Who Needs Reasons When You’ve Got This Soundtrack?
This month, the cinematic classic Trainspotting celebrates its 30th anniversary. Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting is a mesmerising film that perfectly encapsulates the raw, brutal and prevalent drug abuse in the UK during the 1990s. A major contributor to the immersive setting is the film’s soundtrack, which is what this article will discuss.
The soundtrack perfectly encapsulates the emergence of Britpop in the mid-90s and helps shape the world we are thrown into. The score throughout the film conveys an adrenaline rush as the music ensnares us into the dour setting and bridges the gap between the highs and lows. It also lends a feeling of surrealism as the score impacts scenes where our characters are intoxicated. The score does not only deal with Britpop, however, as it also delves into the concurrent rise of the British Electronica scene. After 30 years, this article will show how the movie’s soundtrack influences music that is still heard in clubs and music venues today.
From the opening alone, Trainspotting establishes its aesthetic identity through Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” alongside Renton’s famous “Choose Life” monologue. “Lust for Life” has an upbeat and enthusiastic rhythm, with lyrics like “No more beating my brains with liquor and drugs” referring to overcoming a drug addiction. It captures the Britpop scene immediately with the energetic and catchy tone. Narratively, the song conveys the irony of substance abuse and Renton’s own desire for a better life. As the scene progresses, the song’s carefree tone is warped to represent that high drugs can give you, but the lyrics foreshadow that eventual realisation that it is causing more harm than good. “Lust for Life” shows the tension between the sensation of drugs and the eventual decay that follows. In this sense the soundtrack at large helps balance the grim realism of the story with the high-energy drug scene it takes place in. Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” accompanies the surreal feeling of an overdose as Renton sinks into the carpet. According to an interview in 2000 where Lou Reed talks about songwriting, he described the song as “this guy’s vision of a perfect day was the girl, sangria in the park, and then you go home,” creating a haunting contrast with Renton’s striking and dreamlike overdose.
In the film, high school student Diane states how “music is changing,” and that Renton is being left behind. The score of Trainspotting reflects the diverse music scene of the 1990s, with groups like Underworld headlining the wider mainstream acceptance of club and rave music, and New Order’s alternative dance and synth-like music clearly deviating from the contemporary mainstream while still maintaining that adrenaline-filled sensation of other Britpop songs in the film, such as Sleeper’s “Atomic” and Pulp’s “Mile End.” It shows the rise of diverse sounds entering mainstream culture, with club music growing and diversifying significantly in the 90s as seen with the aforementioned Underworld, other groups like Leftfield, and later Daft Punk, who hit the EDM scene a year later after the film’s release with Homework. Within three years of the movie’s release, The Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land, Fatboy Slim’s You've Come a Long Way, Baby and Chemical Brothers’ Surrender had released and reached the top of the UK charts, whereas before the release of the film these would have been perceived as “underground,” showing the influence of the acceptance of British EDM.
The soundtrack of Trainspotting extended beyond just the film. It became a best-selling album and introduced a wider range of audiences to an evolving music and drug scene during the 1990s, serving as an entry into UK indie and electronic music and appealing with its diverse genres while remaining a continuous upbeat tone. To this day songs like Underworld’s “Born Slippy” have become major dance tracks in clubs, showing that impact the movie has had in spreading recognition for these artists and exposing general club goers to a wider variety of music. In terms of film, the soundtrack showed how a powerful score can be created through existing artists and songs while maintaining a theme that relates perfectly to the culture and narrative of a film.
The use of Trainspotting’s score and the tracks chosen for the film have become inseparable from the film itself, showing how powerful a film’s soundtrack can actually be, with needle drops in lieu of a traditional film score. To put it simply, EDM today would not exist as it does, without the release of Trainspotting’s soundtrack.
