World Cup fever is upon us but there is another major event that is causing a very different demographic to salivate this month; the release of the third instalment of the Twilight saga Eclipse is upon us. The film won’t hit the cinema till the 3rd of July (the US gets it a few days earlier, 30th June) however like the merchandise juggernaut that it is the soundtrack has been released almost a month in advance. I’m a self-confessed soundtrack junkie so this is the part of the world of Twilight that I look forward to as much as the next fan girl.
The importance of music to the series begins first not with the films but with the books, Meyer states that she can not write without music and has compiled playlists for each novel on her website which you can peruse yourself if you really want to. The common theme amongst these is Muse and this can be seen on the soundtracks for the films, with ‘Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever) featuring on the Eclipse soundtrack. There have been mutterings online that Matt Bellamy was less than kind to the franchise, though all I found was a quote about how he doesn’t mind if it seems uncool to gain new fans due to Twilight.
I have only seen the first film so I can’t comment on how the music fits in to the narrative and the style of all the instalments but as actual collections of songs the soundtracks are decent and have featured songs from other favourites of mine including; Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Death Cab for Cutie and Iron and Wine. The Eclipse soundtrack has Beck performing with Bat for Lashes, Sia, Vampire Weekend, The Black Keys, Band of Horses, The Dead Weather and Unkle. One reason why I think the soundtracks get it right and why the fact that despite not being a Twilight fan, I will still listen to these compilations is the label behind them; Chop Shop Records. They are a label that specialises in soundtracks and are behind TV show soundtracks for The OC, Mad Men, Chuck, Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy, all three have boasted some break out tracks, most of which I like. There is the exception with The Fray’s ‘How to Save a Life’ from Grey’s Anatomy but there is no denying what a big hit this was.
What this shows is that as far as the Twilight saga is concerned they pretty much have all their bases covered with merchandise; books (with Meyer having just released a new Twilight novella to add to her bank balance), CDs, clothing, jewellery and even the unofficial merchandise (including a freezable sparkling dildo- yes really). Fans are not just teenage girls, Twilight mums is a big thing co-existing with the new ‘cougar’ phenomenon and won’t be going away any time soon. In fact it has just been announced that the fourth book ‘Breaking Dawn’ will be a two film release and so the domination goes on for a little longer.
I may not really care who Bella ends up with but I’m excited as to what will be on the next soundtrack and if that makes me in part a Twilight fan then I will suck it up (very bad pun intended).
