Where's the Music?

Within 5 minutes of watching your first episode of the Wire you'll certainly notice one thing, the silence.  Unlike most television shows which play background music to set the tone of a scene, the Wire only plays music during the opening/closing credits.  While it might seem that this silence would take away from the drama of the episode, or make the show's direction harder to follow, the lack of music actually serves to allow the tone to reveal itself.  By removing background music from the editing process, there is a greater need for strong dialogue and good acting, so that the audience is still able to correctly interpret the episode's theme.  The characters' words, and even their most subtle actions thereby become essential to the plot.  The viewer is required to study the character more closely, and to familiarize themselves enough with the characters' personalities so that background music would be superfluous.  Obviously not all television programs could survive with such raw production, I believe that the Wire's exceptional writing/casting develops the show's plot with no sound other than that of the street.