Iron Man (soundtrack)
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''Iron Man: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' is the soundtrack album to the 2008 film '' Iron Man'', featuring music composed by
Ramin Djawadi Ramin Djawadi (, fa, رامین جوادی; born 19 July 1974) is an Iranian and German score composer. He is known for his scores for the 2008 Marvel film ''Iron Man'' and the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', for which he was nominated for Gramm ...
. The soundtrack was produced in collaboration with
Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...
and Remote Control Productions, and was released on April 29, 2008, by Lions Gate Records. Djawadi joined the film after
John Debney John Cardon Debney (born August 18, 1956) is an American composer and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His work encompasses a variety of mediums and genres including comedy, horror, thriller, and action-adventure. He is a l ...
, who previously collaborated with director Jon Favreau, was unavailable. The score focuses heavily on electric guitar, as requested by Favreau, and was recorded with a rock band as well a traditional orchestra. The soundtrack also includes the classic 1966 Iron Man theme song, and a
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
-style arrangement of it by John O'Brien and Rick Boston, who also frequently collaborate with Favreau. The soundtrack was negatively received by critics, especially the score's use of electric guitar and Remote Control influences. However, the inclusion of the classic theme, in its original and modern cover forms, was received positively, and the soundtrack was ultimately nominated at the
51st Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the b ...
.


Background

After '' Iron Man'' director Jon Favreau's previous collaborator
John Debney John Cardon Debney (born August 18, 1956) is an American composer and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His work encompasses a variety of mediums and genres including comedy, horror, thriller, and action-adventure. He is a l ...
was unavailable to score the film, Iron Man fan
Ramin Djawadi Ramin Djawadi (, fa, رامین جوادی; born 19 July 1974) is an Iranian and German score composer. He is known for his scores for the 2008 Marvel film ''Iron Man'' and the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', for which he was nominated for Gramm ...
sought out the role. Filming on ''Iron Man'' had already been completed by the time Djawadi joined the production, and rather than wait until he could see the completed film, as he usually would, Djawadi began "playing with ideas" as soon as he saw the first trailer. Due to time constraints and the final cut of the film changing until "the last possible minute", Djawadi had help with arrangements and additional cues from
Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...
and Remote Control Productions. Favreau requested Djawadi's score be more guitar and rock focused, with Djawadi's history playing guitar helping with this. Guitarist Aaron Kaplan performed most of the guitar for the score, with
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commer ...
guitarist
Tom Morello Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known for his tenure with the rock band Rage Against the Machine and then with Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, More ...
, who makes a
cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...
in the film, also contributing guitar performances. The rock band Djawadi used was recorded at Remote Control, while recording of a full orchestra took place at
AIR Studios Associated Independent Recording (AIR) is an independent recording company founded in London in 1965 by record producer Sir George Martin and his business partner John Burgess, after their departure from Parlophone. The studio complex was founded ...
. The final score was mixed at Remote Control. Musicians John O'Brien and Rick Boston, frequent collaborators with Favreau, provided a
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
-style arrangement of the Iron Man theme song from the 1966 cartoon ''
The Marvel Super Heroes ''The Marvel Super Heroes'' is an American animated television series starring five comic book superheroes from Marvel Comics. The first TV series based on Marvel characters, it debuted in broadcast syndication, syndication on United States, U.S. ...
''. " Institutionalized", a song from band
Suicidal Tendencies Suicidal Tendencies is an American crossover thrash band formed in 1980 in Venice in Los Angeles, California by vocalist Mike Muir. Muir is the only remaining original member of the band. Along with D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity, and Stor ...
whose lead vocalist
Mike Muir Michael Allen Muir (born March 14, 1963) is an American singer who is the lead vocalist and the only sole continuous member of Los Angeles-based bands Suicidal Tendencies, Los Cycos, and Infectious Grooves. He has also released several solo al ...
went to school with ''Iron Man'' star
Robert Downey Jr. Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor and producer. His career has been characterized by critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of ...
, is also included on the soundtrack. Djawadi performed a piano rendition of
Antonio Salieri Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy ...
's "Concerto in Do Maggiroe Per Pianoforte eo Orchestra: Larghetto" which was used exclusively for the film, and as such was not included in the soundtrack.


Track listing

All music by Ramin Djawadi, except where noted.


Release

The soundtrack was released by Lions Gate Records, who had a licensing deal with Marvel Entertainment, on April 29, 2008.


Reception


Critical response

Christian Clemmenson of
Filmtracks.com Filmtracks.com is a modern film score review website created and maintained by its sole reviewer, Christian Clemmensen. Since the launch of Filmtracks in 1996, the website has reviewed nearly two-thousand soundtracks dating as far back as 1954, t ...
was extremely critical of the Remote Control influences on the soundtrack, negatively comparing it to
Steve Jablonsky Steve Jablonsky (born October 9, 1970) is an American composer for film, television and video games, best known for his musical scores in the ''Transformers'' film series. Some of his frequent collaboration partners include film directors Michae ...
's ''
Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...
'' and scoring it one star out of five. He stated that there is "nothing inherently wrong" with an electric guitar-focused score, but Djawadi "is not yet ready to provide helevel of intrigue" that other composers such as Debney and Danny Elfman were able to with the instrument. Clemmenson also questioned Djawadi's use of an orchestra, feeling that it gets "washed away in the mix so thoroughly that the rock band and a set of keyboards is all that was truly required for this music" Jonathon Broxton at Movie Music UK said that Djawadi's approach "seems to have been to appeal to the lowest of common denominators with driving rock rhythms, pseudo-heroic crescendos, and increasingly accelerating tempos. It’s the ultimate musical overkill – loud, fast, brash, devoid of any kind of depth, and failing entirely to comment on any nuances which may exist in the film". Broxton said, "it’s not even good rock music ... the guitars do little more than repeat themselves over and over again, and the synth overdubs simply add another layer of aural sludge." Movie Wave's James Southall gave the soundtrack no stars, calling it "yet another phoned-in score" from Remote Control, "completely puerile garbage, as bad as film music gets". Conversely, Christopher Coleman, writing for Tracksounds, gave the score a six out of ten, saying, "as much as I had prepared myself to dislike this score...as much as I thought I'd be among the throngs of haters...and as much as I long for classically-styled scores for superhero films, ''Iron Man'' has won me over." He felt that fans of the Remote Control style would find the score an "industrially-clever diversion", but for others it would only give "more fuel for your personal,
emote Control An emote is an entry in a text-based chat client that indicates an action taking place. Unlike emoticons, they are not text art, and instead describe the action using words or images (similar to emoji). Emotes were created by Shigetaka Kurita ...
bond-fires". He felt that the release "captures the most of the significant cues", but suffers from the inclusion of Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized". Coleman concluded by saying that "a traditional, all-symphonic score would not have worked better for this film".
Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
gave the release three stars out of five, with reviewer James Christopher Monger saying that Djawadi "treats the superhero with a predictably heavy hand", and imbues the film with "enough bombast to fuel two sequels". Many critics praised the inclusion of both the Urbont's classic 1966 Iron Man theme song and the modern cover of it, with Coleman calling it "one of the best surprises of the movie and score", and Broxton highlighting the cover as "a wonderful piece of feelgood jazz". Clemmenson lamented the theme not being integrated into Djawadi's music, feeling that it is "so diametrically opposed to the Remote Control handbook for simplistic progressions that it's disappointing that Djawadi didn't take a stab at coherently interpolating it into the new work."


Accolades


References


External links


Iron Man Soundtrack - Soundtrack.NetIron Man soundtrack - the SoundtrackInfo project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iron Man Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One soundtracks Iron Man (film series) 2008 soundtrack albums 2000s film soundtrack albums Lionsgate Records soundtracks Ramin Djawadi soundtracks