soundtrack
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Just before the restaurant opens in Season 2 of FX’s hit show The Bear, chef de cuisine Sydney Adamu releases nine episodes of built-up tension by declaring, “Let it rip!” – and AC/DC‘s “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” explodes into the foreground. For executive producer Josh Senior, securing the song promised some metaphorical bloodshed of its own — but the process turned out to be far easier than expected.
“Everybody I’ve ever talked to about licensing music always told me AC/DC was hard to get, hard to pay for, hard to contact, hard to deal with. And we knew we wanted that song,” he says. “They ended up being amazing and awesome. But the hype was intimidating.”
The Bear is known for its musical needle drops. Rather than relying on music composed for the series, the show uses mostly familiar rock and pop songs to illustrate characters, moods and relationships. That gives it a sort of instant familiarity — but also makes the music-licensing process more complicated. Senior says most of the memorable tracks used on Season 2, such as R.E.M.‘s “Strange Currencies,” Lindsey Buckingham‘s “Holiday Road” and Liz Phair‘s “Supernova,” were easy to clear. But Senior, creator-executive producer Christopher Storer and producer Tyson Bidner, who do not maintain a separate budget for licensing songs (as is the case with most shows), had to “press every penny into place,” especially in the frantic last few weeks of production, he says.
In the end, they were able to license every song they wanted, from the season-opening Bruce Hornsby & The Range track “The Show Goes On” to Taylor Swift‘s “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” — with one crucial exception, as Senior says, in a phone interview from New Jersey that covers some of the songs used in Season 2.
What was the most difficult song to clear?
An example I haven’t spoken about is the BoDeans song “Still the Night” — not a typical Christmas song. We thought it fit really well for the story we were trying to develop. It turns out that “Still the Night” has quite a few writers on it. I couldn’t find [drummer and co-writer] Guy Hoffman to save my life. We took time to do that, though. If you have a year, you probably can do anything; you have six months, you can probably do most things. Our entire show life-cycle is about three and a half months, from the first day of prep to the thing going on TV. Maybe four. So everything’s an emergency. You get a countdown clock in the back of your head. The theme of the show really does come through to the way the show’s made. That was one that came down to the wire, but we ended up working it out.
For the “Fishes” episode, you used 17 songs, many of them holiday-related. Did you avoid the Christmas classics and use lesser-known tracks for creative reasons, or to save money, or both?
That episode was one of the last episodes for us to lock and finish. Working with our producer Tyson Bidner to press every penny into place was a big part of those last few weeks. We preemptively made three swaps in [that] episode to songs we didn’t think were possible, but either we had already licensed from that record label, or we had worked with that artist and we felt they were more attainable. We were able to get everything we wanted.
Did it help with Season 2 permissions that the show was already established and had a widely viewed first season?
There’s an argument you can make now. For Season 1, we were able to look at the data carefully and closely and see the lift in artists whose music we licensed and their numbers, streams, record sales, ticket sales. A lot of them saw significant growth. This time around, we were able to not just beg and plead but use metrics and data: “Hey, look, there’s a 300% lift on ‘Strange Currencies’ after we put it in the trailer for the show. This is the type of thing we could do if you work with us.”
You used multiple versions of “Strange Currencies” prominently throughout the season. What were the R.E.M. people like to work with?
We had worked with R.E.M. in Season 1. We got to meet them through their management and we were able to point to things that worked out well in the past in terms of numbers. They liked what we did. We viewed “Strange Currencies” like a theme for the entire season, and each of our characters are dealing with loss of love or the acceptance of love, particularly in the Carmy and Claire storyline. We think it represents something potentially beautiful and hopeful and mellow. When we contrast that with Christmas dinner at the Berzattos [in a stormy episode six], it’s clear that Carmy isn’t ready for that yet. The R.E.M. team was kind enough to allow us to use the original, the incredible Scott Litt remix and an unreleased demo.
Was Taylor Swift’s “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” difficult to license, for the scene of Richie triumphantly singing the song in the car?
No. A lot of people ask that question and I wonder why they’re asking. Her team was like, “Great. This is cool. How much money do you have? You have that much money? Let’s go.” She was exceedingly generous and cool with one of our actors singing along to the song. Those are things that sometimes people just say no to, and that was probably one of the easiest songs to clear.
Any songs you wanted but weren’t able to get?
I don’t want to answer that question right now, because I think I’m going to get those songs next season. I’m sorry!
What about other stories you can share about journeying through the music business to use a song?
In the third episode, there’s a Stevie Wonder demo that we were chasing for a while that we feel like we got close to, but we weren’t able to fully paper. We had conceived a scene around that song. That episode has two big montages in it. One was originally set to a Stevie Wonder song that was perfect, that Ayo [Edebiri, who plays Sydney] had picked. It’s her episode, we felt really strongly about honoring her wishes to include that music — and we weren’t able to get it. We ended up rejiggering a few things and restructuring the episode ever so slightly and pulling two different songs in — “Future Perfect” from The Durutti Column and “Make You Happy” by Tommy McGee. It ended up working really well.
Why couldn’t you get the Wonder song? And can you name it?
I won’t name the song, but there were just some ambiguous rights about the master side. It was a demo that wasn’t released on much — just a B-side of a record.
Do you ever use covers if you can’t get the rights to an original?
We just try and pick the music that we like. You’ll see a lot of live versions — a live Otis Redding song, a live Wilco song, a live Neil Finn song, a live Van Morrison song. You’ll find obscure tracks from Italian artists in the sixth episode.
It can’t hurt that those live versions are cheaper to license than the versions we all know, right?
One hundred percent. And they are different enough for you to think about them a little. There’s the music you hear in Walgreens and CVS. While we were making the show, I heard “Love Story” by Taylor Swift everywhere I went. It was following me around. But her version, I wasn’t hearing everywhere. Being able to use that was just such a nice little nuance.
Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye recruits the original pop idol Madonna and Playboi Carti for their new single “Popular,” which dropped Friday (June 2). The single arrives ahead of The Idol Vol. 1 soundtrack, which is now available for pre-order here, as well as the Sam Levinson-directed HBO series, which is set to premiere this Sunday, […]
Blxst and his Evgle record label have teamed up with NBA 2K23 to curate the new season 7 soundtrack. Two of the eight tracks from the soundtrack are from Blxst’s recent Just for Clarity 2 EP: “Passionate,” featuring Roddy Ricch, and “Keep Calling,” featuring Larry June. “Spend It” by Babyface Ray, Blxst and Nija is […]
BTS‘ Jimin takes center stage on the preview of “Angel Pt. 1,” the new single from the upcoming Fast & Furious sequel Fast X that also features Kodak Black, NLE Choppa, JVKE and Muni Long. The minute-long snippet opens with a wistful piano intro as Jimin and JVKE take turns crooning the track’s hypnotic chorus, “Angel, don’t fly so close to me/ I’ll pull you down eventually/ You don’t wanna lose those wings/ People like me break beautiful things.”
“Angel, don’t fly so close to me/ I’m what you want and what you need,” it continues. “You don’t wanna lose those those wings/ People like me break beautiful things.” The trailer version of the song then spotlights Black chiming in with his signature nasally delivery.
“I give it all up to ease your pain, yeah, I would do that all day/ I step back from the game and keep you out of harm’s way/ Would risk it all for the game, but it take more than one person/ Two people, one ’til I feel the same way you hurtin’/ I was still in middle school when Givens had flipped the whip/Bodies was droppin’ before we ever knew ’bout the drip,” he raps, before hitting the obligatory Fast familial reference with the line “We gon’ be family no matter what way this go, bruh.”
Fast X is due out on May 19 and features the usual gang of street racing thrill seekers tearing around the planet, including Vin Deisel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Jason Momoa, Jordana Brewster and Nathalie Emmanuel, as well as John Cena, Jason Statham, Sung Kang, Daneila Melchior, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, Brie Larson and Rita Moreno.
The first single from the soundtrack was “Let’s Ride,” which dropped in February and featured YG, Ty Dolla $ign and Lambo4oe, followed by “Won’t Back Down,” which dropped last week and features YoungBoy NBA, Bailey Zimmerman and Dermot Kennedy.
Listen to the “Angel Pt. 1” preview below.
The Weeknd and Future team up on their latest single “Double Fantasy,” which was released Friday (April 21).
The Weeknd has been teasing “Double Fantasy,” which will be featured on the soundtrack for his upcoming HBO series The Idol, on Instagram over the last week. Last Friday, he performed it for the first time during Metro Boomin‘s Coachella set. “Temperature rising, bodies united, now that I tried you in my arms. No need to fight it, no need to hide it, now that I’ve seen what’s in your heart,” The Weeknd sang during the festival. Even though Future didn’t join him on stage for the song’s live debut, the two performed “Low Life” from Future’s 2016 album EVOL. Metro and Mike Dean co-produced “Double Fantasy.”
The song marks The Weeknd and Future’s fifth collaboration after the two first came together as featured artists on producer Mike WiLL Made-It‘s 2015 single “Drinks on Us,” which also featured Swae Lee. In 2016, the dynamic duo came together one-on-one on “Low Life,” and at the end of that same year, The Weeknd tapped Future on “All I Know” from his Starboy LP, which got the deluxe treatment last month following his and Ariana Grande‘s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Die For You” remix. In 2017, the two collaborated on “Comin Out Strong” on Future’s album HNDRXX.
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The “Double Fantasy” cover art shows The Weeknd as his Idol character Tedros, a leader of a modern-day cult and the love interest of rising pop star Jocelyn, who’s played by Lily-Rose Depp (also featured on the single’s artwork). The latest teaser trailer for The Idol revealed the show will premiere on HBO on June 4. The long-awaited drama series has also been selected by Cannes Film Festival as one of four Out of Competition Selections.
Listen to “Double Fantasy” below.
La Usurpadora is hitting theaters in a new musical adaptation presented by Pantelion Films — 25 years after the Mexican telenovela starring Gabriela Spanic and Fernando Colunga aired.
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Directed by Santiago Limón and produced by Matt Walden and Paul Presburger, La Usurpadora: The Musical, similar to the famed 1998 novela, revolves around identical twin sisters Valeria and Victoria who were separated at birth and 28 years later meet and switch lives. The former is humble and kind, the latter is rich and cruel.
A 13-track soundtrack, executive produced by Grammy- and Latin Grammy-winning producer Sebastian Krys, accompanies the original film.
“Matt Walden called me and said he was turning a telenovela into a musical and I said ‘That’s insane, count me in!’” Krys said during a press screening in Miami on Wednesday night. “It makes sense because the way he would point it is that telenovelas are already over-the-top, so the next logical step is to have everyone singing and dancing.”
Though the film is based in the modern day, its soundtrack pays tribute to some of the biggest Latin hits of the ’90s, including Celia Cruz’s “La Vida Es Un Carnaval,” Gloria Estefan’s “Mi Tierra,” Selena Quintanilla’s “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” Ricky Martin’s “Vuelve,” Cristian Castro’s “No Podrás” and many more.
“We’d go back and forth in finding the right fit musically, lyrically, and then getting the rights,” Krys explains of his soundtrack debut that took more than four years to create. “I’ve worked with a lot of those artists in a lot of their records, like with Ricky Martin and Franco De Vita. I’ve worked with Gloria for 12 years, so doing this soundtrack was a little daunting because I didn’t want to screw the original songs up.”
“One of the things that I love the most while recording the songs is that he gave us total freedom of feeling the songs our own way,” adds Isabela Castillo, who portrays Valeria and Victoria in the musical. “It was a process of about four months where he gave us the liberty of playing around and experimenting with the harmony and melodies. That’s what you’re going to see here. We have song mashups, different ingredients, and new musical arrangements that these songs didn’t have back in the day. It’s really mind-blowing.”
Bringing the ’90s hits to life for La Usurpadora: The Musical was an overall joy for the cast, which also includes Alan Estrada, who portrays Carlos Daniel, the love interest of the twins.
“For me, the last 20 minutes of the movie was my favorite to perform,” he says. “I find the mash-up of ‘Vuelve’ and ‘Cosas del Amor’ very exciting and you’ll see many things unfold in that scene. It brings me happiness. At the Los Angeles screening, everyone clapped as if they were watching a play. I’ve never seen that happen in a movie, and I really liked that reaction. As an actor, we want our work to become memorable in some way.”
La Usurpadora: The Musical, whose cast also includes Susana Zabaleta, Jesús Ochoa, Alejandra Guzmán and Spanic, the OG Usurpadora actress, to name a few, premieres Friday in the U.S. and April 12 in Mexico.
Post Malone and Swae Lee‘s “Sunflower” music video officially surpassed 2 billion views on YouTube on Thursday (March 9).
Originally released in the fall of 2018, the song was part of the soundtrack for the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and also ultimately made the tracklist for Malone’s 2019 studio album Hollywood’s Bleeding.
The music video borrows a multitude of scenes from the family-friendly movie to spell out the origin story of a young Miles Morales even as the rappers take turns crooning, “Callin’ it quits now, baby, I’m a wreck/ Crash at my place, baby, you’re a wreck/ Thinkin’ in a bad way, losin’ your grip/ Screamin’ at my face, baby, don’t trip.”
“Sunflower” became Malone’s third career No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — after the 21 Savage-assisted “Rockstar” and “Psycho” featuring Ty Dolla $ign — when it reached the summit of the chart for a single week at the start of 2019. Meanwhile, it was Lee’s very first chart-topper and also scored nominations for record of the year and best pop duo/group performance at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
In November, the two rappers had another reason to celebrate their massive song after it achieved the record as the highest-certified single in the history of the Recording Industry Association of America at 17x Platinum.
Just a few weeks ago, the video for Posty’s 2015 breakout track “White Iverson” joined the Billion Views Club on YouTube, becoming the rapper’s fourth video to do so after “Sunflower,” “Rockstar” and “Congratulations” featuring Quavo — the latter of which is inching closer every day to the 1.5 billion mark.
Revisit the “Sunflower” music video below.
Demi Lovato took to social media on Wednesday (Feb. 15) to officially announce that she recorded a new song for the upcoming Scream VI.
“What’s your favorite scary movie?” the pop star captioned her post on Instagram before revealing the track’s title — “Still Alive” — and its March 3 release date. In the photo, they pose ominously with a dagger reflecting the image of the newest Ghostface killer.
In the comments section, Lovato’s boyfriend Jutes hyped up the track, writing, “lfg baby…u don’t miss” with a heart eyes emoji, while her tour photographer Angelo Kritikos cheekily promised, “song is KILLER.”
The singer’s contribution to the Scream VI soundtrack will serve as their first new music since 2022’s Holy Fvck. That studio set, which contained singles “Skin of My Teeth,” “Substance” and “29,” marked the Disney Channel alum’s return to pop-punk and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. Additionally, it completed a rock-centric hat trick by topping the Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts.
Since then, Lovato has teased her return to the studio, earned a GLAAD Media Award nomination for outstanding music artist and performed an intimate set at the NMPA & Billboard Grammy Week Showcase ahead of this year’s Grammy Awards.
Meanwhile, Scream VI will premiere in theaters across the country on March 10. As a direct sequel to 2022’s Scream, the horror flick stars Courteney Cox, Hayden Panettiere, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Dermot Mulroney, Samara Weaving and more.
Check out Lovato’s creepy announcement of “Still Alive” below.