Tron: Legacy
This Friday sees the release of Disney's Tron Legacy, the sequel to the 1982 film Tron. The original was a breakthrough in special effects which saw Jeff Bridges get sucked into a computer.
The sequel follows the son of Jeff Bridges, in the shape of Garrett Hedlund, who after he finds out part of his fathers old arcade might still be active, goes down to see it, then he himself gets sucked into the computer world, or The Grid, as it's called.
One of the key draws for the film is the soundtrack. Daft Punk have always been elusive and kept quiet, but they're back with a new album and it's the soundtrack to this huge film.
Strictly speaking, it isn't as much a Daft Punk album, as it is a more composed classical type soundtrack with an electronic feel, but for fans, this is just as good as a new studio album.
Here at FemaleFirst we thought it would be good to look back at other musical artists who've put together a whole soundtrack for ears of the movie-going audiences.
Trent Reznor, the lead singer of American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails has given his musical talents to create soundtracks for Natural Born Killers, Lost Highway and The Social Network, by auteurs Oliver Stone, David Lynch and David Fincher respectively.
He would seem to be the most prolific soundtrack maker for a musical artist. For Lost Highway, Reznor had been trying to get David Lynch to direct a music video for Nine Inch Nails for a while, but it wasn't until his work on Natural Born Killers that David Lynch took note and asked him to create an original soundtrack for Lost Highway.
In 2010, he created the soundtrack for The Social Network, the film hailed as one of the best films of the year. After initially declining, citing the reasons as being that he'd just finished touring and that a movie about Facebook wasn't something he'd be interested in, he read Aaron Sorkin's script and changed his mind.
Reznor teamed up with British composer Atticus Ross for the soundtrack and it even managed to get onto the Billboard 200 in America at number 20. If you haven't heard their version of the classical song 'In The Hall Of The Mountain King', you should really go and find it.
Going slightly further back to 2009, Where The Wild Things Are had Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O on board for the soundtrack which really gave the feel of the whole movie. The film is directed by Karen O's ex-boyfriend Spike Jonze and is adapted from the book of the same name.
Karen O wrote the soundtrack and it's billed as Karen O And The Kids, members of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dead Weather and The Raconteurs were also involved.
Overall, the soundtrack got good reviews and similarly to Trent Reznor, Karen O has a massive cult following and so anticipation for the soundtrack as high as it was for the film.
Elton John and Phil Collins both created songs for Disney films, Elton John wrote five original songs for The Lion King with Tim Rice.
The songs are mostly performed by characters within the film, but Elton John sings 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight' over the end credits of the film, it also bagged the Best Original Song award at the 1995 Academy Awards.
Phil Collins wrote music for Disney's adaptation of Tarzan, around five tracks, similar to Elton John's music for The Lion King and similarly, 'You'll Be In My Heart' took the Best Original Song award at the 1999.
Although both of these didn't involve creating an entire soundtrack, they were so ingrained in the film that it and are still remembered so vividly that it was hard to keep them out.
Another brand of musical artists for the soundtrack is when they star in the film themselves. David Bowie did this when he appeared in Labyrinth, but more recently, Eminem appeared on the soundtrack for 8 Mile for which he played a rapper trying to make it big, Britney Spears did similar for her film Crossroads which had three of her tracks appear on the soundtrack.
Miley Cyrus is probably the most lucrative of all music/movie crossover stars, using both concerts to promote her films and her films to promote her music, this is most evident in her Hannah Montana films/albums but in the movie The Last Song, which starred Cyrus, the trailer featured a song by her and at the end of the trailer featured a note that the film "featured original music by Miley Cyrus". She's a savvy young woman.
Another way musical artists provide music for the soundtrack is as another artist within the film. The Jonas Brothers appeared in Camp Rock (don't judge, it's just to illustrate a point) as fictional band Connect 3 and they sang the majority of the songs on the soundtrack.
Beck did similarly for the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, he provided the songs for Scott Pilgrim's fictional band Sex Bob-omb, but he doesn't appear in the film himself, the band are portrayed by actors Michael Cera, Marc Webber, Alison Pill and Johnny Simmons joins the band in Michael Cera's place at the end of the film.
Mainstream musical artists provide songs for films all the time, but this is about those who go all the way and take their time to create a work of art to surround the film, something usually reserved for the likes of film composers.
Comment below if you can think of any other examples of mainstream artists providing soundtrack.
FemaleFirst - James Butlin
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