Media Diary - Week 1

The Great Gatsby Sountrack Review

Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' came out in May 2013 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan. It is based after the amazing novel written in 1925 by F.Scott Fitzgerald, showing the life of the ambitious millionaire Mr Gatsby. Baz Luhrmann beautifully merged the 1920's party lifestyle  with modern day music. Incorporating stunning flapper dresses, dapper looking men and extravagant decorations. The whole movie includes very vivid, rich colours which shows Gatsby's lavish lifestyle. This theme doesn't end in just the visual look though, Luhrmann combined modern day artists with 1920's music to make the perfect soundtrack to an already perfect movie. 

Jay Z was the executive producer of both the soundtrack and the film and features in two of the tracks (100$ Bill and No Church In The Wild.) Other artists who are featured on the album include Beyonce, Lana Del Ray, Jack White (from the White Stripes), Emeli Sande, Will.i.am, Fergie and Florence + The Machine. The first track on the album, '100$ Bill', includes samples of Gatsby talking in the movie as well as 1920's style jazz horn's and electro-rap elements. The fact that Jay Z and Luhrmann decided to merge both styles together was incredibly risky as it may seem disrespectful to the 'Jazz Age' but I found that they went well together and complemented each other perfectly. Other tracks on the album such as 'Crazy In Love' (originally sang by Beyonce) is sang as a swing and soul mash-up. Emeli Sande is accompanied by The Bryan Ferry Orchestra and includes Jazz instruments such as the trumpet, saxophone, trombone etc. 

In my opinion I found that the soundtrack was very much to my taste and I enjoyed the way the two different musical genres went well together and formed a unique and entertaining sound. I can see why some people might not enjoy the way the music is presented with the use of rap and dubstep over the 20's style jazz but I think they compliment each other well. I would definitely give this album a 10/10 and even recommend it to anybody else who enjoys weird but curious montages of music genres.