats were really important this season.
MC: The episode from Conrad’s perspective has its own musical flavor: Otis Redding, Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones. What was your process of curating that distinct soundtrack for his POV?
MH: That was 100% Jenny. That was her directorial debut. She handpicked every single one of those songs, and she did want it to be completely different. Usually, you’re in Belly’s head. Conrad’s an old soul. He’s a little bit of a grumpy old man.
The peach scene in that episode was a huge moment from the book that fans were really anticipating. We tried a lot of stuff for that, but “Wild Horses” just ended up fitting.
Jeremiah and Conrad had their own musical flairs, according to Hardwick.
MC: The Paris episodes have plenty of French songs as Belly is reinventing and rediscovering herself abroad. What was your process of choosing those songs for her Parisian era?
MH: There’s such a high bar we have to meet for the French music. I’d done a lot of research, specifically club music, [for the scene] when she has her bag stolen. I’m like, “Do not put something cheesy in there. Please, let’s not embarrass ourselves where people are like, ‘Obviously, these people don’t know French music.’”
It was a collaboration, for sure. Jenny and Sarah [Kucserka, the show’s co-showrunner] were in Paris filming, so they were listening to a lot of music, like “Corbeau” [by Cœur de pirate], which plays when Belly is getting dressed and Conrad is looking at her Parisian apartment. That was a song they had been listening to in Paris.
We have an incredible picture editor named Jamie, who had pulled a lot of French score, like the Amélie score. Even “Murder on the Dance Floor” was a song they’d been listening to in Paris, ‘cause it was right after Saltburn had come out. That’s something Belly and her friends would’ve been listening to at that time, because it was so big. We want it to be honest and realistic to what life is, and what people are listening to at that age.
Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Belly in Paris.
MC: “Scott Street” by Phoebe Bridgers closes out the series. Tell me about the decision to end with that song, which has this really evocative nostalgia and bittersweetness to it.
MH: We cleared that song really early, because I have a list of songs that [Jenny and Sarah] immediately know they want, and “Scott Street” was absolutely one of those.
It’s kind of like you’re revisiting places after you’ve grown. So, to your point, it’s nostalgic, but there’s also a bittersweetness there, because some things are always gonna be altered and changed.
There’s also [the lyric], “Don’t be a stranger.” We knew that the movie was about to be announced, so we knew we were coming back. It was crazy because when I went to clear it, they were like, “Is this the end of the series or is this the end of the episode?” And I’m like, “I can neither confirm nor deny.” It was so secret. I [was] like, “Character has argument with another character. Character drives in car with other character.” I couldn’t say anything.
MC: Obviously, it is early days, but is there anything you can say about the Summer I Turned Pretty movie? Do you have a music strategy or a musical palette in mind?
MH: I know that Jenny and Sarah are working on a draft. That’s all I know. She mentioned one or two songs she may want to use, but I literally have no idea. I have no idea about the schedule. I just know that it’s happening, and I’m sure it’ll be amazing.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.