Another season, another series of pop bangers remixed to sound old-timey. Sam Brooks writes on why these pop songs are the perfect pairing for Bridgerton.

Bridgerton’s back, y’all! Two years since Kate Sharma and Anthony Bridgerton tied the knot, Netflix – and Shondaland, that producer of the juiciest and most bingeable dramas on the streamer – the popular historical romp following the will-they-won’t-theys of a fancy British family during the regency era returns to our screens. 

This season revolves around Penelope Featherington (Derry Girls’ Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton, famous for… Bridgerton, I guess) finally making good on their romantic tension from the past two seasons. But there’s a twist: he does not know that Penelope is also Lady Whistledown, the series’ equivalent to Gossip Girl, dishing the tea of the ton – yes, spelled that way – and stirring up the drama.

There are great gowns, beautiful gowns. There is heavy-breathing and glances across ballrooms.

And, oh yes, there is music.

I wouldn’t call Bridgerton a great show, but I would call it a great time. It gives you what you’re looking for – repressed women in corsets, sweaty men in white shirts – with the exact right amount of nonsense. One of the main appeals of Bridgerton – other than watching very attractive people avoid kissing each other for eight episodes a season – is the music. 

Since the first season, alongside a lovely original score by Kris Bowers, the most memorable moments of the show have been soundtracked by instrumental classic covers of famous pop songs, usually by Vitamin String Quartet (unfortunately no relation to 90s icon Vitamin C). 

The artists that the series have drawn on are wide-ranging and include the likes of Billie Eilish, Alanis Morissette, Beyonce, Harry Styles, and Nirvana. The third season alone includes covers of Gayle’s abcdefu, BTS’ Dynamite, Taylor Swift’s Snow on the Beach and, delightfully, Sia’s Cheap Thrills.

Can we as a society please admit that Cheap Thrills goes hard and always has done? And that, secretly, it might go a bit harder if you take away Sean Paul and throw a bunch of violins at it instead?

These covers scratch a very specific auditory itch. We recognise these tunes just a few seconds into hearing it – there’s absolutely no way you, as a millennial who watched that one episode of Girls, doesn’t feel a little pang in your heart hearing Robyn’s Dancing on My Own rearranged for a string quartet. That song sits in your soul, basically a core memory at this moment. As an audience member, you sit up when you hear a familiar song done a little bit different, like seeing a best mate walk into the party after getting a new haircut. Same tune, different day (or in this case, different century).

In the first season, the most memorable needle drop happened when Daphne and Simon first hooked up – which is absolutely how they referred to it in the Regency Era – in the pouring rain, while Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams played underneath.

And arguably, the hottest moment of the second season, potentially the entire series thus far, wasn’t a sex scene, but Anthony and Kate dancing to Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball. Sure, these two extremely attractive people had sex (spoilers, I suppose, if you don’t know the entire premise of the show) onscreen and that was fine and everything. But truly great and truly hot? The pair dancing together, barely touching, showing the entire ton just how destined they were to be together.

This new season has already made headlines for potentially its wildest music choice yet. Without spoiling the context – because it’s truly the highlight of the entire third season – Pitbull’s Give Me Everything plays under a scene that gives the viewers what they’ve been waiting for since season one. It shouldn’t work, but it damn it does. 

Give Me Everything is a bonkers pop song, with more hooks than a fishing store. It also suits the moment perfectly, building and building, adding layers upon layers of strings. Most of the covers are performed by a string quartet, while this is fuller and bigger. It feels wide-screen. After four episodes of will-they-won’t-they, Bridgerton turns on the caps lock and screams, “THEY ABSOLUTELY WILL!!!!”. 

These needle drops wink towards the fact that yeah, Bridgerton is a bit silly. It is essentially, vitally, ahistorical. The fashions aren’t period accurate, the characters are anachronistically modern and the series makes nods towards the classism and racism of the time without being a downer about each. This isn’t Bronte, this isn’t Austen, it’s Shonda. As the music covers pop, Bridgerton covers history. It’s what we know, a little bit different.

I’ve heard people throw a lot of unfair flack Bridgerton’s way. They say that it’s over-the-top and unbelievable. That it’s silly. Well, yes! It’s a soap opera. You don’t buy a salad expecting a burger. You don’t judge a cat on its ability to fetch a stick. You dive into a soap opera and roll around in the suds of it. 

Bridgerton isn’t a heavy show. It’s a pop song of a show. It feels good in the moment, and then you forget about it until the next season – except for maybe a scene, a phrase, a moment that sticks with you. 

And like a pop song? The climax is just so satisfying.

• Bridgerton season three is streaming on Netflix now