I’m 31, and Shrek was where I first heard this song. I would have been 9 years old.
Obviously it’s an amazing song with a rich history and many covers. But I’ll bet that most folks my age heard it first in Shrek.
Gen Z probably (hopefully) doesn’t associate the song with Shrek as strongly as millennials.
My favorite cover is the one by Jeff Buckley. Though the John Cale (Shrek film) and Rufus Wainwright (Shrek soundtrack) covers are both great. Honestly, I think the original by Leonard Cohen is the least good (but still good).
I’m a millennial and don’t associate any song with any movie because the majority of those songs are just licensed and have other origins. Actually written movie scores are typically very different sounding. I think this is more a thing of being stupid rather than a generational issue.
The appearance on this song on the Pentatonix Christmas album is the cornerstone of my argument that Shrek is a Christmas movie. Every year I am closer to being thrown out of a family holiday meal.
K.D. Langs version was a very popular version for a while as an example
Because ive spoke about this with many people, though its still only anecdotal so take that into consideration, most people enjoy a version of a song that made them recognize the song. Which usually means the version of a song that was done in a genre that you already listen to.
Part of this is just what is familiar, and the covers they encounter arent in a style they enjoy anyway so the new versions have a hard time sinking in with people.
I think a good example of this(and its another Leonard Cohen song!) is Everybody knows from Christian Slater movie Pump Up the Volume* and the soundtrack from it.
The main character in the movie uses the Cohen version, or at least a snippit of it, frequently throughout the movie, but the version that is part of the soundtrack is the concrete blonde version. Yes the concrete blonde version is used in the movie, but the Cohen version is the version that is fundamentally connected to the story.
If you are listening to the soundtrack and you are decently familiar with the movie, you will(probably) be left unfulfilled by just listening to the soundtrack. But if you hear the Cohen version on its own sometime, you IMMEDIATELY are reminded of the movie.
At least thats been my experience, and most people ive shared this theory with agree with me. Admittedly more of them than i realize could just be being polite. But i urge anyone who is still reading this unintentional wall of text to watch the movie, listen to the soundtrack then just listen to the cohen version on its own
(which is one of my favourite movies from my teenage years, im quite curious what young people these days would think of it given the ties to the message in that movie and the world we live in with social media, but i digress)
It’s cool man. Cohen’s contributions to movies gained him lots of lifelong fans. I first discovered him watching Natural Born Killers in the 90’s through the song Waiting for the Miracle .
Why I was younger my buddy and I were in the music store HMV and they had Sweet Dreams playing. We both overheard a kid say “why are they playing this shitty cover song and not the Marilyn Manson version?”
It was the Eurythmics playing… To this day I wish I found who made that comment and openly beat them in public.
I was barely in high school when Shrek came out. In what context was I supposed to have encountered the song before then? And what about the kids–or young adults–who were born since then? Why wouldn’t Shrek be the first place they’ve heard this song?
It wasn’t written FOR Shrek but as an extremely popular movie aimed at a general audience it’s likely where two generations of young people first heard it.
Do people really think of Hallelujah as “the song from Shrek”?
Maybe this is my “old man tells at cloud” moment.
I think I first heard it in Scrubs, but it could have been either.
Ha ha, you’re old. Me too, bruh.
Yep.
They also think The Sound of Silence is that song by Disturbed.
Silly kids. Get off my…um…music…
It’s like saying Clancy Brown, who voices Mr Krabbs.
Whose world is just so small that a reference like THAT is the definitive work?
Hell, Shrek isn’t even the movie that comes to mind in reference to this song. Comes up near the end of Lord of War.
Amazing movie
https://youtube.com/watch?v=M3vejAvwjWU
Pfft, it’s the song from The Watchmen movie to anyone with taste and good sense ;)
I’m 31, and Shrek was where I first heard this song. I would have been 9 years old.
Obviously it’s an amazing song with a rich history and many covers. But I’ll bet that most folks my age heard it first in Shrek.
Gen Z probably (hopefully) doesn’t associate the song with Shrek as strongly as millennials.
My favorite cover is the one by Jeff Buckley. Though the John Cale (Shrek film) and Rufus Wainwright (Shrek soundtrack) covers are both great. Honestly, I think the original by Leonard Cohen is the least good (but still good).
I’m a millennial and don’t associate any song with any movie because the majority of those songs are just licensed and have other origins. Actually written movie scores are typically very different sounding. I think this is more a thing of being stupid rather than a generational issue.
While I dont like 90% of their catalogue, the Pentatonix version is amazing.
The appearance on this song on the Pentatonix Christmas album is the cornerstone of my argument that Shrek is a Christmas movie. Every year I am closer to being thrown out of a family holiday meal.
Except Hallelujah isnt a Christmas song. Its just been co-opted by christians who went “that word is in our book!”
Its as much of a christmas song as Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode.
Or Independence Day by Martina McBride is about gun rights and patriotism.
Jeff Buckey made the best one indeed
This version is up there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE
The cover artists have beautiful voices, but none of the covers convey the raw emotion that Cohen does.
There’s like a thousand covers of this song.
K.D. Langs version was a very popular version for a while as an example
Because ive spoke about this with many people, though its still only anecdotal so take that into consideration, most people enjoy a version of a song that made them recognize the song. Which usually means the version of a song that was done in a genre that you already listen to.
Part of this is just what is familiar, and the covers they encounter arent in a style they enjoy anyway so the new versions have a hard time sinking in with people.
I think a good example of this(and its another Leonard Cohen song!) is Everybody knows from Christian Slater movie Pump Up the Volume* and the soundtrack from it.
The main character in the movie uses the Cohen version, or at least a snippit of it, frequently throughout the movie, but the version that is part of the soundtrack is the concrete blonde version. Yes the concrete blonde version is used in the movie, but the Cohen version is the version that is fundamentally connected to the story.
If you are listening to the soundtrack and you are decently familiar with the movie, you will(probably) be left unfulfilled by just listening to the soundtrack. But if you hear the Cohen version on its own sometime, you IMMEDIATELY are reminded of the movie.
At least thats been my experience, and most people ive shared this theory with agree with me. Admittedly more of them than i realize could just be being polite. But i urge anyone who is still reading this unintentional wall of text to watch the movie, listen to the soundtrack then just listen to the cohen version on its own
Pretty much every cover, including Buckley’s, is based on Cale’s rendition.
Cohen is a massively talented songwriter and poet, but IMHO, most of his songs have covers that are a lot more pleasing to listen to than his.
Yes, but there’s something about Cohen’s cracky voice in “Everybody Knows” that sends shivers up my spine.
He does that for me In Halleluia.
Agreed. He’s like a Canadian Bob Dylan in that sense.
It’s cool man. Cohen’s contributions to movies gained him lots of lifelong fans. I first discovered him watching Natural Born Killers in the 90’s through the song Waiting for the Miracle .
Why I was younger my buddy and I were in the music store HMV and they had Sweet Dreams playing. We both overheard a kid say “why are they playing this shitty cover song and not the Marilyn Manson version?”
It was the Eurythmics playing… To this day I wish I found who made that comment and openly beat them in public.
I was barely in high school when Shrek came out. In what context was I supposed to have encountered the song before then? And what about the kids–or young adults–who were born since then? Why wouldn’t Shrek be the first place they’ve heard this song?
It wasn’t written FOR Shrek but as an extremely popular movie aimed at a general audience it’s likely where two generations of young people first heard it.