The Sneaky Genius of Industry's Synthy Soundtrack
For four seasons, the HBO show has given us impeccable needle drops that subtly undermine its shady world of crypto-capitalism.
The theme song for the HBO finance-world show Industry begins with a spray of synths that sounds like the sun rising over the glittering skyscrapers of London’s Square Mile. It then stretches into a jittery melody that mimics the cascading ticks of a day trader’s computer monitor. A subtle rhythm flicks in and fades, like the temporary rush of watching a stock rise from the gutter. The theme projects unending promise, enterprise, risk, youth. Produced by Nathan Micay, a Canadian artist in Berlin who releases similarly evocative club tunes and electronic vibe checks on the venturous label LuckyMe while moonlighting as a composer for film and television, it’s one of the best contemporary TV themes out, perfectly conveying the show’s depiction of ambitious young finance grads scheming, snorting, and fucking their way through the Machiavellian world of a multinational investment bank.
For the show’s first three seasons, Micay’s score and the electronic-minded choices of its music supervisor, Ollie White, have translated its amoral world of high-stakes capitalism with a pristine level of understanding. This type of drama usually gets a more staid soundtrack to match the mindsets of its characters and their wealth—I’m thinking of Billions’ Gen-X adrenaline junkies and their brolic classic rock and metal, and Succession’s quiet-luxury classical with a hip-hop beat.
But Industry depicts a new generation of Zoomers with the energy, drive, and snakiness to remake the world in their image. They are more diverse in race, gender, and socioeconomic background; their youth allows them to stay out all night with clients and roll up to their desks from the club. Micay’s gleaming compositions and White’s choices reflect those characteristics, reveling in an icy sound that encapsulates the way money, sex, and drugs can intertwine into one nihilistic, YOLO death-rush. Synthy, quintessentially British tracks like Freeez’s 1983 hit “I.O.U.” and P.i.L.’s “The Order of Death” intermingle with newer tracks for finance twentysomethings like Tinie Tempah’s 2010 party anthem “Pass Out,” Jamie xx’s 2016 epic “Gosh,” and Anz and George Riley’s instantly-iconic 2021 track “You Could Be.”
