Tron: Legacy is the soundtrack album for the 2010 film Tron: Legacy, released by Walt Disney Records

Walt Disney Records

Walt Disney Records is a family music record label owned by the Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Records was formed in 1956 as Disneyland Records. Before that time, Disney recordings were licensed out to a variety of other labels such as . It was Walt Disney’s brother Roy O...

 on December 3, 2010. It is the first film score by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 music duo Daft Punk

Daft Punk

Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...

.

Background

Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski

Joseph Kosinski

Joseph Kosinski is an American television commercial and feature film director best known for his computer graphics and computer generated imagery work. He made his big-screen directorial debut with the Disney Digital 3-D science fiction film Tron: Legacy, the sequel to the 1982 film Tron...

 and music supervisor Jason Bentley

Jason Bentley

Jason Bentley is a radio disc jockey of electronic music in Los Angeles, California. On December 1, 2008, Bentley replaced Nic Harcourt as the host of Morning Becomes Eclectic and as Music Director for KCRW...

 approached Daft Punk and requested that the duo compose the film score. When asked why he wished to work with the duo, Kosinski replied, "How could you not at least go to those guys?" Thomas Bangalter

Thomas Bangalter

Thomas Bangalter is a French electronic musician best known as a member of the French house music duo Daft Punk. He has also recorded and released music as a member of the trio Stardust, the duo Together, and as a solo artist including compositions for the film Irréversible.Thomas Bangalter owns a...

 of Daft Punk had previously produced the soundtrack

Irréversible (soundtrack)

Irréversible is the soundtrack album to the highly controversial film of the same name, as well as a solo album by Thomas Bangalter. The album was produced by Bangalter, who is best known for being one-half of the French house duo Daft Punk. The tracks "Outrun" and "Extra Dry" were featured on the...

 to Gaspar Noé

Gaspar Noé

Gaspar Noé is an Argentine filmmaker and the son of Argentine painter and intellectual Luis Felipe Noé. He graduated from Louis Lumière College and is the visiting professor of film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland...

's 2002 film Irréversible

Irréversible

Irréversible is a 2002 French drama film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel. The film employs a non-linear narrative and follows two men as they try to avenge a brutally raped girlfriend...

. Noé had asked Bangalter to compose the soundtrack to the film Enter the Void

Enter the Void

Enter the Void is a French film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, and Cyril Roy. Set in the neon-lit nightclub environments of Tokyo, the story follows Oscar, a young American drug dealer who gets shot by the police, but continues to watch succeeding...

, but Bangalter was working on Tron: Legacy at the time and instead served as sound effects director.

The score of Tron: Legacy features an 85-piece orchestra, recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Studios in London. Kosinski stated that the score is intended to be a mixture of orchestral and electronic music. Daft Punk's score was arranged and orchestrated by Joseph Trapanese

Joseph Trapanese

Joseph Trapanese is a composer, arranger, and producer. He works in the production of music for for films, television, theater and concerts. He currently lives in Los Angeles.-Film and Television Music:...

, who stated he is a fan of Daft Punk as a duo and as solo artists. The band collaborated with him for two years on the score, from pre-production to completion. The orchestra was conducted by Gavin Greenaway

Gavin Greenaway

Gavin Greenaway is a music composer and conductor. He is the son of Roger Greenaway.Educated at Strode's College and Trinity College of Music. He started working with his father before leaving school...

. Trapanese cited the collaboration between the different genres to work out well in the end, stating:

Commenting on the Tron: Legacy score, Bangalter commented that "We knew from the start that there was no way we were going to do this film score with two synthesizers and a drum machine.” Daft Punk cited Wendy Carlos

Wendy Carlos

Wendy Carlos is an American composer and electronic musician. Carlos first came to notice in the late 1960s with recordings made on the Moog synthesizer, then a relatively new and unknown instrument; most notable were LPs of synthesized Bach and the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's film A...

, the composer of the original Tron

Tron

-Film:*Tron , a franchise that began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron** Tron , a 1982 science fiction film by Disney, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor and David Warner...

film, as inspiration for the soundtrack as well as Max Steiner

Max Steiner

Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...

, Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...

, John Carpenter

John Carpenter

John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...

, Vangelis

Vangelis

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis...

 and Maurice Jarre

Maurice Jarre

Maurice-Alexis Jarre was a French composer and conductor.Although he composed several concert works, he is best known for his film scores, and is particularly known for his collaborations with film director David Lean. Jarre composed the scores to all of Lean's films since Lawrence of Arabia...

. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo

Guillaume Emmanuel "Guy-Manuel" de Homem-Christo; is a founding member of the French house music duo Daft Punk, along with Thomas Bangalter. He has also produced several works from his record label Crydamoure with label co-owner Éric Chedeville. He and Chedeville formed the musical duo Le Knight...

 also stated that Tron was a strong influence on him as a child. "Maybe I only saw it two or three times in my entire life, but the feel of it is strong even now, that I think the imprint of the first [film] will not be erased by the new one. It has a real visionary quality to it." De Homem-Christo noted that Tron: Legacy "was cut to the music. Usually, composers come in at the end when everything is done."

The first theatrical trailer for Tron: Legacy featured the track "The Game Has Changed". A "special presentation" trailer featuring Daft Punk and their track "Derezzed

Derezzed

-Music video:Daft Punk enters Flynn's Arcade and begins playing a game developed by Encom named Derezzed, with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo playing as Prog 1 and Thomas Bangalter as Prog 2. Derezzed plays out as a light cycle jousting game in the grid. While an unknown program watches the light...

" was released online on October 26, 2010. The official music video for "Derezzed" was released online on December 7, 2010. The video features Daft Punk playing an old arcade game in Flynn's Arcade, and an appearance by Tron: Legacy cast member Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde is an American actress and fashion model. She began acting in the early 2000s, and has since appeared in a number of film and television parts, including roles in the serial-drama The O.C. and The Black Donnellys. She portrayed Dr...

.

A deluxe edition of the album was made available from the official Tron: Legacy soundtrack website that includes a poster of Daft Punk as they appear in the film. In regions outside the United States, a two-disc special edition was made available for a limited time. As a pre-order bonus for the album on the iTunes Store

ITunes Store

The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...

, "Derezzed" was released as a promotional single on December 8, 2010. The iTunes release of the album includes two bonus tracks: "Father and Son" and "Outlands, Pt. II". The Amazon MP3

Amazon MP3

Amazon MP3 is an online music store owned and operated by Amazon.com. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights management from the four major music labels , as well as many independents...

 version of the album includes the bonus track "Sea of Simulation". The Ovi

Ovi (Nokia)

Ovi by Nokia is the brand for Nokia's Internet services. The Ovi services can be used from a mobile device, computer or via the web. Nokia focuses on five key service areas: Games, Maps, Media, Messaging and Music. Nokia's aim with Ovi is to include third party developers, such as operators and...

 release of the album includes the bonus track "Sunrise Prelude". The songs "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" by Journey

Journey (band)

Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...

 and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

-Personnel:*Annie Lennox – vocals, keyboards, synthesisers, flute*David A. Stewart – guitar, keyboards, synthesisers, programming, backing vocals-Additional personnel:*Robert Crash - Guitar/ E-Drums/ Synth/ Robotic vocals...

" by Eurythmics

Eurythmics

Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...

 are featured in the film, but absent from the soundtrack album.

Reception

Tron: Legacy received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which assigns a normalized

Standard score

In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...

 rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average

Weighted mean

The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...

 score of 72, based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

A review in allmusic commented on the blend of electronic and orchestral music, specifically noting that in one track the "arpeggios and strings are so tightly knit that they finish each others' phrases". The A.V. Club

The A.V. Club

The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...

observed the "synergistic dream" of Daft Punk's robotic personae with the film's science fiction aesthetic, further stating that the album "is neither groundbreaking experiment nor crucial entry in the duo's catalog, but it’s an adeptly realized, tonally complementary companion" to the film. Similarly, a Clash

Clash (magazine)

Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....

review remarked: "As a stand-alone album, what Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter have created won't sate the disco heads screaming for more club material, however as an accomplished score it can only make a legendary film yet more cherished.

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

 expressed that the Tron: Legacy soundtrack is the continuation of Daft Punk's growing interest in complementing music with visual imagery, noting the duo's previous Alive 2006/2007

Alive 2006/2007

Alive 2006/2007 was a concert tour by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, their first tour as a group since 1997. While the 2006 concerts were not given a formal title, the 2007 performances were advertised as "Alive 2007". The 2006 performances and 2007 tour as a whole was later retroactively...

 tour and feature film Interstella 5555

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

is a feature-length Japanese animated musical film originally released on December 1, 2003. The film is the visual realization of Discovery, an album by Daft Punk. Each track from the album has been animated as an episode in the story of the abduction and rescue of an interstellar pop band...

as examples. A review in Spin

Spin (magazine)

Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...

also pointed out Daft Punk's history with filmmakers in the duo's earliest music videos and "That Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter would score Tron: Legacy seems destined."

The soundtrack debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with sales of 71,000 copies. This marked the duo's first top 10 album/soundtrack in the United States. In its second week, the soundtrack dropped to number 33 on the Billboard 200. It managed to sell an additional 67,000 copies in its third week of release, coming in at number 27 on the Billboard 200. In its fourth week, the soundtrack rose to a new peak position of number 6 on the Billboard 200 selling an additional 54,000 copies. In its fifth week, the album reached a new peak of number 4 by selling 34,000 copies.

Tron: Legacy received an award for "Best Original Score" from the Austin Film Critics Association

Austin Film Critics Association

The Austin Film Critics Association is an organization of film critics from Austin, Texas.Each year, the AFCA votes on their end of year awards for films released in the same calendar year...

, and was nominated for Score of the Year by the International Film Music Critics Association

International Film Music Critics Association

The International Film Music Critics Association is a professional association for online, print and radio journalists who specialize in writing about original film and television music.-History and purpose:...

.

Track listing

Chart positions

Charts (2010)	Peak position
Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...	17
Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...	17
German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	18
German Downloads Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	4
Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...	48
Italy Albums Chart	41
Mexican Albums Chart AMPROFON Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas is a non-profit organization integrated by multinational and national record companies in Mexico. Established on April 3, 1963, it groups phonographic companies that represent more than 70 percent of the market in Mexico...	5
Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	45
UK Dance Chart UK Dance Chart The UK Dance Chart is a chart compiled by The Official Charts Company from sales in record stores and digital downloads. Although the chart does not currently receive any airplay on the radio or television, the chart can be viewed on the BBC Radio 1 and The Official Charts Company website.Digital...	1
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	39
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	4
U.S. Digital Albums	1
U.S. Dance/Electronic Albums	1
U.S. Soundtrack Albums	1

Remix album

Walt Disney Records released a remix album of the score titled Tron: Legacy Reconfigured on April 5, 2011. The album features remixes of selections of the film score by various artists.

• The Australian release of the album contains the Tame Impala
  Tame Impala
  Tame Impala are a psychedelic rock band from Perth, Australia. They are signed to Modular Records. The band came to prominence in 2010 with the release of their first debut album, Innerspeaker. Their name refers to the impala, a medium sized antelope...
  
   remix of "End of Line" as track 11.

External links

• Tron: Legacy (soundtrack) at Metacritic
  Metacritic
  Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...