The Wicked City (2015) pilot opens on an exterior of Sunset Boulevard and the Whiskey-A-Go-Go on the Strip. The sidewalk is packed, with throngs of young girls pushing their way into the fabled club. The marquee outside reads “Mickey Ratt,” referencing the pre-cursor to the 80s rock band Ratt. The bouncer manning the door is none other than Stephen Pearcy himself, Ratt’s lead singer. This is not accidental, and it hints at the important role music plays in the narrative.

We meet Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) as he works the room, telling different girls different backstories about himself. To one he is a real estate mogul. To the next—an aspiring young reporter named Karen who says she’s writing about the scene on the Strip because “it is insane”—he is an A&R man. He is clearly on the prowl. He takes the time to make a radio dedication, which we later learn is one of his killing signatures. As we witness his first kill of the series, “Feels like the First Time” by Foreigner plays through the car radio, which is soon splattered with blood. (While Kent is cleaning up the blood the next morning, it’s Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life.” Subtle, right?)

Occasionally, as with the Foreigner and Iggy tunes, the cues threaten to be too on-the-nose.Yet the soundtrack provides an atmosphere that enhances the story. Music was the foundation of the scene on The Strip in the 80s. Using original music of the period is as important as accurate set design or location scouting. It doesn’t matter if viewers recognize the song or only recognize the emotion of the musical cue. The musical atmosphere expresses the overall themes and aesthetic of the show.

The song cues aren’t specific to just Westwick’s character. Jeremy Sisto plays Jack Roth, a cop who is cheating on his wife with someone who works at the Body Shop, a strip club as notorious in its own right as the Whiskey. When Jack shows up at her workplace, the song on the loudspeaker is “Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar. He enters just as Benatar sings, “You’re the right kind of sinner to release my inner fantasies.” Certainly not a coincidence.

When Kent is getting ready for another night out on the town/on the hunt, he is singing along to Romeo Void’s “Never Say Never”: “I might like you better if we slept together.” The irony here is that he doesn’t like having sex with his victims—at least not while they are still alive.

The final sequence of the pilot centers on a Billy Idol show. Again we are at the Whiskey. Again Kent is on the prowl. He has invited Karen and promised to get her backstage,assuring her, “It’s going to be a party.”. Throughout the scene, Billy Idol is heard playing in the background, while an Idol look-alike is strutting across the stage. The songs change as the tension escalates in the scene: “Hot in the City” as the crowded club pulses with energy and danger; “Rebel Yell” once Jack arrives, suspecting correctly that Karen’s date is the serial killer he is chasing. When Karen goes missing from the bathroom—at the same moment that Jack’s answering service tells him another secret admirer dedication has come into the radio station—Idol’s signature scream from “White Wedding” fills the club.

The final shot echoes the first, but in reverse: we pull out from the marquee displaying Idol’s name to the green “Sunset” street sign.

Using music cues is not unique for a period piece. Mad Men (2007) was famous for its pitch-perfect outro-music, curated by Matthew Weiner to play over the credits of each show. As the anthology series that is Wicked City plays out, it will be interesting to see if the carefully curated music plays on.