
Universal Music
Taylor Swift gave her New Zealand fans a thrill last Friday night (March 16) when she performed her new single 'Eyes Open' live for the first time. Judging by the Kiwi fans' screams she has another hit on her hands with a signature power ballad from this weekends box office blockbuster
The Hunger Games soundtrack. It enforces the theme of the movie, "The world will be watching" with a catchy lyrical echo to "keep your eye-eyes open." Swift has successfully threaded the needle with a song relevant to the 'big picture' and able to stand on its own.
The Hunger Games soundtrack includes the chilling 'Safe & Sound' which Taylor wrote and recorded with The Civil Wars plus a Miranda Lambert song. Why would a sci-fi fantasy future based soundtrack rely so much on country music? District 12, the home of the films heroine, Katniss Everdeen, is the area we now know as the Appalachians. Ethnomusicologists recognize this area as the birthplace of country music. Filmmakers brilliantly chose T Bone Burnett to produce
The Hunger Games soundtrack. Burnett had already musically mined the area when he went backward in time for the multi-platinum selling Grammy winning
O Brother, Where Art Thou? This time he rolled the clock forward. Burnett's vision was to start with "Appalachian music, 300 years in the future." Burnett nailed it.
This has been a great week for Taylor Swift. 'Eyes Open' was released,
The Hunger Games film opens, her last single, 'Ours,' is number one on the Country chart, she played New Zealand for the first time and she topped U2, Adele and Lady Gaga to be named the highest-earning pop artist of 2011 by trade publication Billboard. The 22-year-old earned $35,719,902 in 2011 from a combination of music sales, royalties and touring. With this kind of momentum and infectious songs she could top herself when they add up the numbers for 2012.
The world will be watching.