My new favorite musical group is a fictional band, and I’m not mad about it.
I’m always a little skeptical whenever I hear that one of my favorite books is going to be turned into a TV show or movie. As exciting as it can be to see beloved characters on the big screen, adaptations often fall short and leave devoted readers disappointed. Because of this, I didn’t want to get my hopes up for the Daisy Jones & The Six TV show in case the adaptation missed the mark. Luckily, I had nothing to worry about. Daisy Jones & The Six was spectacular and has claimed a top spot in my list of favorite shows of all time.
Daisy Jones & The Six follows the rise and fall of the (fictional) rock band of the same name in 1970s California. We get to see the band members navigate complicated relationships and overpowering egos amidst the culture of sex, drugs and rock & roll that epitomized the decade.
There’s a lot to love about the show: the documentary style, the personable characters, the flowy fashion, and the will-they-won’t-they tension between the lead singers. But the thing that stuck with me the most is without a doubt the music.
Made-for-TV songs can often come across as cheesy or forced, but the music in Daisy Jones & The Six sounds like it could’ve been plucked directly from the 70s. Sam Claflin and Riley Keough learned to sing for their roles as Billy and Daisy, and the rest of the cast learned to play their respective instruments. The show’s production team knew what they were doing, because the recordings of the songs are really good.
The album that the band produces is the show—Aurora—exists in real life, too. The cast members recorded in the famed Sound City Studios, following in the footsteps of rock artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and Johnny Cash. Aurora has been streamed millions of times on Spotify in the month since the show’s release, proving that a band doesn’t technically have to exist in order to be successful.
When I read Daisy Jones & The Six in early 2022, I found myself wanting to know what songs like “Regret Me” and “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)” sounded like. The fact that I can now queue these songs on Spotify and listen to them to my heart’s content makes me unbelievably happy. My personal favorite song is “The River” because of the beautiful lyrics, seamless harmonies and raw, pleading vocals.
Daisy Jones & The Six is the perfect example of an adaptation done right. The producers quite literally brought the book to life, a reader’s dream come true. Yes, there were some slight deviations from the novel, but the changes added to the story’s intrigue rather than taking away from it. My fingers are crossed for a Daisy Jones & The Six tour, but in the meantime, I’ll have Aurora on repeat.