“From the very beginning we knew that music was very important to the show,” says Dan Lipman, executive producer of television’s Queer as Folk. “We don’t score the scenes, we don’t have a composer who comes in and we don’t underscore scenes. What you hear is a real song on the show. I think this is how music has progressed on television anyway.”

And it’s no wonder that the groundbreaking drama that showcases the lives of gays and lesbians living in Philadelphia is a part of the trend to showcase some of the hottest new music on television. Now in its fourth season, Queer as Folk has begun to take on more and more issues that the GLBT community faces while mixing in some of the hottest new music from both inside and outside the dance clubs.

“This is our fourth soundtrack,” Lipman said. “Our first soundtrack was really very reminiscent of this one. We had a lot of the characters’ songs – meaning songs that were not just our Babylon songs, our dance club songs – and it was a very successful one.”

The original Queer as Folk soundtrack and the season two soundtracks were both produced by RCA, and on the second CD, the powers-that-be wanted to make it a dance album, highlighting songs from the show’s Babylon scenes. For the third season soundtrack, Tommy Boy won the rights to produce the soundtrack and kept the same dance album format.

“They have worked with us beautifully, and we decided on this one we wanted to go back and put on a full range of music that reflects the characters as well as the dancing,” Lipman said about the fourth season soundtrack. “The dance music is great, and our Babylon scenes are fabulous… but the show is very much a character drama, comedy, whatever, but it’s very much about those characters and just to put out a dance record does not reflect what the show is.”

The variety in this year’s soundtrack reflects the new attitude of the show, following its tagline, “Coming of age”, that was featured in the media blitz at the beginning of the season.

“When the show began, the show was about young gay men in their mid to late 20s and young gay men in their mid to late 20s do exactly what young straight men do in their mid to late 20s, except it got a lot of criticism because they are gay and having sex with men as opposed to nailing every woman they see,” Lipman said. “We knew very early on that this was going to be a journey of these boys to men… Now five years later, they are in their 30s and, as we all know, 35 is the new 40, which means that if you’re not somewhere and haven’t made it by then to where you want to be, odds are you are not going to.

“In many, many ways, the show is far more relevant now than when we began. When we began in the dark ages of the year 2000 there were no gay shows except for ‘Will and Grace’ and ‘Ellen’ had come and gone. There were no dramas and now, five years later, there are going to be two gay channels. But you see how it’s opened up; but with gay marriage and everything, we see our characters reflecting what’s going on.”

One of the biggest challenges of the show is keeping up with and ahead of music trends. Lipman, who is also producing the season four soundtrack, said, “We went off in July and we probably won’t come back until next May or June, and if there is a popular track in the gay community now – today, August 12, 2004 – by June of 2005 that might hit the mass market, but in the gay community it’s going to be old, so we’ve always got to be one step ahead.”

According to Lipman, the show’s producers and music editors sit down and review rough cuts of each episode for a process called spotting, where they select scenes that need music to support them. Then the music editors go to work, reviewing hundreds of songs looking for the right one to fit the scene. In the end, the producers are presented with multiple choices for a scene and make the final selection.

“I’m very pleased when we can find the right track,” Lipman said. “We take a lot of time looking for music and we don’t really settle and sometimes we drive our poor music editors crazy because it just has to be right, it has to fit.”

While a number of memorable songs from the season did make the CD, including tracks featured on the show when Emmett was “dating” a professional football player and Brian was taking part in a mock AIDS ride (entitled the Liberty Ride), some missed the mark, including one of Lipman’s favorite moments from the season finale.

In the final scene of the season, the show closes on newlyweds Michael and Ben making love with a lingering shot of the wedding bands on their fingers.

“What we found was a song, and I don’t know the artist, but it was sort of a garage punk version of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, which was startling because it’s a very tender scene,” Lipman said. “But what happened was the music forced you to hear the song that you’ve heard a zillion times in a new way. The lyrics, what they’re saying, is ‘somewhere over the rainbow, birds can fly, why can’t I?’ and what you’re seeing is these two men who are married, who have rings. Basically they are saying, ‘We are here, gay marriage is here and whatever happens, ultimately you’re going to have to recognize it, world.’ And you look at that in a new way with the song. I thought it was an amazing melding of music and scene.

“When I first heard it, it made me think about what that song was saying. The yearning for something, which you tend to forget because we just have that image of it. Unfortunately, we found that song after we had our songs locked for the CD. Maybe we will put that on for the next season.”

And yes, there will be a next season. The boys of Liberty Avenue will return next summer for their fifth season. In the meantime, relive the moments of season four by purchasing the soundtrack, available in stores now from Tommy Boy Records.

“Cue The Pulse To begin” (Queer as Folk theme) – Burnside Project

“Attitude” – Suede

“I’m The Main Man” – Jason Nevins

“Train” – Goldfrapp

“Love of The Loveless” – Eels

“Scream” – Ima Robot

“You Are My Joy” – Reindeer Section

“Understanding The New Violence” – The Uncut

“Satellite” – TV On The Radio

“If I Were A Man” – Andrea Menard

“7 Minutes” – Circlesquare

“Sanctuary” – Origene

“Strobe’s Nanafushi” – Kodo

“Wonderful Life” – Black