When One Tree Hill premiered in 2003, few predicted the impact it would have today. Initially marketed on the rivalry between two estranged brothers on the basketball team, the series found depth in each character's passion, whether that be for the game, the arts, or music.
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For nine seasons, the show's own love of music set it apart from most teen dramas. With a range of live performances from artists like Sheryl Crow and Gavin DeGraw, One Tree Hill knew how to utilize a song in a way that many others do not. But it isn't only on stage that music found its place. There are moments sprinkled throughout the series where lyrics amplify both the words and silence of a story, capturing it in simple clarity.
Nathan and Haley's First Kiss
It's a moment for the teen drama history books – the first kiss between the fan favorite pairing of Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) and Haley James (Bethany Joy Lenz). After a misunderstanding leaves the two at odds, Nathan is determined to make things right, but Haley isn't having it.
Dared to make a move by her admission that nothing he could do would be a surprise, Nathan pulls Haley into a kiss. It's their first, and she reciprocates just in time for the chorus of Switchfoot's "Dare You To Move" to meet their intensity in perfect harmony.
Ellie's Last Moments
There are few tropes in television more difficult than the approaching storm felt miles away, and in season three, episode thirteen's case, it's the death of Peyton's (Hilarie Burton) newly discovered birth mother.
Ellie (Sheryl Lee) feels her time come to an end in real-time. Moving to the record player in her home, she chooses one song in particular – "Here Comes a Regular" by The Replacements. The music intertwines her last moments with her daughter's joy over their co-produced album benefiting breast cancer research (which is a real album), but it's as the vinyl on the turn table spins to an end that Peyton arrives to find that her birth mother has succumbed to the disease.
Keith's Murder
There's no denying that season three's "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Wept" is one of the most controversial pieces of television ever made. Centered around a fictionalized take on school shootings, the episode itself is a difficult one. But it's in the final act that the weight of this tragedy can truly be felt through the screen.
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Michelle Featherstone's "God Bless the Child" sorrowfully begins as Keith Scott (Craig Sheffer) sacrifices his own safety for that of his nephew, Lucas (Chad Michael Murray), and an injured Peyton, before turning to talk the shooter down. "It gets better," Keith insists, but in the end, he's too late. Jimmy (Colin Fickes) takes his own life, and in a shocking twist, Keith's is taken by his brother, Dan (Paul Johansson), just moments later.
Lucas' Epiphany
In one of the most pivotal moments of the series, the whisperings of José González's "Heartbeats" can be heard mere seconds after Lucas makes the game winning shot in his final high school basketball game. But it isn't the Tree Hill Ravens' first State Championship victory that makes this moment so powerful.
"It's you, Peyton." Or, it's Lucas' realization that he is and will always be in love with Peyton Sawyer that takes place, and as "Heartbeats" drowns out the roar of the cheering crowd, he tells her this. The song itself follows the couple into the following season, both in form of callback to the ninth episode of season four, and in "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" when Peyton emails the audio file to Lucas during a flashback to their college years.
The Spice Girls Dance
Nothing about coming of age in the early 2000s feels quite right without a little pinch of Spice Girls here and there. As the season four finale puts the teen drama's high school experience to rest, the now-former seniors of Tree Hill High gather to say one last goodbye to their adolescence before heading off toward careers and college.
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In a moment that unites cheerleaders with the mean and the self-proclaimed "Clean Teens", six of the graduating class' girls jump into action to perform the iconic Spice Girls dance as "Wannabe" blasts throughout the party. With giggles, hugs, and high kicks, it seems as though the drama of high school has been left in high school.
The Comeback
Unlike most cliffhangers, the final moments of One Tree Hill's fifth season manage to leave question in the feeling of certainty rather than catastrophe.
With the vocal stylings of Haley James Scott, "Feel This" captures the root of emotion in the season's ending montage. From Nathan's feeling of certainty regarding his basketball comeback to Haley's of musical inspiration, the preface of something bigger draws to a close. But it's in Lucas' own certainty that the cliffhangered question arises as he sits in an airport, phone to hand, and asks a girl from his past to marry him. The catch? The camera pans to Peyton, Brooke (Sophia Bush), and Lindsay (Michaela McManus) on the other line, and the audience is left wondering which is Lucas' choice.
Julian Falls for Brooke
"If you say so, they end up together." Spoiler alert: they do end up together. In the twelfth episode of season six, the iconic Simple Minds tune "Don't You (Forget About Me)" plays from the stereo in Brooke's store. Just as she begins her own take on the infamous Molly Ringwald dance from The BreakFast Club, Julian Baker (Austin Nichols) walks through the door.
The song itself becomes tied to this moment in time, cementing it to their relationship. But it's in a later scene that Julian admits he fell in love with Brooke here, and in the show's seventh season, the John Hughes dedicated episode titled after the song follows the story of their breakup through the lens of an '80s coming-of-age classic.
Sawyer's Birth
As One Tree Hill's sixth season finale opens with both Peyton's life and Nathan's career in the balance, Wakey! Wakey!'s "War Sweater" poses the ever-present question, "What will your legacy be?"
One would be far-fetched to find a song more perfect for this moment. The intensity of each query and the urgency of the music entangles itself in every scene, dripping through the narrative as Lucas scrubs his wife's blood from his hands. The red on white contrast of the puddle that his wedding ring sits in acts as an allegory for the indefinite, and it isn't until the song comes to a close that any of the unknowns find an answer in that of the first cry from Lucas and Peyton's newborn.
Lydia's Death
It's hard not to feel both heartbroken and uplifted while listening to Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide", which, as it turns out, makes it perfect for season seven's "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance".
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In a moment set on an empty sound stage, Brooke finally admits to Julian that she is still in love with him, and the two reconcile as the first chords of the song begin. This scene flows seamlessly into the next, where the audience witnesses the last moments of Lydia James' (Bess Armstrong) life. With three of her children by her side, along with her grandson, Jamie (Jackson Brundage), they watch a slideshow of pictures documenting the James' matriarch's time as a mother, until Lydia takes her final breath cuddled between her daughters.
The End
And finally, it's in the closing minutes of the series that the show's title song plays for the very first time. As those still left in the tiny North Carolina town gather in the high school gymnasium where the show began, the lights fade for one last introduction of the Tree Hill Ravens – a now teenaged Jamie Scott in tow.
This glimpse into the future moves to mirror moments of the first season, and as U2's "One Tree Hill" echos among voice-overs of hope from each of the adult characters, One Tree Hill's one hundred and eight-seven episode long journey is put to bed after nearly a decade on air.
