Hits of Sunshine
New Moon soundtrack
Amy Salisbury
Issue date: 11/17/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Try as I might, sometimes I just cannot escape the looming nature of pop culture. I know what I like, and most of the time am able to stick with my books, my movies, and my music. But something odd happened this week.
I listened to the New Moon soundtrack.
After my initial shock of realizing what I had done, I rechecked the tracklisting: Death Cab for Cutie, Grizzly Bear, Thom Yorke, The Killers, Bon Iver, among others. This couldn't be the soggy-sweet pop record surely matched with the Twilight franchise.
Subjectivity aside (irony included), I feel I should make my ignorance of Twilight known. I saw the first Twilight movie and didn't read any of the books, and never had any intent to see New Moon.
Still, I had the idea that Twilight was for weird 14-year-olds and weirder people with vampire fetishes. I do realize that there are legitimate fans who enjoy the writing immensely, but that generalization remains among non-fans of the series (i.e., most males and the oddball girl). But this record had some serious music on it. Things just didn't add up, and nothing explained it.
The real shock here is that Thom Yorke's track, "Hearing Damage," is exclusive to the soundtrack. Yorke, along with his band Radiohead, left their record label and have essentially released works on their own terms since. So speculation might lead the listener to believe Yorke thought New Moon was relevant enough to be the vehicle for his individual track release.
Bon Iver, one of the newest staples to indie music, appears with an achingly beautiful track called "Rosyln." Endlessly successful band The Killers offer "A White Demon Lover," a song reflecting more of their first album's style that took them so far. Even Lupe Fiasco makes an appearance with "Solar Midnite," an unusual song befitting the general tone of the soundtrack.
I figure you can make one of two conclusions about this: all these artists subjected themselves to the world of the Twilight cultural phenomenon just because they could, or they took advantage of Twilight's success to get their music heard by people outside their fanbase. Or, music editors Charles Martin Inouye and Gerard McCann just liked these songs as much as I did and found they fit great with the cinematography. Whatever the case, the soundtrack is a serious success, exactly the complement expected for New Moon.
I listened to the New Moon soundtrack.
After my initial shock of realizing what I had done, I rechecked the tracklisting: Death Cab for Cutie, Grizzly Bear, Thom Yorke, The Killers, Bon Iver, among others. This couldn't be the soggy-sweet pop record surely matched with the Twilight franchise.
Subjectivity aside (irony included), I feel I should make my ignorance of Twilight known. I saw the first Twilight movie and didn't read any of the books, and never had any intent to see New Moon.
Still, I had the idea that Twilight was for weird 14-year-olds and weirder people with vampire fetishes. I do realize that there are legitimate fans who enjoy the writing immensely, but that generalization remains among non-fans of the series (i.e., most males and the oddball girl). But this record had some serious music on it. Things just didn't add up, and nothing explained it.
The real shock here is that Thom Yorke's track, "Hearing Damage," is exclusive to the soundtrack. Yorke, along with his band Radiohead, left their record label and have essentially released works on their own terms since. So speculation might lead the listener to believe Yorke thought New Moon was relevant enough to be the vehicle for his individual track release.
Bon Iver, one of the newest staples to indie music, appears with an achingly beautiful track called "Rosyln." Endlessly successful band The Killers offer "A White Demon Lover," a song reflecting more of their first album's style that took them so far. Even Lupe Fiasco makes an appearance with "Solar Midnite," an unusual song befitting the general tone of the soundtrack.
I figure you can make one of two conclusions about this: all these artists subjected themselves to the world of the Twilight cultural phenomenon just because they could, or they took advantage of Twilight's success to get their music heard by people outside their fanbase. Or, music editors Charles Martin Inouye and Gerard McCann just liked these songs as much as I did and found they fit great with the cinematography. Whatever the case, the soundtrack is a serious success, exactly the complement expected for New Moon.
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