Electronic Music at the 2012 Olympics

With the huge popularity of electronic music, it isn’t surprising to find out that it will have a strong presence at the Olympics.  London 2012 will have 5 official songs composed for it, using the (all British) talents of: grime pioneer and hip-hop artist Dizzee Rascal, dance duo Pnau (doing a remix of an Elton John song), alternative dance band Delphic, Muse, and electronic music legends The Chemical Brothers (YES!!!).  To top it off, Underworld will be composing the music for the 3 hour opening ceremonies.

Of the five official London 2012 songs only two have been released-

Pnau vs Elton John- Good Morning to the Night

Pnau is a dance duo made up of Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes.  Those names may be more recognizable to some from their side project, the hugely popular Empire of the Sun, of which Nick Littlemore is a band member and Peter Mayes is the producer.  Pnau and Elton John have been close ever since Elton listened to their self-titled album and declared it the best record he’s heard in a decade.  The remix they did for the olympics, “Good Morning to the Night,” is actually part of an entire album Pnau is doing of remixed Elton John songs. 

Here is a rip of the song from Radio 1.  It is a lot of fun and very uplifting.  I think it will be a great fit for the 2012 olympics.

Muse - Survival

This is definitely not Muse’s strongest showing.  I understand they wrote the song for the olympics, but these lyrics are so cheesy:

“Race, life is race
And I’m gonna win
Yes, I’m gonna win
I'll light the fuse
And I'll never lose”

Sound Singularity will definitely keep an eye out for the other songs as they get released.  The Chemical Brothers song is scheduled to be officially released on July 30th.  The song is specifically being written for the Velodrome, which is the indoor cycling track.  Here is a pretty funny quote from The Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands about the song, from www.vulture.com:

“We're doing music for the Velodrome at the London Olympics. I'm a very keen cyclist and was trying to get tickets, but it seemed like the only way to do it was to make the music for the event. It's kind of a long-winded way of doing it.”

Underworld will be working with Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle on the three hour opening ceremonies.  Danny Boyle used Underworld’s song “Born Slippy” on his 1996 film Trainspotting, and they have collaborated many times since.  I am very excited to see what these guys come up with to compete with the spectacle we got to witness four years ago in China.

The 2012 Olympics will be hosted in London from July 27th to August 12th.  U.S.A! U.S.A!