"That's exactly right, now it's a combination of the two," says Will Quiney, the theatrical music supervisor at trailer house GrandSon. "The reason why big songs that are familiar get used so much is because studio executives don't want to take any risks with music that might alienate people or that sounds too weird or new."
With agencies all having the same footage to work from when pitching for a trailer, music is where you can get an edge on your competitors. "You can create a narrative with your music selection," explains Quiney. "If you can come up with an amazing idea for a song and have that trailerised in a really cool way that blows them away, you're going to beat the competition, you're going to win that trailer." Lum agrees: "Music is the secret sauce to a great trailer and the best trailer editors know how to make the most of it."
Jaron Lum, creative director at Trailer Park's in-house music production company Synchronic, says it's rare to hear a song in a teaser these days that hasn't had some form of trailerisation. "The general goal of trailers is to get the audience excited about the film," he says, "so it makes sense to augment the classics with huge percussive impacts and clever reharmonisations to give a track more size."
Jordan Peele's Us similarly caused a sensation for its trailer which slowed Luniz' I Got 5 on It first to a crawl, and then exploded it with creepy plucked strings and bass disturbance. Candyman, co-written and produced by Peele, repeated the trick with Destiny's Child's Say My Name. Beyoncé often crops up in these kinds of trailers, with Survivor covered for Tomb Raider, and her rework of Crazy in Love for Fifty Shades of Grey getting an official release.
Palmer says this works the other way round, too – artists release orchestral versions of their songs as a way of having trailer-ready material – while BMG has also started doing some trailerising of its own. Palmer says BMG has rearranged "a couple of Lewis Capaldi songs with the approval of management, to give the trailer producers an idea of what they can do".
Is 'American Idol' Country -- And Pop -- Music's Modern Star-Making Machine? | CMT
There may be no better way to underscore how much Americans love three chords and the truth more than anything else in modern popular music than in studying how well the genre performs on American Idol .
Sunday evening’s victory by 24-year-old Southern Californian Chayce Beckham marks the sixth time in television program American Idol ’s nearly two-decade history that a country music artist has won the four-month-long, viewer-and-celebrity judge voted singing competition. In examining a music industry experiencing a multitude of dynamic shifts in the past 20 years, the ability for Idol — and its long, deep, and lucrative association with country music — to both remain a constant and continue to provide the genre a superstar pipeline is an impressive feat and worth deeper examination. Idol marries well with country, and recent country trends could foretell Idol continuing to dominate how the genre discovers and supports its superstars. Ultimately, the deep connective tie country music broadcast via the program makes with its viewers shows the TV program’s incredible vitality.
“As fans know, contestants can never go wrong by turning to country music, a genre that is historically a favorite among singing competition viewers — and generally the only format that continues to regularly provide a road to success, from Season 4's Carrie Underwood to Season 16's Gabby Barrett,” says the Washington Post’s Emily Yahr in a review of the 19th season’s just-completed final episode.
Regarding Underwood, the Season Four Idol winner was seen by an average of literally one in ten homes occupied by all Americans for 32 weeks of 2005. Her staying power via Idol made her (given sheer broadcast reach alone) a household name and has keyed a career that has seen achievements including seven Grammy Awards, 85 Billboard number-one singles, and 65 million albums sold. In total, she’s the number-one digital-selling country artist ever and the best-selling American Idol competitor ever. In a February 2021 interview, Underwood told Idol Season One winner (and country-adjacent performer) Clarkson that, without Idol ’s influence upon her career, she “wouldn't be doing anything I'm doing now.”
Upon the release of her American Idol -performed single “Inside Your Heaven” and premiere album Young Hearts , Carrie Underwood won — between the years 2005-2006 — eight Billboard Music Awards. Similarly, Gabby Barrett — upon the release of debut single “I Hope” and first album Goldmine — recently was nominated for nine 2021 Billboard Music Awards, winning three (Top Country Female Artist, Top Country Song, and Top Collab).
Even deeper, take a longer look into Idol competitions of years past, and more of modern mainstream country’s roots take form. In 2011, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina finished in first and second, respectively. As well, 2017’s winner was Laine Hardy. Moreover, artists currently emerging like Willie Jones (among many) have unsuccessfully auditioned in the past to be in the final grouping on the program.
Idol ’s 2021 finale showcased a fascinating picture of country’s impact upon the program 20 years later.
Two of the program’s three judges — Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan — have standout country roots. Richie’s famous as the writer of Kenny Rogers’ 1981 smash “Lady,” while Bryan has sold 75 million albums in a career that has existed as long as Idol itself. Joining them too is Katy Perry, whose roots in oftentimes country-adjacent Christian music are essential to her career. As well, Luke Combs, Mickey Guyton, and the previously-mentioned Luke Bryan performed, with eventual Idol winner Chayce Beckham offering a cover rendition of Chris Stapleton's "Fire Away," plus his own mainstream debut single, “23.”
“Sometimes, while watching the American Idol finale, it's difficult to predict who will win,” wrote Emily Yahr in her previously noted Washington Post article. However — as has been consistently seen over American Idol ’s history — when an artist can galvanize “the heart of America” via country music, it’s proved to have an incredible, long-lasting, and star-making connection.
MUSIC: Emilee's monster hit rewarding experience
Liz Phair is back with 'Soberish,' her first new album in a decade - The Washington
"But that's not what happened to me," Phair says in a recent Zoom interview from her home in Los Angeles. "Did 2003 make me want to break? Yes. But so did 1998 and so did 1997 and so did 1995. They all made me want to take a break because the music business is so screwed up."
It is almost summer and Phair is doing this interview because "Soberish," her first album of original songs in more than 10 years, will be out June 4 on Chrysalis Records. The album marks a reunion with producer Brad Wood, her musical partner on her acclaimed debut, 1993's "Exile in Guyville," and its follow-up, 1994's "Whip-Smart." "Exile" charted the emotional terrain of a supremely 20-something universe with an unaffected, intimate charm. "Soberish" is both a throwback and a reinvention. The songs are stripped of the gloss of her Capitol Record debut but it isn't jangly, lo-fi pop. "Soberish" is also sung by an adult. It's a relationship record where the awkward spaces are framed by experience and perspective, not post-dorm fumbling.
"Everyone's got a maze inside their heart," she sings on the title track. "The best we can do is pick a place to start."
"Yes, I look at the bad stuff and I think of the good that came out of it, and only a 53-year-old would do that because you wouldn't have had the hindsight to do it at a younger age," says Phair, who turned 54 in April. "It's not magical. It's because you decide not to be defeated. You decide to take what you've got and turn it into something. 'Soberish,' to me, is a lot about the beginnings of things, the endings of things, the state between two states. . . . I'm interested in transitional, undefined territory, and I think that is an older person's game."
In conversation, Phair can take a single moment and examine it from different angles. Her triumphant, indie debut was, in fact, not a particularly joyful moment, but packed with anxiety and trauma "and the closest I ever got to being anorexic." Her fall in the early 2000s was not all terrible: The pressure of touring a major-label record pushed her to get better — "it probably saved me as a performer," she says — and introduced her to a different audience. She still performs some of those songs.
For all she disliked at Capitol, the experience did inspire her to start a still-unpublished novel about the music business, which is tentatively titled "Inside Man."
"Now I'm going to be working as an author," she says. "I could not have had that if he didn't push me to such an extent that I said to myself, 'What can I do that no one has control over?' "
She graduated from Oberlin College in 1990 with a degree in art history and studio art. The following summer, she made a series of homemade recordings, known as the "Girly-Sound" tapes, and ended up with a deal with Matador Records. The indie label had already released influential albums by Teenage Fanclub and Pavement. But 1993's "Exile in Guyville," a response to the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street," would eclipse everything. It featured Phair's stylishly flat delivery, soul-bearing lyrics and a blurry, nipple-bearing photo of the artist on the cover. "Exile in Guyville" landed atop most critics-best lists and made her a star. It also created unexpected pressure.
Men who had heard her sing boldly about sex didn't hesitate to proposition her. She headed out on tour even though she found it terrifying. Phair's next two albums were solid, if not as successful, and her six-year marriage to film editor Jim Staskauskas fell apart. But she remained a valuable commodity. In 1999, when Matador dissolved a partnership with Capitol, the major label demanded her contract as collateral.
25 Pop Music Stars Who Played Dramatic Roles in Movies – 24/7 Wall St.
For decades, rock stars have loved the movies and the movies have loved rock stars. Whether it was Elvis in "Viva Las Vegas," the Beatles in "Help!," or the Spice Girls in "Spice World," top performers from the music world have long brought their talents and energies to the screen.
But some music icons have also been featured in movies where they can rely only on their acting skills, not their singing (though their singing is sometimes heard as title music). In some cases the results have been disappointing — Glen Campbell was wise not to have given up his day job — but in others, the performances stand up quite well.
Some stars, like Cher and Kris Kristofferson, have actually had serious acting careers. Here are movie roles that launched Hollywood's biggest stars .
24/7 Tempo has put together a list of some 25 personalities better known for their discographies than their filmographies, together with notes on one of their more memorable performances. Pop stars, rock-and-rollers, and country singers are included. These are the best movies for fans of country music .
My Journey to Becoming a K-Pop Stan | The Daily Star
If you asked 18-year-old me what's on my playlist, it would mostly be songs composed by bearded men who like saxophone solos and The Diary of Anne Frank . If you also asked me about my opinions on K-pop, I would scoff and say something hyper-pretentious, like how manufacturing the music takes away the "music" of it.
Fast forward to my present-day playlist (or YouTube history) overflowing with K-pop. Clearly, something had happened recently.
My debut as a K-pop "stan" happened one night when my friend decided to show me some of her favourite EXO fancams. Before that night, I had begun to dip a toe into the K-pop world with some cheery girl group songs. But one particular Kai fancam marked my point of no return. I had to devour more.
It started mildly enough, with me looking at fancams and listening to the songs. Then came the infamous "crack" videos and I was a goner. Since then, my Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube feeds have all been filled to the brim with K-pop content.
Now that I have (almost) fully integrated into the K-pop world, I tried to understand why I was so against it in the first place.
Another reason for my unjustified hatred would simply be how everyone disliked K-pop, so I did, too. There really is no other way to explain it. On top of that, I had convinced myself that the only valid genres were either classic rock or anything that sounded remotely alternative.
The general hatred towards pop music in general could be a contributing factor as well. People who were inclined to enjoy rock or alternative music generally expressed distaste towards pop music by calling it inauthentic, manufactured and soulless. Combine that with a distaste for Asian campiness and you have a super annoying music elitist on your hands.
As an adult, I can acknowledge how my thinking process was completely biased and unfair. Moreover, it made me disregard the hard work the idols and pop stars in general put into their craft. They have the immense pressure of being entertaining and charismatic in every single show.
If you're still adamant about listening to K-pop, I understand. Nonetheless, I would still encourage you to give it a try. Just remember to have an open mind and contact me when you stan Loona.
Song Review: Sigrid's 'Mirror' Does Disco Justice
Lately, though, all had been quiet on the Sigrid front, give or take a few TikToks — until today, as we've been presented the fruit of the singer's past several years of work in the form of the in-your-face disco bliss-bomb "Mirror." Equal parts ABBA, Max Martin, Stuart Price, and Billie Eilish — and arriving just months after the Dua and Kylie–led Disco Renaissance of 2020 — "Mirror" marks another milestone in Sigrid's continued crystal-clear vision. It's a self-empowerment anthem swaddled in swelling pianos and synths, not so much a reinvention as a reignition for the young performer, who was on the front lines of the genre's reascension before the Main Pop Girls climbed onboard a year later.
On its surface, "Mirror" seems a standard pop construction: vocals, piano, a steady drum, recurring strings, and a synthesizer. But Sigrid's consistency in couching complexity in a simple-sounding exterior is what sets her apart from her peers (such as Dua Lipa, with whom she shares close collaborators like Emily Warren and Sly); "Mirror" is a disco ball of a song that refracts and reflects further than the eye can see. There's the vocal distortion she deploys casually and confidently, warping her singing so seamlessly that you won't notice unless you're listening for it; and there's the bridge, an homage to disco legends of yesteryear ( with shades of Giorgio Moroder and Chic ) , it drops everything but its kick drum and piano, hoisting her technically pitch-perfect singing to the forefront. Then there's the fact that "Mirror" clocks in under the three-minute mark — not because it couldn't sustain itself for longer, like so many TikTok hits of late, but because Sigrid is the consummate host, never overstaying her welcome, aways keeping her audience craving extra dessert.
K-Pop Probably Won't Get Its Own Grammy Category | Billboard
(L-R) Jungkook, V, Suga, Jin, RM, Jimin and J-Hope of music group BTS attend the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on Jan. 26, 2020 in Los Angeles.
With BTS' first Grammy nomination this past year, many fans of the group (and of K-pop in general) wonder whether a separate K-pop category in the Grammy Awards is plausible.
The Grammys add categories from time to time. In fact, on April 30, the Recording Academy announced that it will add two new categories for the 64th annual Grammy Awards: best global music performance and best música urbana album. This will bring the number of Grammy categories to 86.
"The way I see it, modern K-pop really started in the '90s," says Bill Freimuth, chief awards officer at the Recording Academy. "They took what was popular during that era [such as R&B and bubblegum pop] and made it their own."
This past year, the Academy received just 14 K-pop submissions, which constituted less than 1.5% of the submissions in the pop field.
"What we've heard from the community is that they consider what they are creating to be pop music," says Freimuth. "Some argue that it's pop music from Korea."
Korean music is vast and diverse, and there doesn't seem to be a noticeable factor in these K-pop songs that truly defines Korean music. For example, although "Dynamite" is by a K-pop boy band, it is completely sung in English. This likely played a big part in making the song a hit in America. In addition, the song features pop attributes, which justifies it being slotted in the pop field.
"The general process [of adding a category] is quite formal," says Freimuth. Every year, by a deadline of March 1, the Academy receives proposals from the music community. Those proposals -- which often include adding a category, rewording/defining a current category and changing current awards processes -- are presented to the awards and nominations committee. If the "A&N" committee passes a proposal, it is presented to the board of trustees, which will discuss and ratify the proposed change or not.
As a general rule, the Academy looks to see a potential field of 100 submissions for a proposal to have a strong chance of being added. This past year's 14 K-pop submissions fell far short of that mark.
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