Yet "Drive" is only the latest film to mark the upsurge in strong electronic music soundtracks.
Last year, the Academy Award for Best Original Score went to "The Social Network" (2010). Composed by rock legend Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross, the score was dark and ambient, capturing the film's nervous tension. Reflecting the innovative spirit of Mark Zuckerberg himself, Reznor used a little-known electronic instrument called the Swarmatron there were only about 10 of them in existence when Reznor composed the score to create an eerily dissonant choral sound. Reznor will also score David Fincher's next film, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2011).
This hybrid of classical and modern approaches, is nothing new in film scoring, however. Some of the first forays into electronic sounds in film were those fused with classical music in the 1970s and 1980s. Wendy Carlos, for example, played famous classical compositions with electronic instruments in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971). Greek composer Vangelis put electronic film scores on the map, though, when he wrote legendary compositions for "Chariots of Fire" (1981) and "Blade Runner" (1982), while unconventionally using synthesizers for instrumentation. It was not long before these electronic sounds were taken seriously Vangelis' work on "Chariots of Fire" won Best Original Score and is still considered one of the greatest film scores of the last few decades.
While electronic scoring is not a new trend in filmmaking, electronic composition in film seems to be more diverse than ever. While many films in the 1980s were saturated with catchy synthesizer tunes and pop songs, today's electronic music elements in film are more varied and subtle.
A great electronic score that was unfairly looked over by the Academy in the same year that "The Social Network" won was the soundtrack to "Black Swan" (2010). Composed by Clint Mansell, the score was based off Tchaikovsky's ballet, but with manically electronic alterations that were unmistakably contemporary.
Another recent trend in electronic soundtracks is to employ famous electronica and techno artists to score film. Also featured on the "Black Swan" soundtrack, for example, were three original tracks by English electronic duo The Chemical Brothers. They went on to lend their dynamic and powerful sound to the action-packed thriller "Hanna" (2011), producing 20 original tracks. Similarly, the French electronic duo Daft Punk produced their first film score last year for "Tron: Legacy" (2010). These two soundtracks are rife with club-worthy beats and catchy synth hooks. The high praise for the two soundtracks seems to evidence that popular electronic music holds the potential to translate well to film scoring. It remains to be seen whether trippy electronic musician Dan Deacon's first foray into film scoring for Francis Ford Coppola's "Twixt" (2011) will find similar success.
While there is definitely a recent surge in electronic music in film, I would hesitate to call this a resurgence. Electronic music never left film since it emerged in the 1980s, yet it has greatly evolved in the last decade or so. As the new millennium rolled around, films like "The Matrix" (1999) and "Fight Club" (1999) used manic electronica, evoking acute Y2K paranoia and a confusing surge in technological possibilities. Somewhere along the way to 2011, electronic film music chilled out along with society's technology obsession reflecting the ambient yet ever-present role technology plays in our lives today. As film composers in 2011 incorporate both the synth-pop style of the 1980s and the techno-heavy style of the late 1990s while forging their own styles for today, we may now be in a golden age of electronic film music indeed.
