Why do trailers feature cover versions of well-known songs?
Well-known songs in a dramatically slow cover version have been used as a soundtrack for film trailers for a few years now. The most recent example is the trailer for "Dune". How this trend came about and what a Belgian women's choir has to do with it.
Exactly 1:12 minutes pass in the trailer for Denis Villeneuve's film adaptation of the sci-fi epic "Dune" before a male voice sings "And all that you touch / And all that you see". Damn, I know that song. But what is it? "And all that you taste"... Is it a Bowie cover? "All you feel".
Whoops! It's Pink Floyd!
"Eclipse", the brilliant finale to their 1973 masterpiece "Darkside of the Moon". The lyrics and mood fit the cut of the trailer as if Roger Waters had written the song just for these three minutes.
Waters approved the cover version at most; it was produced by Hans Zimmer's soundtrack factory. The German uses a common trick. Trailers with cover versions of well-known songs are a dime a dozen. "Wonder Woman 1984" draws on New Order, including the legendary break. Beyoncé covers herself in the "50 Shades" trailer, the cover version of "Survivor" at "Tomb Raider" merely releases it.
Whether David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana or Sting - hardly any artist is spared a trailer cover. The style is usually similar: a slowed-down version of the original, accompanied by a flat orchestral soundtrack. They start quietly, build up and end in a musical cliffhanger. The fact that cover songs are so popular in trailers is a coincidence.
A song from the depths of the internet
In spring 2010, director David Fincher commissioned Mark Woollen to produce the trailer for his latest film "Social Network". Woollen and his company are masters at packaging complex films into creative trailers. They see the trailer as a work of art in its own right, which does not necessarily have to outline the plot of the advertised film, but should stick with the audience. Average trailers throw out everything a film has to offer. In doing so, they risk giving away parts of the plot. When you watch the film, you get the feeling that you've already seen everything. Woollen, on the other hand, does the opposite. With him, the film remains a mystery. In his trailers, he reduces the original material to its essence and conveys a mood, not a self-contained story.
The assignment for the trailer for "Social Network" - the film about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg - is particularly difficult. "The press never gave the film a chance," says Wollen in an interview with the New Yorker. "The consensus was clear: How can you make a film about Facebook? What's next, eBay or Amazon?". To make matters worse, Fincher is in the middle of editing and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have yet to compose a bar of their soundtrack (which would later win an Oscar).
The eureka moment comes to Mark Woollen while browsing his hard disc. A few years earlier, he had stumbled across a cover version of the Radiohead song "Creep" in the depths of the internet, on a "Geo-cities-esque website", as he says. Pure coincidence. The 200-strong Belgian female choir "Scala and Kolacny Brothers" interprets the Radiohead hit and it fits perfectly with the oppressive images provided by director Fincher. The cover begins quietly, builds up and ends in a musical cliffhanger at the climax. The song lyrics about an outsider consumed by self-pity are tailor-made for the film about the outsider Mark Zuckerberg. Woollen opens the trailer with a 50-second slideshow of stock images that resemble a cheesy advert for Facebook. Only then does he play the first shots from the film. A risk that fortunately goes down well with director Fincher. The result is truly a lesson in trailer production.
The short video hits like a bomb, not least because of the music by the Belgian female choir. The hipster Coachella open-air festival books "Scala and Kolacny Brothers" and commissions for further trailers follow. With this chance discovery, Mark Woollen laid the foundations for the style of modern trailers.
Ten years later, the studios use the stylistic device ad nauseam. What was the deep explanatory voice in trailers in the 80s is now the slow cover version. It creates a diffuse trust by giving you a familiar melody and lyrics that you can recognise, but not right away. The eureka moment finally gives you a sense of achievement. You feel good and later remember the images you have seen. Out of curiosity, you finally watch the film, so firmly has the trailer stuck in your memory. By the time you sit in the cinema, the music has long since served its purpose: Only rarely do the trailer covers make it onto the soundtrack of the advertised films. They are tailored closely to the trailers.
Which cover gave you the eureka effect? Or do you not care about the music in trailers as long as it bangs?
When I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.