Finneas Breaks Down ‘Beef’ Season 2 Music: Oscar Isaac’s ‘Amateurish’ Score, Those Billie Eilish Needle Drops and More

In the second episode of Netflix's hit series "Beef," a scene unfolds where Oscar Isaac's character, Josh Martin, attempts to play a Moog synthesizer with notably unskilled hands. Finneas O'Connell—the Oscar and Grammy-winning songwriter behind Billie Eilish's hits—who served as composer for the season, bluntly assesses the performance as "really amateurish." This moment is more than just a character beat; it becomes a symbolic entry point into the show's complex exploration of wealth, dissatisfaction, and generational conflict.

Josh, the general manager of the luxurious Montecito Country Club, and his wife Lindsay (Carey Mulligan) represent an affluent but deeply unhappy generation. Their very public argument is witnessed by the younger, financially struggling couple Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) and Austin (Charles Melton), who see an opportunity for blackmail, igniting the season's central "beef." Finneas reveals that Josh's synth, kept in a man cave filled with memorabilia, was a purchase inspired by his fandom for the electronic band Hot Chip. "He's probably an amateur and plays it a little bit," the composer notes, explaining that this informed the deliberately crude and rudimentary piece he wrote for the scene. Interestingly, Oscar Isaac immersed himself in the role, visiting a Los Angeles synth store and studying playlists. "Finally, I was like, 'Your character sucks at this,'" Finneas recalls with a laugh, adding that Isaac ultimately played the simple piece better than he could.

For the broader score, Finneas aimed to sonically mirror the characters' environments, which span from the opulent country club to Korea. To capture the tense, textured atmosphere of the club—a key setting where underlying class tensions simmer—he employed inventive techniques. "I found synths that I could play and make sound like swarms of bees," he says. He even recorded sprinkler systems at a local golf course to use as a rhythmic component. As the narrative progressed, his compositional focus shifted toward embodying the characters' psychological states. He identified a "naive form of optimism" as a defining sonic theme, particularly for the idealistic but misguided younger couple. This is epitomized in a track titled "Dummies," which scores a scene where Austin poorly explains late-stage capitalism before Ashley suggests blackmail. "I thought that all of its exploration of class differences, and modern economic corporate structure was so on the nose," Finneas remarks.

The final episodes relocate the drama to Korea, a shift that prompted a deliberate compositional choice from Finneas. "The worst music I could make is my uneducated white guy take on Korean drama. And so I didn't try," he states. Instead, he focused on the formidable Chairwoman Park, crafting a "heavy, subby, rhythmic thing" to underscore her immense, intimidating power within the story's universe. The scoring process was intensive; Finneas estimates he watched episodes over a hundred times and wrote a massive volume of music, much of which was discarded through trial and error. Notably, the soundtrack features three needle drops from his sister and longtime collaborator, Billie Eilish: "Bittersuite" in the main titles, "What Was I Made For" in another episode, and "Bad Guy" in episode seven. Finneas found particular humor in the latter's placement, as it scores a scene where he cameos as "a really douchey version of myself" working out. "The idea that I'm in the gym listening to it, I thought was so funny," he says.

He readily acknowledges that his celebrated work with Eilish is what landed him the job, believing that showrunner Lee Sung-jin was a fan of their recent album. Finneas was more than happy to include her music prominently. "I owe everything I have to the music I've made with Billie," he concludes, "so any focus I can pull to that I'm very excited about." This collaborative spirit and his thoughtful, character-driven approach resulted in a score that intricately supports the series' sharp dissection of ambition, privilege, and the illusions that separate generations.