Maureen Cowe is a music supervisor and producer
who was born in Long Island. Described
as "a force of nature" Maureen Crowe is a powerful voice in music and
media. As the first female President of the LA Chapter of the Recording
Academy, she spearheaded the effort to secure voting rights and award status
for music supervisors. In 2008, Maureen Crowe co-founded the Guild of Music
Supervisors (GMS), the first and only organized advocacy for professional music
supervisors.
In just a few short years the GMS has had an astounding impact
securing both Grammy and Emmy Awards status of music supervisors, secured
stories in top publications including The New York Times: Arts and Leisure, The
Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Billboard and establishing the annual the
Annual Guild of Music Supervisor Awards which highlights the incredible impact
music and music supervision have in every field of media.
She
is known for her exceptional creative work, financial and marketing acumen.
Some of the most groundbreaking achievements in the field including the Grammy
award winning soundtrack and chart topping single "I Will Always Love
You" from The Bodyguard, the platinum selling soundtrack for the cult
classic Wayne's World, and the multi-platinum Grammy and Oscar winning film
Chicago.
Having
relocated to L.A from the East Coast one of her first jobs was working on Fame.
Originally as an assistant music co-coordinator to Ken Erhlich in season 3 then
taking on the role of Music Coordinator and eventually gaining the title of
Supervising Music Consultant.
When
I first came out to Los Angeles, I didn’t know anyone, so I started
volunteering on a lot of AFI films. One of the fellows got invited back for a
second year, and he had to replace himself on the television show, Fame, in his
role as the assistant music coordinator. I had some production experience from
when I lived back east at Syracuse.
I
had worked on an upstate New York travel documentary, which used a lot of
music. That combined with my passion for musical theater made me react like,
“Oh, I know this world because this is a reflection of my childhood and high
school experience. Let’s put on a show”.
Maureen (far right) with Fame personnel Oren Waters, Starr Parodi and Debbie Allen
The
first professional I met in the music business was Jay Landers. He worked for
Martin Bandier in the days of SBK Music Publishing. They were the ones who
initially provided all the songs for Fame. Eventually, I would be elevated to
seek out other music for the show once Ken Ehrlich came in to update the music
on the show. Jay went on to do A&R at Columbia, and Ken went on to produce
the GRAMMYs for the last 20 years.
When
Ken was brought on, he was literally like, “Hey kid, go find some extra music
for the show. I am still working with the publishers, but I’d like to have some
other selections”. That’s how I learned the business.
It
was a great experience. A lot of big songwriters like Diane Warren wrote for
Fame early in their careers for very little money because it was a big
opportunity. The schedule was incredibly fast; it was even faster than
television is now. You could submit a song at the beginning of the month and
see it on the air by the end of the month. It led to big satisfaction for a lot
of writers. The show featured all types of music, everything from pop to punk,
anything that lent itself to telling the characters’ stories. It was incredibly
unique.
Maureen states that "The Monster that Devoured Las Vegas was her favourite episode.
Maureen states that "The Monster that Devoured Las Vegas was her favourite episode.
In
2017 Maureen reunited with Fame cast members at the L.A. Reunion Concert.
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