Maureen Crowe - Music Supervisor
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.
Maureen Crowe with Starr Parodi and Erica Gimpel Fame L.A Reunion 2017
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.
In 2017 Maureen reunited with Fame cast members at the L.A. Reunion Concert.