Trent Reznor, Pharrell, RZA Among Musicians Nominated for Emmys

Trent Reznor, Pharrell and the RZA are among a handful of musicians to score Emmy nominations this year for their work on various television programs.

Reznor and his long-time musical partner Atticus Ross picked up their first two Emmy nominations for their work on Watchmen, the hit miniseries that led all nominees this year with 26. Reznor and Ross’ score for the show is up for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series/Movie, while their classic jazz pastiche, “The Way It Used To Be,” earned a look for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. Reznor and Ross have already won an Oscar and a Grammy for their film scores — The Social Network and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, respectively — and an Emmy win would put them a Tony away from an EGOT.

The Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics category features several other notable nominees as well. Pharrell’s “Letter to My Godfather,” which he and his Neptunes cohort Chad Hugo crafted for The Black Godfather — a documentary on music industry pioneer Clarence Avant — is up for the award; as is British singer-songwriter Labrinth for “All For Us” from Euphoria. Ingrid Michaelson earned a nomination for “Build It Up” from Little Fires Everywhere, as did Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith and composer Siddhartha Khosla for their song “Memorized” from This Is Us.

Elsewhere, RZA picked up a nod for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for Hulu’s Wu-Tang Clan documentary, Wu-Tang: An American Saga. In the Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh was nominated for his work on Tiger King, while acclaimed jazz saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington picked up a nom for the Michelle Obama doc, Becoming. And in the Outstanding Music Direction category, Sheila E., Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were nominated for helming Let’s Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince.

While not specifically a music nomination, an episode of Dolly Parton’s Netflix anthology series, Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, earned a nomination for Outstanding Television Movie.

The 2020 Emmy Awards will air September 20th on ABC.