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Wednesday Season 1 provided us with that creepy harpsichord melody and the memorable title track by Danny Elfman, and now Season 2 has taken it a notch higher. Composer Chris Bacon revealed to What’s on Netflix that he enriched the show’s background score with larger orchestral arrangements, dramatic swells, and new character themes to put the Addams world in a bigger and even more pleasurably weird perspective.
This time, the music is not just spooky background noise. It aids in narrating the story, adding humour, emphasizing the melancholic scenes, and exploding with gothic drama when the action becomes intense. Bacon composed special musical themes dedicated to Morticia, Grandmama Hester, and the new characters in Wednesday Season 2, selecting bold instruments and melodies that may alter according to various moods.
In other words, Wednesday Season 2 has left a lot of the storytelling to the score. To make matters better, the show features a vibrant soundtrack of popular songs and fun cover versions that generate that modern and upbeat feel.
Expanding the gothic palette in Wednesday Season 2
Chris Bacon did not simply adjust the spooky music from the first season, he extended it. In Wednesday Season 2, with more characters and greater scenes, he employed fuller, richer orchestra sounds and dramatic flourishes where the plot demanded large, blockbuster-sized effects. In softer moments, he turned to lighter solo instruments.
In a conversation with What's on Netflix, Bacon explained:
“Some of the situations are bigger – sets, characters – so it’s more of a matter of trying to match the music in terms of scale, scope, and quality…When they go bigger, sometimes it’s effective to go small and intimate musically. But in general, especially with this show, it likes to be supported cinematically.”
Bacon usually composes the themes in advance, in order to be able to come up with clean, strong melodies. Then afterwards, he matches those melodies to the scene: lengthening or shortening them, transposing keys, so that a note delivers the perfect impulse at the moment of a window breaking or a secret being revealed.
“As far as melodies that come to me, I write most melodies away from the picture. It’s more of a musical exercise then and less of a logistical exercise. Sometimes in strictly writing to picture, there’s a structure there….That structure can do a lot to dictate what the music does…..I find that writing thematically away from the picture becomes a purer musical idea that can then be adapted, translated, and evolved according to what’s happening in the picture. It’s easier to take a melody that has a pre-designed structure and shape to it, and then if we’ve got to adapt for all those points along the way, I can extend a note here, shorten a phrase there, or change keys.”
The outcome is a musical map of the season: the same themes repeated that turn simple conversations into family duets, solemn brass for a warning or danger, and single violin or cello lines that tug at your heart strings. And because Bacon is now working in the world that Danny Elfman and his team helped shape, he brings a delightful Gothic touch, serious and spooky but with a wink, of which the show is so fond.
Lady Gaga, pop hits, and curated chaos
The score is not all dark and serious, the licensed soundtrack throws an outrageously fun party. The music team went big and more ambitious in Wednesday Season 2, as they fused all sorts of music, from lively K-pop and classic rock to brand new songs produced specifically to be played for the show.
A major highlight: Lady Gaga recorded a new song titled "The Dead Dance" to accompany her cameo in the second season of Wednesday. It is dramatic and entertaining at the same time and also fits the spooky party spirit of the show. The song appears in the episodes, as well as on the official soundtrack release chart.
In the meantime, playlists on music websites reveal that the season’s score is kaleidoscopic: popular hits, unexpected covers, and songs that suit a specific social setting or significant character-driven moments. Such a light-hearted diversity helps keep the show up to date and fresh, while the original score retains the primary emotional kick.
The music in Wednesday Season 2 is effective because the background music and the songs selected speak to one another. The background score develops the emotions of every moment, with themes of characters evolving as their relationships develop or fail. The songs, selected from actual music, set the mood for a party, a fight, or teenage heartbreak.
According to the music team, they do not simply pair sounds with actions. Rather, they pose the question: what music would naturally play in this world? Then they add layers of theme music, which acknowledges the subject of a particular scene in a quiet way.
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