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After watching \u201cI Saw the TV Glow,\u201d the new film from the director Jane Schoenbrun, I felt a sensation I hadn\u2019t felt in a while: I need this soundtrack.<\/p>\n
The genre-defying movie is a surreal story about two high schoolers in the 1990s who become obsessed with a \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer\u201d-like show called \u201cThe Pink Opaque.\u201d It\u2019s a rich film that draws on horror, \u201990s television and Schoenbrun\u2019s experience coming out as transgender. But it also boasts some incredible tunes, like a hypnotic cover of Broken Social Scene\u2019s \u201cAnthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl\u201d by the artist yeule and performances from King Woman, Sloppy Jane and Phoebe Bridgers, who appear onscreen as musicians at a club the characters visit.<\/p>\n
The full soundtrack<\/a> has more to love: The swelling emotion of Caroline Polachek\u2019s \u201cStarburned and Unkissed\u201d and the throwback rock of Proper\u2019s \u201cThe 90s,\u201d with lyrics about the TV show \u201cXena: Warrior Princess.\u201d Listening, I felt like a kid again.<\/p>\n That was just Schoenbrun\u2019s intention. The director thought the film needed a \u201cgreat teen angst soundtrack.\u201d But they were also nostalgic for the idea of soundtracks in general. They remembered thinking, \u201c\u2018Wait, where did those go?\u2019 You know, because the soundtracks of my youth were such a huge part of what brought me to movies,\u2019\u201d they said in a video call.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Citing soundtrack \u201ccanon picks\u201d like \u201cDonnie Darko,\u201d \u201cThe Royal Tenenbaums\u201d and \u201cGarden State,\u201d which turns 20 this year, they admit these are \u201cpretty obvious slash perhaps a little embarrassing\u201d choices. I relate. I also had an iPod in the early 2000s filled with soundtracks, and one of the most frequently played was \u201cGarden State.\u201d The accompaniment to Zach Braff\u2019s indie breakout \u2014 about a man in the midst of a quarter-life crisis who goes home for his mother\u2019s funeral \u2014 was as much a cultural moment as the actual film, going platinum and elevating bands like Frou Frou and the Shins.<\/p>\n Indeed, the beginning of the aughts felt like the last great heyday for the soundtrack. Think of the indie vibes of \u201cGarden State,\u201d the bluegrass foot-stompers of \u201cO Brother, Where Art Thou?\u201d or even the pop rock of \u201cShrek.\u201d (If you want embarrassment, just ask me how much I loved that soundtrack.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It wasn\u2019t as if the soundtrack was anything new \u2014 tell that to \u201cThe Graduate\u201d (1967), \u201cSaturday Night Fever\u201d (1977) or \u201cPurple Rain\u201d (1984) \u2014 but as streaming reshaped the music business, drawing attention away from albums, the soundtrack lost currency. You didn\u2019t need to buy a whole CD if you were intrigued by one song from a movie, you could just queue it up on Spotify or another service. And to be clear, I\u2019m not talking about soundtracks with mostly instrumental scores or those for movie-musicals like \u201cFrozen\u201d (2013). Even \u201cA Star Is Born\u201d (2018) felt like an outlier because music was so integral to the plot.<\/p>\n But we might be in the midst of a new soundtrack Golden Age. The LP for \u201cI Saw The TV Glow\u201d arrives in the aftermath of the pop delights of the \u201cBarbie\u201d soundtrack, which climbed the Billboard 200<\/a> last summer and earned Billie Eilish and Finneas two Grammys and an Oscar for \u201cWhat Was I Made For.\u201d Last year the \u201cSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse\u201d soundtrack, from the producer Metro Boomin, was filled with dreamy hip-hop that sounded like the kind of thing that the hero Miles Morales himself would have listened to. And on television, the Apple TV+ period piece about Chanel and Dior, \u201cThe New Look,\u201d recruited Taylor Swift\u2019s collaborator Jack Antonoff to produce covers of tunes from the era by modern artists like Florence and the Machine and the 1975.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not as if soundtracks had gone away completely. A decade ago, \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1\u201d went platinum<\/a> with its compilation of classic rock songs like Blue Swede\u2019s \u201cHooked on a Feeling.\u201d Still, with top artists like Swift and Beyonc\u00e9 more focused on albums than singles, it seems fitting that Hollywood is getting back into the soundtrack game. Why not sell a movie with music as well?<\/p>\n It has the potential to be a fruitful symbiotic relationship. \u201cPeople don\u2019t really want to listen usually to the whole album anymore, they want to cherry-pick songs and throw them onto playlists, but something about \u2018Barbie,\u2019 people just wanted to relive the entire experience of it,\u201d said Mark Ronson, the co-executive producer of that film\u2019s album.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ronson said in an interview that a soundtrack assignment can also provide fuel for musical artists like himself and his \u201cI\u2019m Just Ken\u201d co-writer, Andrew Wyatt. (Ronson also cited the Goo Goo Dolls hit \u201cIris\u201d for \u201cCity of Angels\u201d (1998) as an example of a soundtrack gig as inspiration.) \u201cYou\u2019re always searching for this sort of divine inspiration, and the fact that sometimes you can just get it from somebody else\u2019s art and turn it into your own is also a nice thing,\u201d Ronson said.<\/p>\n Schoenbrun explained that when they brought their idea for the soundtrack to A24, the studio was excited. \u201cI don\u2019t think that a lot of filmmakers are as big contemporary music nerds as I am, and I think internally they had been trying to do more music stuff,\u201d they said. A24 established a music arm, A24 Music, in 2021, and is releasing an album of Talking Heads covers this month<\/a> in conjunction with its restoration and rerelease of \u201cStop Making Sense.\u201d The studio declined to comment further.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For Schoenbrun, the experience of building out the soundtrack, which mostly features original songs, was a creative endeavor unto itself: They chose the artists, many of whom are queer, with the idea of codifying scenes of musicians they believed were worthy of teen obsession. They made each artist a 10-song Spotify playlist for inspiration. Then Schoenbrun spent more than a year and a half listening to the resulting submissions in different orders. (They firmly believe that a soundtrack should not feature the music in the same order in which it appears in the film.) \u201cI really did feel like, \u2018Oh I\u2019m giving myself the best gift ever,\u2019\u201d they said. \u201c\u2018I get to make a mixtape that doesn\u2019t exist yet from scratch.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That is a common feeling that connects soundtracks throughout time. Braff, in a phone interview, also likened crafting the \u201cGarden State\u201d soundtrack to making a mixtape (one that he won a Grammy for compiling). \u201cIt was a mixtape of music that I was listening to in that era of my life, my mid- 20s,\u201d he said. \u201cThese were the songs that were scoring our life at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n The choices still resonate, arguably even more than the movie itself. Braff said, \u201cIt\u2019s a weird week if every other day it isn\u2019t mentioned to me by someone.\u201d<\/p>\n I get it. I was a high school freshman when \u201cGarden State\u201d was released, and listening to it felt like a window into the boldfaced emotions of the film, which was about finding yourself and embracing love in a way that spoke to me at the time. My affection for the movie was mainly because of the soundtrack, which is in part why soundtracks can be so meaningful for a film or even a television show. (Schoenbrun was also inspired by how music would play a role in shows like \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer,\u201d with real bands stopping by the venue known as the Bronze. I still sometimes put on \u201cMusic from \u2018The OC\u2019: Mix 1.\u201d)<\/p>\n When Schoenbrun was working on the \u201cTV Glow\u201d soundtrack they said their producers asked why they were so obsessed with the musical element. \u201cThe way I would think about it is the soundtrack, if it works, reminds you of the movie and makes you want to revisit the movie,\u201d they said. \u201cAnd the movie, if it works, reminds you of the soundtrack and makes you want to revisit the soundtrack. It becomes less like a \u2018fun thing that I watched for an hour in the theater\u2019 and more, I think especially in a teen angst specific sort of way, a part of you, a place to return to.\u201d<\/p>\n If that\u2019s not a rallying cry for the rebirth of the soundtrack, then I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n