VARIOUS ARTISTS
Twilight (Music from Motion Picture)
A movie about an impossible love between a vampire boy and a human girl is the plot of Twilight. Does it sound all too familiar? Buffy has explored this complex love, one too many times. Vampire movies are zeitgeists. It gets recycled every decade or so. Remember "Interview with a vampire", "buffy", "the blade trilogy", and the many insignificant films after? well that was the 90's to early 2000s. Now, it's Twilight. Who can resist a R&J love story with a modern vampire twist?
It is a significantly less violent and gory movie compared to the originals such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu, and the rest of the endless list of vampire movies. In fact, Twilight introduces benevolent, vegetarian vampires that protect humans from other bad vampires (or just normal vampires, in that, feeding on humans are what they are created for.) And this combination proves well with tweens. The book(s) was a massive hit, and it never hurts a movie to hire a good looking english heartthrob, Pattinson, along with a good looking cast to front the film; this formula cannot go wrong. The movie had terrible reviews and was knocked for being too "cheesy" and departing from the book- and they were right, but what do you expect from a movie about teen/vampire romance?
Now, the music. The soundtrack is actually good. I thought it would be completely bombarded with top forty hits (I listened to the ost before watching the film), but to my surprise they actually picked quite a few great artists. Most the artists are known; however, artists such as Blackghosts, Blue fountain, and Mutemath are borderline indy. With the exception of Muse, Iron and Wine, Paramore, and Linkin Park being popular, the music director definitely incorporated a good mix of indy and popular tunes. I should have have known after listening to the tracks that it was directed by Alexandra Patsava (Music Director of "the oc" "gossip girl") because it was catchy as hell. My expectation was that it would have a trite (hip hop or pure pop) soundtrack due to the adaptation of the film. It does lean more toward known artists, but Collective Soul and Perry Farell are really new wave now. Most kids dont even know who they are so they can be considered unknowns. Most of the listeners probably had no idea that Muse, Perry Farrell, and Collective Soul existed way before twilight did. There really is not much else to say but the film has good music. Rock/pop is always a safe bet with a vampire movie (even if its not in the traditional type of vampire film) Paramore's Decode fits well with the theme of the movie. And a fast and a little harder rock/pop song, "supermassive black hole" is always a good idea to get the blood flowing. My favorite are Iron and Wine's Flightless bird, american mouth, Both of Pattinson's tracks, and Mutemath's Spotlight.
So there you go, a movie full of expectations (from the readers) and ends up having horrible reviews, but was box office gold. It's a good soundtrack and it really facilitated Muse's and Paramore's music career. This Twilight franchise will be milked for everything it has, from facilitating budding acting and music careers to cheap merchandising. There is not much more you can ask for in a trite vampire love, teen romance film.
-k
