The music we love on television shows we love

So the last few years I've been on a concert kick - my favorite shows are by musical artists who write and play their own stuff and who play some of the smaller, more intimate venues. I've been to Madison Square Garden once for a concert. I've seen most of my live performances at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park or the general admission venues of Webster Hall and Terminal 5.

But what does this have to do with television, you ask.

Everything, as it turns out. I don't listen to the radio. I don't watch Youtube or use Pandora or even really ever buy CDs. But I watch television. A lot of it. And ever since the likes of The O.C. and One Tree Hill, television shows have been using songs by talented, up-and-coming artists, probably because they come much cheaper than the big names and big songs, but also because, I think, they tend to be more lyrical, which might speak more to what's going on in episode. Many bands and artists nowadays can point to a television show as being their first big break.

It was only this year that I realized that most of the music I listen to, most of the artists and songs that I love, come from tv, that I heard it first on one of my shows. This year alone I realized that every concert I went to featured a song I first heard on The Vampire Diaries and/or Grey's Anatomy. Here are some of my favorite songs from some of my favorite artists that I first heard on some of my favorite television shows. Enjoy! And I'd love to hear from you - what songs or musicians did you fall in love with after hearing them on a television show?

"Never Say Never" by The Fray on The Vampire Diaries (saw them last month)



"Cosmic Love" by Florence and the Machine on Grey's Anatomy (saw her last week...and last year)


"How to Save a Life" by, again, The Fray on, again, Grey's Anatomy


 "Breathe In, Breathe Out" by Mat Kearney on Grey's Anatomy (saw him last year - twice - and twice before that...)




 "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane on Grey's Anatomy (saw them two years ago and two years before that...and going to see them again this summer!!)




"I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw on One Tree Hill (finally getting to see him in concert this summer!)