Okay, let's talk about this song. Lorde's cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is so dark and atmospheric. They used it in the Dracula Untold trailer I posted Tuesday and I could not run to iTunes fast enough to download it.
Covers fascinate me, because with the same lyrics, the same number of beats per measure, and same basic chord progression, a song becomes an entirely different song. The song is the sum of all its basic components, plus one very intangible element: the human touch. The creative interpretation.
For example, one of my flagship songs for Fearless is "House of the Rising Sun." The original is actively sinister, and for that it makes the soundtrack. But also in my playlist is a cover by bluegrass group Jypsi, one you can't find on YouTube, but which I recommend you look up on iTunes because it is so railroad-tracks-lonesome and lovely. Both the same song, both so different, both evocative of different mental images.
I won't preach today, because I do it too often. But I will always believe that the way a story is told holds more impact than the story itself. The author's tone, the elegance of prose - those things elevate the story from lines on a page to an experience. As authors we have to ask ourselves: Do we want to tell this story crudely? Or make a production out of it. If this were a movie, which song would we choose for the trailer? What is its soundtrack? Which images press themselves into the reader's subconscious?
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