Why your favorite reality shows like 'Love is Blind' are using songs you actually know

NEW YORK (AP) — When a couple decided to take their relationship further on the most recent season of “Love Is Blind,” the moment was soundtracked with a familiar song: Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather.”It wasn’t a flash-in-the-pan musical surprise. The season was stacked with familiar needle drops — Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball,” Justin Bieber’s “Holy,” Ariana Grande’s “Into You,” Selena Gomez’s “Lose You to Love Me” — a gesture away from the little-known, sometimes generic pop songs that used to meet the show’s most emotional moments.Show creator and Kinetic Content CEO Chris Coelen attributed the pivot to the show’s anniversary.“We decided, in this Season 8, to coincide with our fifth anniversary, to really embrace popular music in a big way,” he said. “And so, we ended up using — throughout the entire season and in every episode — we used popular music cues.”“Love Is Blind” isn’t the only reality show that walks the line between what viewers have labeled “real songs” and unfamili...