Interview: Jen Malone on Crafting the Heartbreaking Soundtrack of ‘Love Story,’ and the Power of Music
Few television soundtracks in recent memory have captured audiences quite like Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. Packed with iconic ’90s artists ranging from Kate Bush and Björk to Pulp, Portishead, and Dido, the FX series has sparked conversations online about one of the most emotionally devastating collections of needle drops ever assembled for television.
At the center of it all is acclaimed music supervisor Jen Malone, whose work on the series transformed nostalgia into emotional devastation. Speaking about the response to the soundtrack, Malone admitted she never expected the music to resonate this deeply with audiences. “This is my second career,” Malone said. “Before moving out here, I was a dishwasher at a café. So, it’s been a really exciting journey. I’m very, very lucky.”
When asked which musical moment in the series personally broke her heart the most, Malone immediately pointed to the finale’s use of Dido. “In the finale episode, the Dido placement, when she comes in wearing the iconic jacket, it gives you hope,” Malone explained. “You almost put blinders on because you’re seeing them together and thinking maybe things will work out, but we all know what happens. It’s tragic.”
For Malone, the emotional power of the soundtrack came from how deeply the music intertwined with the performances and visuals rather than overpowering them. “The scene really led the music choices,” she said. “Our editors, the score, Bryce’s gorgeous compositions, the performances, it all worked hand in hand very cohesively.”
One of the most talked-about sequences in the series is the romantic first meeting between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, set to Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.” Malone revealed the moment was carefully constructed alongside director Max Winkler to feel almost dreamlike. “What Max wanted to achieve was this Romeo and Juliet missed-connections energy,” Malone explained. “The music created this cocoon around them. Nobody else was in the room.”
Online, some viewers have compared the scene’s impact to the resurgence of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” in Stranger Things. Malone, however, sees the comparisons as less about competition and more about introducing legendary artists to new audiences. “The more people that get introduced to artists like Kate Bush, the better,” she said. “Music has this power to bring you back to a time and place. What you were wearing, who you were with, sometimes even what you were drinking.”
That sense of lived-in nostalgia became one of the defining creative missions behind the soundtrack. Malone described the late ’90s as a unique cultural moment just before everything changed.
“9/11 changed everything, especially in New York,” she reflected. “Back then, if you wanted a record, you had to go buy it. You weren’t reading magazines on your phone. The show captures that feeling before everything shifted. The soundtrack’s authenticity extended beyond emotional storytelling. It also required some behind-the-scenes music clearance miracles. Malone revealed that clearing Björk proved especially stressful due to the artist’s famously selective licensing process.
“We weren’t hearing back, and everybody was freaking out,” Malone recalled. “But I kept saying, ‘It’s not a no.’” Instead of relying solely on studio channels, Malone personally wrote Björk an emotional letter explaining how the singer’s albums Post and Debut soundtracked her own first experience with love and heartbreak. I was definitely crying while writing it,” she admitted. “Within 24 hours, we got the approval.”
Another near-impossible clearance involved “Common People” by Pulp.“Jarvis Cocker doesn’t really clear that song,” Malone said she was warned. “But Julie had scripted it in, and I needed to honor that.”
After calling in a favor from a producer friend who personally knew Jarvis Cocker, Malone secured the song just in time for filming. “It was a nail-biter,” she said. “But I just had a lot of belief in the show and how much love everybody was putting into it.”
The series’ soundtrack has since exploded online, with songs by Lenny Kravitz, Sade, The Cranberries, and The Velvet Underground finding entirely new audiences across TikTok and streaming playlists. For Malone, however, the success of the soundtrack ultimately comes down to emotional truth.
“These songs are so important to people,” she said. “Everybody remembers where they were when they first heard them.”
Following the success of Love Story, Malone is now preparing for an ambitious slate of upcoming projects, including Season 3 of Wednesday, Season 2 of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Season 4 of Reasonable Doubt.
And if her work on Love Story proved anything, it’s that few people understand the emotional language of music in television better than Jen Malone.
Jen Malone is Emmy eligible in the category of Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score) for Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.
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Interview: Jen Malone on Crafting the Heartbreaking Soundtrack of ‘Love Story,’ and the Power of Music 
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