The Idea of You: a music film
The Idea of You: a music film
Every single song in the new popstar/gallerist romance movie
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The new movie The Idea of You is a semi-weepie, with an age-gap romance and some of the best linen towels I have ever seen. I thought the film was a lovely wish fulfilment fantasy about a character who really needs a gorgeous, kind, and sensitive celebrity to fall in love with her to rebuild her shattered self-esteem. But the best thing about this film is that it’s a great movie depiction of a male popstar. I’ve seen people calling this film cringe. All I can say is, you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me (Top of the Pops).
Here is a musical journey through The Idea of You.
Light On by Maggie Rogers
The movie opens with some scene-setting. As we pan over Silver Lake, a bohemian area of Los Angeles, my ears perk up – is that my fave dreamy girlband Muna? Close but, it’s Maggie Rogers, an artist who hovers exactly somewhere between pop (she was discovered by Pharell Williams) and American folk. The female lead in this romance is Solene, a 40-year-old gallerist with the lushest house in the whole United States of America. The song is soaring and hopeful and the lyrics give us the theme of the romance: for Solene, “I'm vulnerable in oh-so many ways” and for the male lead Hayes, “the noise got too loud/With everyone around me saying/"You should be so happy now”.
The Harry Styles references are embedded from the beginning of this film: “Light On” co-written by his close collaborator Kid Harpoon, who has produced all of his solo work, and co-produced with Greg Kurstin, who co-wrote and -produced one of my favourite tracks on Harry’s simply lovely 2019 album Fine Line. The song is about hanging around in a sunshine-filled home in LA, and indeed that is where we begin The Idea of You.
Does this song slay: not at all
Good choice filmically speaking?: It does the job.
If We Ever Broke Up by Mae Stephens
Mae Stephens is a British pop singer who self-released songs until she scored a TikTok hit, “If We Ever Broke Up” and got signed to EMI. It’s the modern-day fairytale.
Does this song slay: yes, it’s cute!
Good choice filmically speaking?: I think it’s here to represent “TikTok songs” and during its two-second stay in The Idea of You, I enjoyed it.
I Got You by August Moon
It’s time to hear our first few bars of August Moon. Our hero Hayes is a member of a five-piece boyband who Solene’s 16-year-old daughter used to like when she was younger. This song is an acoustic number that is here to suggest dumb, over-earnest boyband music that everyone in the car enjoys singing along to. It’s brilliantly placed. At this point in the story, the song’s theme of ignoring social media (“you don't need them problems/You don't need them likes/Girl) is made to seem trivial and juvenile. The song itself is a direct pull from the Ed Sheeran-penned “Little Things” by One Direction, which also urges a girl not to stress about her insecurities, over an acoustic guitar.
Does this song slay: it’s an acoustic ballad about feeling insecure so, no
Good choice filmically speaking?: The foreshadowing of the film’s main antogonist, social media, makes this a banging choice. The use of a classic, toothless boyband sound to downplay the warning within the song is very smart. Will social media continue to be as easy to dismiss as the music of August Moon? Or will we come to respect/fear the power of both by the end of this movie?
Cold Killer by Redlight King
This rock song was picked by director Michael Showalter, and you have to assume he’s a big personal fan of Redlight King because they get shown twice. The band plays live onstage at Coachella, where Solene has accidentally ended up after her shitbag ex husband became too busy to take the daughter and her gaggle of sweet friends.
Does this song slay: no no
Good choice filmically speaking?: I haven’t been to Coachella but I assume it is a good representation of what kind of music they have on there.
Taste (remix) by August Moon and R3HAB
R3HAB is a real DJ and one of those male musicians who have sold 40 million hundred billion records and you’ve never heard of them. Here, R3HAB has earned his billion pounds by slightly speeding up the song, a funk-lite track about a lady being hot (“Need more hours in the day/Focusing on your waist”). Solene has been ditched by her daughter and her friends to go and watch St Vincent.
Solene tries to read her book, a thing she attempts a few times in this film although we never see her get past the first page. This song combines the sound of The Brothers Jonas with a hint of the anti-chorus of “I Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd, if it was strained through a linen towel. As this was written in 2023, we can be 100% certain that it was influenced by the funk-lite (emphasis on the lite) of Harry Styles’s 2022 album Harry’s House. One nice thing is that this album, whose crimes I do not have space to cover here, finds utility in this knock-off version that people talk over in a VIP area.
Does this song slay: no
Good choice filmically speaking?: It’s great – not only does Solene ignore the song, she gets so irritated by an August Moon fangirl that she leaves the VIP area, speeding towards her fateful meet-cute with Hayes.
Digital Witness/Actor Out of Work by St Vincent
Under the scene where Solene and Hayes meet after she ends up mistaking his trailer for a posh festival toilet, two songs by St Vincent play very distantly in the background.
Does this song slay: Hard to tell from inside a toilet.
Good choice filmically speaking?: Fantastic. Lest we forget that Solene is a mother with responsibilities, these songs subconsciously remind us that her daughter is somewhere nearby watching St Vincent, “an aggressively talented female artist”.
I Go by Peggy Gou
This track, which plays over a meet and greet where Hayes and the rest of August Moon sign autographs, is a super-peppy track with a rave sound and lyrics in Korean. Peggy Gou is a name from dance music that I’ve heard around and I’m really happy this is my first waltz with her. NPR said it sounds like “a glitter-pink Walkman on a summer day”.
Does this song slay: yes
Good choice filmically speaking?: Although Gou isn’t from a K-pop background, it would have been a historical oddity not to acknowledge Korean music in this film about boybands. Nicholas Galtizine, who plays Hayes, has mentioned super-mega-earth-stomping Korean boyband BTS as an inspiration for August Moon’s dynamic.
Guard Down by August Moon
This song confirms a longstanding suspicion of mine that someone in the One Direction writing camp was a fan of The Police, Sting’s band before he went solo. They have a unique style, with a sort of reggae-inflected groove under his weird, clipped vocal. You can hear it in 1D songs like Drag Me Down. I’ve linked to this specific clip mainly to illustrate that August Moon are not, despite press reports, a clone of 1D. One Direction were, at best, charmingly inept live performers, and they did not dance. The Idea of You takes the dancing seriously – they hired a choreographer who has worked with BTS and the four members other than Nicholas Galitzine are professional dancers. They do a good job, although I’m not suggesting it’s at BTS levels. BTS performances are sublime. If you’ve never seen one, this version of “Black Swan” from the Late Late Show was the first time I saw them dance. It’s now an archival document that should be in an International Library of Human Culture: the following year, the band went on the infamous boyband hiatus so that various members could complete their military service.
Does this song slay: not really. It’s the bread and butter of August Moon’s catalogue.
Good choice filmically speaking?: A strange one as it’s really hard to dance to so bopping along takes all of Anne Hathaway’s Academy Award for Best Actress abilities.
Taste by August Moon
It’s time to hear the song that was remixed in the VIP section, sung “live” onstage. It sounds uncannily and distressingly like Harry Styles’ worst song “Cinema”. It is mercifully cut short.
Does this song slay: Please don’t make me think about Harry’s House.
Good choice filmically speaking?: All we hear is a single funk-lite synth line. In music films, synths indicate trivial meaninglessness, while acoustic music signifies important and valuable art music. Let’s see what the next song sounds like SHALL WE.
Closer by August Moon
Hayes stops “Taste” and gathers the boys in an apparently impromptu conflab. They break out into a very light song called “Closer”, which has the line “I know that you’re a little bit older / But baby, rest your head on my shoulder”. This is the theme! This film doesn’t waste a second of your time except when it’s showing Redlight King!
Does this song slay: it almost doesn’t because it’s very easy listening – I’d say it’s like an X Factor contestant covering Take That covering The BeeGees on “How Deep Is Your Love” – but then it has a part where the band creates a classic “Max Martin’s Annoying Sound” by knocking their mics on their bodies to mimic a heartbeat. So it gets one point.
Good choice filmically speaking?: Hayes has to serenade Solene using some song or other. She’s 39 going on 40 so maybe he thinks telephone hold music is her sort of thing.
Happy Birthday by Solene’s Friends
Instances of “Happy Birthday” in media always interest me because it matters very much when they are included. For a long time, the copyright for “Happy Birthday To You” was aggressively pursued by the rights owner, Warner Music, and if you heard it in a movie or show, the makers were willing to pay through the nose for it. Warner made around $2 million a year from “Happy Birthday” until the copyright lapsed in 2017 and the song became free for humanity to enjoy. So after 2017, “Happy Birthday” is suddenly everywhere again.
Does this song slay: I’ve always hated this song.
Good choice filmically speaking?: It certainly conveys the theme of having a happy birthday.
In Your Room by The Bangles / Let’s Groove by Earth, Wind & Fire / More, More, Moe by Andrea True / I Can Dream About You by Dan Hartman
No disrespect to these songs but they are here to give “retro grownup party” vibes for Solene’s 40th birthday. I enjoyed learning that Andrea True was a disco singer and recording studio owner, the daughter of a polka musician. The influence of polka, a form of Czech folk music, on American music intrigues me no end. Did you know that until 2008 the Grammys had an award for Best Polka Album? It was only ever awarded to five different artists and the absolute dominance of one Jimmy Sturr over the category (sample album name: Shake, Rattle and Polka!) may have polished it off. It’s been just long enough for a polka revival I say.
Does this song slay: these songs individually all slay
Good choice filmically speaking?: yes they are a good tasteful soundtrack for a montage where various men who are not international boyband heartthrobs talk at Solene. Also, these aren’t songs Solene loves – they’re great but they’re crowd-pleasers rather than songs that would get her jumping up to sing at the top of her lungs, like we saw the crowd do to August Moon. They’re songs from a bygone era. Does Solene, who is 40 and according to the timeline of the movie was a college student in the year 2000, actually love any music?
Paper Bag by Fiona Apple
HELL YEAH NOW WE ARE TALKING. When a movie has a Fiona Apple song I know it is pandering to me. After a boring bit where Solene and Hayes talk about art, the needle drops on “Paper Bag”.
Does this song slay: only if you like virtuoso vocal performances and percussion from another planet! Fiona Apple isn’t exactly known for conveying joy but this is the surprising exception in her catalogue and one of my favourite songs by her.
Good choice filmically speaking?: Solene is a millennial mom so she listens to the radio when she’s in the car rather than playing her own playlist over Bluetooth. Her personal choice of song, “Paper Bag” is playing on “alt rock” radio, reminding us that Solene is not like the other girls. I am offended by this categorisation, but it is character work. “Paper Bag”’s inclusion puts the film in conversation with Hustlers. In this 2019 movie, Jennifer Lopez slinks onscreen to Fiona Apple’s “Criminal”. Hustlers director Lorene Scafaria uses the song to highlight two very different modes of 2000s femininity – the glitzy stripper and the “alternative” girl – while honouring them both. This useage is much more on the nose, but well-played nonetheless.
Dance Before We Walk by Hayes Campbell
After some heart-to-hearts and cleaning out Solene’s fridge (ideal first date) Hayes sits down at her piano, which luckily is tuned even though we only ever see her watching TV, the woman doesn’t even read let alone play piano. He plays a pretty melody that he claims is “nothing, really”. This is a risky play, Hayes. Some people would be icked into space by a man playing sad music near them. Luckily for him, Solene is a gallerist, so she appreciates his creativity. Long story short, Hayes successfully woos Solene.
Does this song slay: I am very nervous that this is the beginning of Hayes starting to “finally” make “REAL MUSIC” on instruments.
Good choice filmically speaking?: The camera goes all shaky and he’s playing soft piano so it’s conveying intimacy. We also get a good look at Solene’s living room. The production designer painted the whole house in colours that would flatter Anne Hathaway’s complexion. Now that’s romance.
Pay Your Way in Pain by St Vincent
The daughter, who looks 28, is dropped off at summer camp. On the way mother and daughter sing this St Vincent song in the car. Because we’ve had Fiona Apple, we now understand that they have more in common musically than you’d guess.
Does this song slay: it sounds great, like an angry Prince song. I don’t really like Prince though.
Good choice filmically speaking?: It’s the daughter’s theme music.
Les Fleurs by Minnie Riperton
Hayes invites Solene to his hotel in New York. You know when a montage is soundtracked by Minnie Riperton, the lady onscreen is about to have a certain kind of lovely time. The song soundtracks by far the most gratuitous shot in this movie: an unnecessarily lingering gaze at a really big, sparkly chandelier.
Does this song slay: Oh yeah. Many have tried to emulate the lush breathiness of Minnie Riperton’s music but few succeed. By coincidence, this is my favourite of her songs and is on my very important, atmospheric playlist “Party 2.0”: it’s about flowers, and has a triumphant chorus.
Good choice filmically speaking?: Absolutely. It builds the anticipation without any anxiety about what is about to happen.
Dance Hall Days by Wang Chung
Truly a wheel within a wheel, this song is not a dancehall song and the artist is not Chinese. I investigated “why Wang Chung band name” and learned the British new wave band chose it because it “gives you no idea about the music you’re about to experience”. This is certainly true! The TV in Hayes’ room prominently displays the single cover and the year of release, 1984.
We know Solene was a college student in 2000 so she was probably born a few years earlier than this, but if she was 40 in the year of the film’s release in 2024, she was born in 1984. Maybe this song came out in the week she was born? If so, why not choose the number one from that week to really land the point? I know why! Because it was “Say Say Say” by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.
Does this song slay: not really.
Good choice filmically speaking?: It’s quite confusing. So it’s another one the director really wanted. It is especially confusing because it’s hard to imagine Hayes, a confident, tattooed slab of muscle in a sleeveless vest, connecting deeply to new wave. Is it possible they wanted a Talking Heads song and couldn’t get it? There are so many well-placed songs in this movie I feel like this song that is so deeply embedded in the scene could have worked better.
Dance Before We Walk by Hayes Campbell
Oh no, Hayes is strumming an acoustic guitar and talking about his desire to be taken seriously as a musician.
Does this song slay: n/a
Good choice filmically speaking?: It’s creating dread in me so I guess that’s storytelling. This is the midpoint of the film, so it’s a good place to show Hayes having character development through writing this song.
Taste by August Moon
Finally we get to hear the song Solene ignored in the VIP area! Hayes sings “Taste” to Solene every night on his tour. Not so indifferent now are you Solene!!
Does this song slay: It’s impossible to separate it from context so let’s say yes.
Good choice filmically speaking?: The change moment here is that Solene finally gets it about what Hayes does for work and looks on from the side of the stage, awestruck. When a boybander is doing their job correctly, everyone in the audience or listening at home on pink headphones feels like he is singing directly to them. It’s an alchemical moment of intimacy that has nothing to do with songcraft, vocal ability or the world of reason. It’s a form of true love, which transforms. So I’d say yes, this song is a good choice filmically speaking.
Voilà by Jeanne Cherhal
A cool-sounding French-language song to soundtrack the stunning poolhouse in France that Solene stays in with Hayes and the linen towels. Jeanne Cherhal has recorded an album called L’An 40 (40th Year), which would have been on-theme, and although this is from a different album I wonder if that’s the route the music supervisor travelled down. My snaps from this scene, where radiantly beautiful people splash half-naked in a sun-drenched pool:
Does this song slay: It’s cool but I wouldn’t say it slays.
Good choice filmically speaking?: Very apt. It is followed by a long period of no music during which Solene and Hayes split up.
Dance Before We Walk by Hayes Campbell
It’s bad news on the “DBWW” front: a heartbroken Hayes is in a wood-panelled recording studio laying down an acoustic version :(
Does this song slay: no we are in minus points territory
Good choice filmically speaking?: Solene shows up and interrupts his recording, which bothers me. He’s at work? I guess this is payback from when he visited her art gallery and they listened to Fiona Apple earlier in the film. The difference is that studio time is very expensive – only major stars can burn daylight in wood-panelled LA recording studios. I’m stressed because I’m wondering if it’s professional of Hayes to be snogging Solene in the recording booth. Oh yeah, they got back together.
Dance Before We Walk by August Moon
In a moment of wonderful relief for me, a montage of Solene and Hayes announcing their relationship to the world is soundtracked by a fully-produced pop version of “Dance Before We Walk”! The fast drum line from Harry Styles’ real-life hit “As It Was” is combined with a euphoric chorus about dancing. This is the jewel in Idea of You’s crown and it’s time to talk about the man behind the songs, Savan Kotecha. The reason I can hear so many deep references, and why this song is good enough to be a real pop song of a certain ilk, is that Savan is a songwriter with an incredible history. He’s co-written some of my favourite songs, from Ariana Grande’s “Love Me Harder” to Charlie Puth’s “Empty Cups” to Normani’s “Motivation”. He executive-produced the excellent soundtrack to Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, one of very few music movies I think honours the art of pop. I strongly recommend this film and especially the “song-a-long” scene, where real Eurovision contenders sing a medley at a house party. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and the film to pour scorn on them, but it never did. It was like I got to take my male gaze goggles off in the cinema for once. It makes sense that the music of The Idea of You feels real and not like a snide satire. Anyone who can write a song like One Direction’s “Na Na Na” just understands the project they’ve been assigned in life.
Does this song slay: Beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Good choice filmically speaking?: I dunno, do you love to feel JOY and CATHARSIS. The song combines an 80s sound, although a much fizzier one than Wang Chung’s, with lyrics that reference the radio hit “Shut Up and Dance With Me” by Walk the Moon: “We're gonna dance before we walk/Off the moon and I'm hittin’ the ground like a rocket.”
Here follows an interlude with no songs, only score. Social media turns out to be a pressing issue when it’s you who is being called an old hag online. Solene puts her daughter first and the couple break up again. Hayes begs her to come back to him in five years’ time when the daughter has been packed off to St Vincent University. Five years elapse. Solene is back at home listening to Light On by Maggie Rogers as if Hayes never happened, and watching Graham Norton on TV. I had no idea Graham had this kind of profile in America!
Go Rogue by Hayes Campbell
Who should appear on Graham, but Hayes. Five years has gone by, and it’s implied that August Moon have gone “on hiatus”. Hayes now has facial hair and plays a boring acoustic song. It’s very much: Harry Styles in his unlistenably serious Harry Styles era. But hope is on the horizon: Hayes is lit in blue and pink, hinting that maybe he could write a Fine Line. If only he could find his muse.
Does this song slay: No, but it does showcase Nicholas Galitzine’s singing – it’s his own voice on these songs.
Good choice filmically speaking?: If this had been the emotional climax of the film I would have been peeved at the message that acoustic music = good music. It’s a huge issue I have with Barbie, for example, as much as I liked that film overall. If I’m meant to believe that Barbie’s freedom is desirable, why is she in an ill-fitting yellow teadress and listening to Billie Eilish? This is not my idea of freedom. But because I trust that the The Idea of You knows its source material, I do believe Hayes can find a good stylist and make music worth listening to, and have personal happiness.
As a romance, The Idea of You almost deromanticises celebrity. Its message is: if you want love, avoid fame. I adored the houses, the clothes, the towels, and most of all the sincere tribute to a certain type of pop music by a certain type of popstar. Although the individual slay score of each song was low, as a coherent whole it punched higher than its weight. It is on my very short list of films that treat the music I love as the wonderful, silly, magical potion it is.