Member-only story
Twilight Renaissance: The Movie Soundtracks and Twilight Aesthetics
On July 16, 2021, Netflix added the films from the Twilight franchise to its library. In the week since, the five films have dominated Netflix’s Top 10 movies ranking. It feels like I can’t scroll more than 10 videos on my TikTok For You Page without encountering a post inspired by the books or the movies — the Twilight hashtag on the app has over 7.5 billion views. In high school, I had the movie soundtracks on my iPod nano, and the recent resurgence of its popularity has brought many of the film’s iconic songs to the mainstream once again.
The Twilight franchise had American teenage pop culture in its grips from 2005 with the publication of the first book in the series until after 2012 with the release of the final installment in the film franchise, Breaking Dawn Part II. The story, written by Stephenie Meyer, follows teenager Bella Swan and her romance with vampire Edward Cullen, and it became a cultural touchstone of that era. Every teenager in America had an opinion, positive or negative, on the franchise; fans picked their favorite heart-throb (Were you Team Edward or Jacob?); and the films grossed $3.3 billion worldwide, not to mention the books and merchandise.
The films’ soundtracks had a life of their own — the soundtrack from the first film…
