Does being on a "Twilight" soundtrack ruin a band/song?

Personally, I can't stand watching any of the "Twilight" films since the acting and screen writing is so horrible, but I love the soundtracks. However, I've noticed that some people can't stand to listen to bands they once liked just because they were on the "Twilight" soundtrack. What do you all think about this? Are the bands somehow losing their talent because they allowed their songs to go on these soundtracks? Why or why not?

~ Trish

Why would that ever ruin a band? A song may be spoiled for you personally, but that's very different. Lots of craptastic films have featured less-than-craptastic songs, and from what I know, the Twilight & co. soundtracks are the best thing to come out of these films. I haven't noticed anyone's love for Vampire Weekend or Florence + the Machine (or any other one of the fantastic bands on these albums) depreciate due to the films but that may just be me.

The quality of the bands featured is not related to the quality of the films. The popularity, maybe, but that's a whole 'nother thing.

Being a huge Muse fan, I was annoyed in the first place that Muse songs were being used in the movie, especially since the song choices didn't make any sense. "Supermassive Black Hole" in the baseball scene in the first movie? "I Belong to You" in the second? What the heck?

But, Muse is Meyer's favorite band, so I couldn't bring myself to do much more to grumble. Until, that was, I went to a Muse concert this last April and saw hundreds of little preteen girls running around. Twilight's influence was the only reason I could think of that preteen girls would be at a concert for a band with a serious political/religious/sociocultural agenda. And on a similar note, Muse is now stalked by hordes who, at least in my understanding, are just blindly stalking the band. I mean, if you're going to be an obsessive fan, you better have better reasons than "Stephanie likes them!" or "That one song is so cool!!!" (Or I guess that should be "That 1 sng iz liek sooooooooo KeWl!!!!")

But what has really, really, REALLY pissed me off, enough to indulge in caps, is the song Muse composed specifically for the next movie. Basically, Muse sold out, and the result isn't pretty. On one hand, I'm kinda proud that the song is so atrociously bad, and, who knows, I might have been equally pissed off if Muse had actually made a good song. It's so bad, it doesn't even sound like them.

I hope that song's not indicative of things to come, to put it simply.

To answer your questions, though, I don't think the movies are making the bands lose their talent in any way. If anything, it's giving them exposure, and it's not their fault that millions of people are caught up, cult-like, in the Twilight phenomenon (for the record, I don't object to people liking it, but the obsession has to go). The bands are smart to tap into that in many ways.

In the end, only the band's gonna be responsible for how things go for the band. Their choices about what they do with the Twilight stuff is gonna have a huge impact on their future, whether they like it or not, whether we like it or not... And frogs, do I just hope Muse composed that awful song just because and will go back to making awesome music soon enough.

I don't think so, and I think it's harsh that this is typically stereotyped to Twilight films, which is half the reason there's so much disliking going on towards the films and books.

Any movie can be bad and have a fabulous soundtrack. The Twilight films are just one of them. To me, it's the other way round. I love the Twilight soundtracks, and I've actually discovered new bands from it - Full Moon from The Black Ghosts is a fabulous song, and I loved it so much I went and found the band's CD and loved all the songs. The same with Muse - I'd always generally liked them, but didn't listen much to their music until the Twilight soundtrack came out, and I thought, "Wow, actually, their music is actually quite impressive. And I loved their latest album to pieces.

So basically, I don't think a band is ruined because they are on a terribly overbudgeted big movie like Twilight. It's the listeners that determine that for the band. If you are just going to like a song/band because of a movie, and end up like girls at the Muse concert, then that's what ruins it for everyone else.
But please remember that there are people like me, who have just discovered the band, and appreciate them and the rest of their music.

No.

I completely agree with you guys. I just was wondering if it was more people thinking like that, or just a few people on youtube/in my school.

Rachael, I totally get what you mean about the Muse concert. I went to one in my hometown and probably more than half the people were little girls like you said. But what I noticed when Muse came on was that there was barely anyone making any noise. It really mad me mad because I felt like there weren't any real Muse fans there. If you spend almost a hundred bucks on a ticket, you should actually like the music for the music, not for reasons such as those you pointed out. I mean, I spent almost a month's wages on that one ticket, and it just felt completely unfair that these people would go to a Muse concert and not even act like they were having the time of their lives. My friend and I didn't even feel we could stand up because we were in the stands and ABSOLUTELY NOBODY ELSE was standing or jumping around.

And I also agree with you, Austenite, because I personally have found many new bands etc. from Twilight, though I don't like to think of them as involved with said franchise.

Thanks for your input everyone!

~ Trish