High Fidelity is a remarkable success on virtually every level -- except the music

Variety

"Across the ten episodes of the show’s excellent first season, one element doesn’t quite ring true, and it’s a big one: The music," says Jem Aswad. "It’s all over the place, like the seemingly random albums on display in the store: Tina Turner, the Make-Up, Yes and Jay Reatard albums are next to each other behind the counter; the show’s synchs wander from Nick Drake to Ann Peebles to David Bowie to Notorious B.I.G. to garage rock. Diversity is awesome, it’s all great music and there are many scenes beautifully illustrated by songs, but it feels like there’s no center — like it’s on shuffle rather than a playlist. What’s missing is the tribalization of music genres, and the aggression and defensiveness that comes with it." Aswad adds: "Maybe this is a reflection of overthink by the show’s four music supervisors — and a de facto fifth in (Zoë) Kravitz and sixth in Roots drummer Questlove, the show’s executive music producer and the Michael Jordan of music geeks, and doubtless others weighed in, too. Or, maybe it’s a reflection of the musical diversity that streaming has created, the genre-breaking that has brought more emo-punk than hip-hop references to Soundcloud rap, or the motorik beat to the new Wiz Khalifa single. Or, maybe the internet and streaming have made tribalism obsolete and things aren’t like that anymore — at least, not in Championship Vinyl — and Rob and Simon and Charise are virtually mocking this old guy mercilessly from the store counter right now … but not loudly enough for me to hear, because I might buy something."