Jonathan Nolan explains why you keep hearing Radiohead, Soundgarden, and the Rolling Stones in Westworld!
There is a lot to admire about Westworld. The world-class acting ensemble being free to dig into complex and tortured characters (even if half of them are literally robots!); the layered plotting intricacies that ask questions about the nature of life, artificial intelligence, and free will; plus, it has some nifty musical choices given the “old-timey” treatment!
Yep, in the first episode alone we witnessed a player piano give 19th century arrangements to both Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” and the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black.” The second episode, meanwhile, featured Radiohead’s “No Surprises.” And so it continues to grow with each episode. Now, Jonathan Nolan has explained the rather thoughtful logic of the inclusion of these songs and why they’re dialed into a player piano—an instrument that also tellingly appears in the film’s opening credits.
“One of the first things Lisa and I talked about when we sat down to write the pilot were those sort of touchstone images that you would have come back,” Nolan explained to a room full of fans during a New York Comic Con panel we attended. “And the player piano was something, with a shout-out to Kurt Vanagon for the idea, the idea of a player piano as the sort of first primordial version of our hosts. You know, a machine, an almost Rube Goldberg machine, that’s been created to evoke human emotion. So it was also a great excuse to use contemporary music in the show.
“Obviously, it’s a period Western, or as we call it, a Synthetic Western. Contemporary music is very powerful, because everyone comes to it with a preexisting relationship to the song. So it allows you to short circuit, or short-hand, an idea or feeling. And it’s also there to remind you that this isn’t a Western, that this isn’t taking place in the 19th century. It’s taking place somewhere else, sometime else. And I just love Radiohead.”
Don’t we all? I suspect we’ll hear more modern sounds be given the player piano treatment as Westworld continues every Sunday night at 9pm ET/PT on HBO.
Join Amazon Prime - Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime - Start Free Trial Now![]()
