Arcade Fire, Civil Wars, Taylor Swift to Pen Hunger Games Songs
You may or may not remember a week ago when we told you about how the head of the largest musicians' union in North America ripped into Lionsgate for farming out the score for the upcoming film Hunger Games to Europe despite the film's Appalachian setting and decidedly American style of music.
Well, this week the film company announced some of the names on its list of artists who will be performing original songs on the soundtrack and they are much more 'Merican. USA! USA!
The list of names includes Arcade Fire, the Decemberists, Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars, who are all working on songs with producer T-Bone Burnett. The film, based on a popular young adult novel series, is set in the future in rural southeastern America where children are forced to fight to the death. The soundtrack, according to Lionsgate COO Joe Drake, will be a "haunting companion" to the movie.
No doubt, Lionsgate is hoping for the same kind of mega success the Twilight series has had both in the theater and from the soundtrack. Twilight blended dreamy orchestral music with dark rock and pop and cross marketed with hipster/goth/mall-wear store Hot Topic to send the music soaring up the charts.
Frankly, we can't think of a better choice for the dark, Appalachian setting than the Civil Wars and their swampy, southern country folk with its shimmering pop sheen on top. If you haven't heard them, think White Stripes meets Lady Antebellum. It's the perfect compliment for kids slaughtering each other... or something.
It's still weird that Lionsgate is having a bluegrass-y score recorded in Europe, but the soundtrack line-up sounds spot on.
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