A24 simply launched A24 Music in April 2025, however the indie powerhouse has been constructing one of many sharpest musical identities in fashionable cinema for over a decade.
Whereas different studios slap generic orchestral scores over their movies, A24 turned soundtracks into full characters.
From horror scores that crawl beneath your pores and skin to needle drops that hit more durable than the twists, listed here are 15 tracks proving A24 understands music higher than most report labels.
1. “Everytime” by Britney Spears – Spring Breakers (2013)
James Franco in a white go well with, three ladies in pink ski masks and tiger print bikinis, shotguns in hand. Franco sits at a white grand piano and croons Britney’s heartbreak ballad earlier than it melts right into a montage of armed robberies.
Director Concord Korine referred to as the second “the tradition of surfaces, this candy-coated neon haze,” a magnificence masking violence beneath it. Franco as soon as mentioned Britney was “one of many biggest singers of all time.”
Spring Breakers makes use of Britney’s vulnerability like a weapon, turning a 2003 breakup ballad into one thing chilling. The scene turned immediately iconic, incomes its place in A24’s early cult canon.
2. “Cucurrucucu Paloma” by Caetano Veloso – Moonlight (2016)
In Barry Jenkins’s Greatest Image winner, Chiron drives from Atlanta to Miami to see Kevin as Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso’s rendition of this Spanish basic performs. It nods on to Wong Kar-wai’s Blissful Collectively, proper right down to the lonely freeway framing.
Written by Tomás Méndez in 1954, the tune means “the cooing dove.” Veloso’s model had already turn out to be cinematic shorthand for unrequited love, famously utilized in Almodóvar’s Discuss to Her.
Jenkins drops it at Moonlight’s most hopeful second—Chiron cruising the freeway, reconciled and prepared for one thing new. It stretches time, holding grief and risk in the identical body.
3. “Reborn” by Colin Stetson – Hereditary (2018)
Canadian saxophonist Colin Stetson crafted one among horror’s most unnerving scores utilizing round respiratory, throat overtones, and resonant drones that really feel alive somewhat than digital.
Director Ari Aster wrote Hereditary with Stetson’s music in thoughts. Stetson averted watching horror movies whereas composing, sidestepping the style’s standard strings and shrieks.
“Reborn” swells from breath-like textures right into a choral surge that feels like worship gone unsuitable—a darkish hymn saying the household’s destiny.
4. “The Morning” by The Weeknd – Uncut Gems (2019)
The Weeknd seems as his 2012 self in a cramped New York membership, nonetheless on the cusp of fame. The Safdie Brothers and composer Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Level By no means) initially created new songs, however settled on “The Morning” to protect that pre-fame rigidity.
The second captures that eerie thrill of watching somebody destined to blow up however not but conscious of it. One character even predicts his stardom—a element that lands in a different way in 2025.
Oneohtrix Level By no means’s rating leans on Moog One synth textures and retro-futurist tones, channeling Akira’s vitality whereas mirroring Adam Sandler’s spiralling rigidity.
5. “Claw Machine” by Sloppy Jane feat. Phoebe Bridgers – I Noticed the TV Glow (2024)
Haley Dahl mentioned she wrote it about “deep, relentless longing,” remembering crying herself to sleep and “lacking the longer term.” Recording it together with her highschool pal Phoebe Bridgers felt “celebratory and therapeutic.”
The tune performs throughout a pivotal bar scene as director Jane Schoenbrun bends actuality and reminiscence collectively. The soundtrack options 15 artists, from Caroline Polachek to yeule and Jay Som. Schoenbrun requested every to think about the tune they’d play at Buffy’s Bronze within the ’90s—an ideal cue for the movie’s teen-goth coronary heart.
6. “Crash Into Me” by Dave Matthews Band – Woman Fowl (2017)
Greta Gerwig personally wrote to Dave Matthews calling the tune “essentially the most romantic ever.” It performs twice—first as Woman Fowl sobs in a automobile with Julie, later when she defends it towards her pretentious boyfriend. That second of standing by what she loves sums up the movie’s spirit.
Matthews later mentioned, “It was so pretty to see the tune used as a central instrument in another person’s story.”
7. “The Ballad of Howie Bling” – Uncut Gems (2019)
The movie opens inside a gemstone as Lopatin’s synths shimmer and pulse like trapped mild. It’s the sound of obsession earlier than we even meet Howard Ratner.
Lopatin’s second rating for the Safdies after Good Time makes use of analogue Moog patterns to create a world that’s futuristic but dirty, mirroring Howard’s countless chase for luck.
Wish to dive deeper? Go to Neon Music for extra knowledgeable takes on movie scores, soundtrack secrets and techniques and the intersection of cinema and sound.
8. “Starburned and Unkissed” by Caroline Polachek – I Noticed the TV Glow (2024)
Polachek wrote the grunge-inspired tune throughout her Need, I Wish to Flip Into You classes however saved it for Schoenbrun’s movie. It performs over VHS montages of The Pink Opaque, handwritten notes, and teenage isolation—mirroring the film’s themes of disconnection and identification.
9. “Good day Stranger” by Barbara Lewis – Moonlight (2016)
The 1963 soul monitor hums on a diner jukebox throughout Chiron and Kevin’s reunion. “How lengthy has it been?” Lewis asks, and the background singers reply, “It looks as if a mighty very long time.” No dialogue wanted—simply reminiscence and forgiveness in stereo.
10. “Ava” by Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury – Ex Machina (2015)
Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury constructed a rating mixing acoustic devices with manipulated electronics—celeste, brass, and stretched samples. They referred to as it “a mixture of magnificence and discomfort,” reflecting Ava’s mix of attract and unease.
11. “Cell Remedy” by Goodie Mob – Moonlight (2016)
Jenkins peppers Moonlight with deep cuts from soul and hip-hop archives, however Goodie Mob’s 1995 anthem roots the movie in a selected time and place. Its paranoia about surveillance feels prophetic, connecting Chiron’s quiet paranoia to a bigger social lens.
12. “Anthems for a Seventeen 12 months-Previous Woman” by yeule – I Noticed the TV Glow (2024)
Schoenbrun as soon as mentioned the unique Damaged Social Scene monitor felt “mysterious and queer.” Singaporean artist yeule turns it spectral, their modulated vocals stretching like reminiscence on rewind. It soundtracks the trailer and units the movie’s tone—nostalgic, lonely, and fantastically unusual.
13. “Scorching Woman” by Charli XCX – Our bodies Our bodies Our bodies (2022)
Charli’s electro-rock anthem captures the movie’s darkish vitality—hedonism teetering on collapse. Composer Disasterpeace layers metallic synths beneath it, giving the monitor the throb of a celebration about to implode. It turned a viral hit and cemented A24’s pop-savvy Gen-Z attraction.
14. “The Center of the World” by Nicholas Britell – Moonlight (2016)
Britell fuses orchestral composition with chopped-and-screwed hip-hop rhythms, making a sound that’s each classical and Southern. “The Center of the World” mirrors Chiron’s transformation—conflicted, tender, and quietly triumphant.
15. “Funeral” by Colin Stetson – Hereditary (2018)
The opening cue units the tone instantly—low drones, uneasy harmonics, and chimes that really feel like they’re mourning one thing unseen. Stetson builds dread with out counting on leap scares, simply stress and breath.
The A24 Music Legacy
A24 Music launched in April 2025 as a social channel for the studio’s music division, although early hypothesis advised it would broaden right into a full label. The studio partnered with Secretly Distribution in 2021 to handle releases just like the Cease Making Sense fortieth anniversary tribute album.
Music supervisor Jessica Berndt as soon as mentioned an A24 mission was her dream job as a result of the studio treats music “like a personality.” That philosophy runs by each rating and needle drop.
A24 has collaborated with everybody from artists throughout pop and hip-hop to avant-garde composers. The US trailer even leans on Travis Scott and The Weeknd’s ‘Pray 4 Love,’ underlining how A24 blends present pop with rating.
A24 understood one thing different studios missed: within the streaming age, an amazing soundtrack can hold a movie alive lengthy after its launch. Billboard even reported that songs from Euphoria noticed streaming jumps of round 2,300% after showing within the present.
The studio now curates Spotify playlists, restricted vinyl runs, and collectible merch—every thing from I Noticed the TV Glow pink vinyl and extra.
With Frank Ocean’s characteristic movie in manufacturing, the road between cinema and report label grows thinner by the day.
With A24 Music now official, anticipate the subsequent decade of soundtracks to sound—and really feel—like nothing we’ve heard earlier than.
