WHEN YOU’RE WATCHING something for the first time—whether it be a TV show (like Prime Video’s Gen V, a spinoff of its superhero satire The Boys), a movie, or anything in between—a lot of things can factor in all at once when your brain is slowly but surely figuring out the answer to that all-important question: “Do I like this?”
There’s the story. There’s the actors. There’s the visuals, the aesthetics, the audio, and all of that. But once you’re a little past those early vitals of moving pictures, you start to get into things that are a little more becoming of what we tend to call the “vibe” of a movie or show.
Sure, Michael Mann’s Miami Vice movie has Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx and a cool-ass director, but when that movie opens up with the Jay Z and Linkin Park “Numb/Encore” team-up, you know you’re in for a blast of a time (whether the story is coherent or not almost becomes irrelevant at that point). I recently watched a movie where I wasn’t quite sure just how on board I was… and then “Everything In Its Right Place” by Radiohead started playing, my head said “Oh, fuck yeah,” and from there on out I was bought in.
Prime Video has already had massive success building the strong vibe of its superhero satire The Boys, which is edgy (but not so edgy as to be offputting), funny, and fun. And it carries that same vibe directly into Gen V, the first live-action spinoff of The Boys that follows a new cast of main characters at the fictional Supe college Godolkin University, but keeps the same blood-soaked, humor-filled vibe.
A big part of that vibe carrying over comes from the music, which is great multiple times an episode in The Boys. That show’s first episode memorably ended with Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger,” and, keeping with the same theme, Gen V‘s first episode ends with a similarly uptempo banger but from a slightly newer generation: Hole’s “Celebrity Skin.”
It’s a perfect encapsulation of Gen V‘s relationship with The Boys: the same awesome vibe, just slightly tweaked to create a whole new experience. And Gen V doesn’t stop there, including exciting covers from great artists, like Phoebe Bridgers covering Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” and The Donnas’ version of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself.” It’s all part of a great recipe that fits naturally into Gen V.
Below, we’ve captured every song that Gen V uses in Season 1 to capture that ever-so-important vibe; we’ll keep this updated each week after new episodes air.
Episode 1 “God U”
“Anxiety” — Megan Thee Stallion
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“Dancing With Myself” — The Donnas
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“Where They From” — Missy Elliott (ft. Pharrell Williams)
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“Remember Me” — Benny the Butcher
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“Vulgar” — Sam Smith (ft. Madonna)
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“BRB” — JTM (ft. Shanghaii & Tia Thompson)
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“Edamame” — bbno$
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“Body Talk” — D’Auria
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“Celebrity Skin” — Hole
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Episode 2 “First Day”
“Nothing Else Matters” — Phoebe Bridgers
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“Move!” — Batuk
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“Photo I.D.” — Remi Wolf
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“Venus” — Bananarama
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Episode 3 “#Thinkbrink”
“Whatta Man” — Salt-N-Pepa
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“Take The Night” — La Felix (ft. Tiger)
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“Dance In Place (Treasure Fingers Dub Mix)” — CLAVVS
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“Discoteka” — Minelli x INNA
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“Intoxicated” — Rozee
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“Growing Up Is ___” — Ruel
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“Make It So Good” — Noah Neiman
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“I Wanna Be Sedated” — Rockaway Bitch
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Evan Romano
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.