The Fifty Shades Franchise Has Become a Really Weird Way For Artists to Make Money

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Music

The Fifty Shades Franchise Has Become a Really Weird Way For Artists to Make Money

Success from artists like Rita Ora, Ellie Goulding, or the Weeknd is proof that landing on the soundtracks of the three worst movies ever made is a foolproof way to guarantee a song will be a hit.

Fifty Shades Freed – the third and final cinematic instalment of E.L. James’s despicably popular trilogy of pseudo-erotic anti-literature – was released in cinemas last month to widespread critical dismay. You know this already because your second cousin did a #girlsnight #fiftyshades #needmeachristiangrey Facebook check-in from Pizza Express on Valentine’s Day to let Craig know how much fun she’s having without him, and because when you last went to do your weekly food shop you had to kick a path through all the discarded chardonnay bottles before you could get into the car park shared by your local Odeon and the Big Tesco.

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Despite spawning a thousand ‘Is this the worst film franchise ever made?’ think pieces, Fifty Shades Freed has continued to defy its many extremely vocal critics, grossing $137 million on its opening weekend – enough to make the entire three film franchise worth over $1 billion in worldwide box office sales. With the first book having sold over 100 million copies in 52 languages when the film was released, the decision to adapt the novels was hardly a massive risk, and the the film’s subsequent success came as no great surprise.

What was certainly less predictable, though, was the enormous popularity of the film’s accompanying soundtrack. An eclectic mix of covers, remixes and original songs, it featured a hugely diverse group of artists ranging from Beyoncé and Sia to Annie Lennox, Frank Sinatra and The Rolling Stones, it somehow ended up being the only element of the whole thing that wasn’t universally panned by critics, feminists and anyone with a reading age of 12+. Released a few days before the film itself, the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack swiftly debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 100, sold 2.2 million copies and was both the fastest-selling motion picture soundtrack in a decade and (I shit you not) the seventh best-selling album of the year! But… what?! How?

Well, according to Universal Film Music President Mike Knobloch, the project was incredibly well planned, with “a lot of dialogue early on” about what kind of direction the soundtrack needed to take. As well as including exclusive versions of already hugely popular songs like “Crazy in Love”, and tracks actually referenced in the, er, novel, the range of artists and genres appeal to various ages and demographics, from your middle-aged colleague Michelle who has seen Annie Lennox live 27 times, to yer da, who can tolerate having it on in the car when your mum tells him The Stones are on it, plus every girl with a Topshop puffa who thinks they’re ‘into’ ‘alternative’ artists like ‘Jessie Ware’ because they went to Lovebox last year and bought a copy of NME in 2006 (calm down, even Ellie Goulding dated Skrillex once).

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With a decent collection of songs put together, the team at Universal Pictures then set about using the soundtrack as an anchor for publicity surrounding the film itself, with songs teased in the film’s trailers and its first two singles released months ahead of the film’s premiere. Alongside the flurry of speculation over what rating the film would get, and who would play Christian Grey after seemingly every single man in Hollywood decided not to taint their reputation by getting involved, the soundtrack became the subject of intense speculation in the months leading up to the film’s release. The collaboration was a mutually beneficial project for Universal – whose film adaptation was given some credibility through association with well-respected musicians like The Rolling Stones and Beyoncé – and the various artists involved, who benefited from the incredible intrigue surrounding the franchise, as well as its enormous publicity budget.

It perhaps isn’t so surprising, then, that the soundtrack launched some of its rising stars into the stratosphere. With its stabbing strings and slick falsetto, The Weeknd’s lead single “Earned It” could have made a successful Bond film title track, and consequently earned him his first truly global hit, reaching number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and making the top ten in several other countries worldwide. Released a few months later, his second LP Beauty Behind the Madness became his first number one album and the tenth-best selling album of 2015, selling 1.5 million copies. Upon its release, he also became the first artist ever to simultaneously hold the top three spots on the Billboard R&B chart. When you look at figures like that, it’s no great jump to claim that Fifty Shades is weirdly kind of responsible for the guy’s mammoth success. He was successful before the film, sure, but it was only after your mum heard him on Capital FM that he became a ‘motherfucking Starboy’.

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And then there was ultimate normie herself, Ellie Goulding, who had similarly struggled to attain global success with any of her previous singles despite a string of lukewarm UK top tens. The first soundtrack’s second single, “Love Me Like You Do”, became Goulding’s first ever worldwide hit, selling 12.6 million copies, and the sixth best-selling track of the year, ahead of Adele’s “Hello” and Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”. Her subsequent third album Delirium was released in November 2015 and became her first top-five album in the US, Canada and Australia. So, again, thank you very much Fifty Shades.

With such huge success the first time round, the team behind the soundtrack set about trying to “recapture its magic”, using the same formula for the next two. Having proven such an effective form of publicity, a lot of big name musicians were eager to get on board. Featuring a #collab from Taylor Swift and Zayn Malik on the lead single “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” (which picked up an MTV Video Music Award for 'Best Collaboration') and an original track from Nick Jonas and Nicki Minaj called “Bom Bidi Bom” (nope, me neither), the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack again reached number 1 in the US, Canada and Australia, while Rita Ora and 5th best 1D member Liam Payne’s lead single from Fifty Shades Freed has amassed over 50 million YouTube views in a month, despite literally giving me heartburn.

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Such unquestionable success make the Fifty Shades soundtracks a huge opportunity for both globally successful artists and relatively unknown newcomers. For new arrivals like Hailee Steinfeld and Julia Michaels, getting a song in Fifty Shades Freed might prove to be just the boost they need to launch a hugely successful music career, while alternative pop acts like Tove Lo and Halsey have an opportunity to gain new listeners unlikely to come across them by other means. Even more established artists Rita Ora and Jessie J – neither of whom have released an album in years – might hope to revive their somewhat stale careers with the publicity the soundtracks benefit from.

Even some of the biggest pop stars in the world were eager to use the franchise to their advantage. Taylor Swift began her career as a teenager, while Zayn and Liam are ex-members of the biggest boyband in the world, and a light association with the faux-explicitness of the film franchise’s distinctly ‘BBC Two’ brand of BDSM offers them all an opportunity to pull a Justin Timberlake, shedding their teen-pop image and repositioning themselves as fully-fledged grown-up pop stars with an ‘edginess’ that appeals to older audiences (a.k.a. your mum). All of which makes the franchise a weirdly handy marketing technique.

Of course – all of that said – the concept of original soundtracks is by no means new to Fifty Shades; numerous similar projects have happened in recent years, including the Twilight franchise, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, and blockbusters Snow White and the Huntsman and Tron: Legacy. Does anybody remember that shit Muse wrote for Twilight though ? Of course not. But from Rita and Liam’s almost in-tune Brits performance last month, to The Weeknd’s 350 million YouTube views and Taylor and Zayn’s MTV VMA, the weird thing about the songs on the Fifty Shades soundtracks is their ability to transcend their involvement with the shockingly terrible films that they appear on to reach a far greater audience than even the hugely popular film franchise can hope to.

As with the Kendrick Lamar-curated Black Panther soundtrack which currently has no fewer than eight songs (and various chart debuts) in the Billboard Hot 100, despite including a whole bunch of tracks that are ‘inspired by’ the film but don’t actually feature in it at all, an appearance on the Fifty Shades seems to be a pretty successful way of ensuring that your song becomes a hit, despite the film itself selling a laughably awful two-dimensional heteronormative version of romance that I’m sure any musician with a modicum of artistic integrity doesn’t really want anything to do with.

Which I guess means that in age when traditional methods of promo like music channels and radio airplay have less and less impact, the motion picture soundtrack looks to have become an effective new marketing tool with the power to make or break careers on a global scale. Weird, huh?

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