Jazz enthusiasts and die-hard Gatsby fans be warned–if you are looking for a collection of 1920s-esque instrumentals, then the musical selections featured in The Great Gatsby are not for you.
Executively produced by Jay-Z, The Great Gatsby soundtrack is filled with energetic synth grooves, smooth raps, and jazz-influenced pop melodies made by some of today’s most popular recording artists, including Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Fergie, Florence & the Machine, and will.i.am.
Although it’s not what you would expect from a movie set in the 1920s, the score successfully combines chart-topping modern sounds with old-style scores to create an imaginative, dreamlike collection of music.

There truly is a track for everyone.
Unfortunately, the film does not fully take advantage of the wonderful soundtrack. In many scenes, a snippet of a song is played, only to fade into a classical instrumental or a ’20s-style version of the same track. Some songs work, while others don’t.
The soundtrack opens with Jay-Z’s hard-hitting rap tune “100$ Bill,” in which he boasts about his folded-up “benjamins” and fancy cars while alluding to an array of wealthy prominent figures ranging from Mark Twain to Marilyn Monroe. It may seem like an unlikely pick for a period piece, but the song fits in perfectly as Nick and Gatsby enter a chaotic speakeasy full of gangsters and scantily-clad flapper girls.
Perhaps the highlight of the album is Lana Del Rey’s dramatic ballad “Young and Beautiful.” The original and orchestral versions – both featured on the album – take advantage of beautiful horns and violins as Del Rey croons, “Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?/Will you still love when I got nothing but my aching soul?”
Despite these gems, the album fails as a whole because of its over-produced electro-pop beats. With a repetitive techno beat and unimaginative lyrics, “A Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)” by Fergie, Q-Tip, and GoonRock just sounds like another mediocre radio hit. Will.i.am’s “Bang Bang” sounds too similar to most of his other tracks and is almost intolerable after the first minute, but it works for the lively party scene in the movie. These tracks may appeal to the Fergie or will.i.am fans, but they aren’t cohesive with the rest of the soundtrack.
Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” is reworked by Beyoncé and Andre 3000, in an attempt to put an electronic hip-hop twist on the 2007 classic. Unfortunately, the emotionless delivery of lyrics and lackluster beat does not do justice to Winehouse’s impeccable original.
Emeli Sandé and the Bryan Ferry Orchestra deliver a bouncy rendition of Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love,” which relies on influences from 1920s jazz. Bryan Ferry also takes inspiration from 1920s music in his mysterious version of Roxy Music’s “Love is the Drug.”
Other notable tracks come from Coco O., Jack White, Nero, Florence & the Machine, Gotye, and Sia, who all deliver stunning performances that fit with the film’s extravagant style.