The Story Behind Twilight
When Stephenie Meyer began writing Twilight in 2003, she had no idea what a huge success her novel and the following three books in the saga would be. In fact, Meyer didn’t even plan to publish her book. She hadn’t written anything since the birth of her son, six years earlier, so her sudden spark of inspiration was a big surprise.
As cliché as it is, the idea for Edward and Bella’s love story came to the best-selling author in a dream. Meyer woke from a vivid image of two people in a field. She had to know more, so she started writing what later became Twilight’s famous meadow scene (which, fans would agree, was definitely a lot better in the book than in the movie). Meyer obsessively wrote about the human-vampire love story and continually sent her growing manuscript to her sister. In a way, Twilight fans owe a lot to Meyer’s sister because she was the driving force that got the Twilight saga published. Meyer wrote for fun, for herself, she said, but soon gave in to her sister’s advice and began the long process of query letters, sending manuscripts, and rejection. Lots of rejection.
Eventually, a publishing company by the name of Little, Brown accepted Meyer’s first novel of the saga, and the rest is history. With six fictional novels, four movies (the second half of Breaking Dawn is set to come out later this year), and about 100 million fans, it’s safe to say that Meyer is basking in her success as a published author.
The Soundtracks
Probably the best part about Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn is the music. The movie soundtracks are ridden with under-the-radar bands such as Iron & Wine, Band of Skulls, Cider Sky, and Sea Wolf. Some of the music is taken from a band’s past album, but it is rerecorded and some of the lyrics are tweaked. An example is Editor’s “No Sound But the Wind,” which was originally just a live song, first played at Paredes de Coura in Portugal in 2008. Later, lyrics were changed to fit Edward and Bella’s story, and it was released on the New Moon soundtrack. Similarly, Blue Foundation’s “Eyes on Fire” was released on the 2007 album “Life of a Ghost.” It was later played during the scene in Twilight when Bella is nearly crushed by Tyler’s van in the parking lot.
While some music is taken from various albums released before Twilight was even a thought in Meyer’s mind, others were written specifically for the movie. When Hayley Williams of Paramore first read Twilight, she was so moved by the story that she wrote “Decode,” a song that plays during the credits of the movie, and it was even turned into a music video. The song became so popular that Paramore gained an even larger fan base. Their success from Twilight only catapulted them into an even more exciting music career.
Death Cab for Cutie, an indie band lead by front man, Ben Gibbard, jumped on the soundtrack train when he wrote “Meet Me on the Equinox” for New Moon. Florence + The Machine sing about unrequited love in “Heavy in Your Arms,” which was written for Eclipse. Bruno Mars is featured in Breaking Dawn: Part 1 with “It Will Rain,” a song that plays during the credits in the movie, and Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years,” which also plays during the most recent movie in the Twilight saga, has gotten a lot of airtime on radios worldwide.
Fans of Twilight (and even critics) eagerly await the next movie soundtrack in the series. However, it is a bittersweet anticipation because this will be the final soundtrack of the saga. Come November, I guess Twihards and Twihaters will just have to grab a box of Kleenex and set their iTunes on repeat to enjoy this incredible collection of music.
Source
- Stephenie Meyer's official website.
Amber Oliver - Amber holds a B.A. in English and works as a freelance writer for various websites. She's smart, funny, single, and tweets like a beast.
