You know the feeling: as a pivotal scene unfolds in your favorite show or film, a song comes on that just hits you. Perfectly capturing the right emotion at the right time, it leaves you heartbroken, invigorated, or gasping for air. The script moves on, but that emotional resonance continues to reverberate, the moment etched in your mind long after the credits roll.

These masterful marriages between song and scene are what industry folks call “sync placements," and they are undeniable testaments to the power of music in visual storytelling.

From the infectiously empowering Italian resistance anthem, "Bella Ciao,” in Money Heist, to the gut-wrenching emotional punch delivered by Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” in Grey’s Anatomy, these creative matches feel so intrinsically connected to their respective films or TV series that they become synonymous with one another.

An effective placement can lead to a smash film/series hit, as well as enormous success for the featured artists, often launching, propelling, or rejuvenating their careers. This impact has been further accelerated by the widespread use of apps such as Spotify, TikTok, and Shazam.

With the staggering number of potential songs out there, the search process for these syncs often takes weeks, if not months, appearingly adhering to the infamous “I know it when I see it” (or in this case, “hear it”) standard of Jacobellis v. Ohio.

Yet given the availability of artificial intelligence resources, we aimed to define, in more objective terms, what it is that makes for an impactful sync. Could we uncover some sort of science behind this musical matchmaking?

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