Trailercore
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About
Trailercore is a neologism coined by Polygon to describe the phenomena of movie trailers featuring slow, somber covers of famous pop songs, which grew popular in the 2010s.
History
The idea of using somber covers of pop songs for film trailers can be traced to The Social Network; the first trailer for the film, released July 16th, 2010, uses a children's choir singing Radiohead's "Creep"[1] (shown below).
Throughout the 2010s, the gimmick would become more prevalent in movie trailers. Notable examples include the trailer for Birdman, which uses a somber cover of "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley (shown below, top left), A Cure For Wellness ("I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones, top right), Avengers: Age Of Ultron ("I've Got No Strings," bottom left) and Fifty Shades of Grey ("Crazy In Love" by Beyonce, bottom right).
The gimmick grew prominent enough to inspire several listicles and rankings, including multiple lists on Screencrush,[2][3] rankings on EW[4] and Ranker,[5] and a page on TV Tropes.[6] On July 19th, 2021, Polygon[1] coined the term "Trailercore" while discussing a somber cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that opens Black Widow (shown below).
Online Reaction
The trope has proven divisive among viewers. On November 13th, 2016, Redditor seanmg complained in /r/movies[7] about the prominence of the trope. Vulture[8] wrote a piece begging studios to stop using sad covers of pop songs in trailers; Deadspin[9] wrote a piece where writer Tom Ley said he "lived for" such covers.
On YouTube, hypothetical "trailercore" songs have been composed by various users. For example, YouTuber Jennymusic has "trailercore" covers of pop songs by various artists (examples shown below, top). On September 19th, 2018, EpicHeavenMusic posted a trailercore version of "In The End" by Linkin Park, gaining over 2.7 million views (shown below, bottom left). On April 14th, 2020, Hidden Citizens posted a cover of "The Star Spangled Banner," gaining over 741,000 views (shown below, bottom right).
Search Interest
Unavailable
External References
[1] Polygon – A sad, slowed-down breakdown of trailercore
[2] Screencrush – More trailers with sad cover songs
[3] Screencrush – 20 more trailers with sad cover songs
[4] Entertainment Weekly – 21 somber cover songs used in movie trailers, ranked
[5] Ranker – 21 Movie Trailers with Slowed Down Cover Songs
[6] TV Tropes – Softer and Slower Cover
[7] Reddit – It drives me insane that I keep hearing trailer music just be slow sad covers of pop songs to look edgy.
[8] Vulture – Stop Movie Covers
[9] Deadspin – I Fucking Live For Haunting Covers Of Literally Any Song In Movie Trailers
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