Read More Rip Away Pants and Crystals: What Costumes to Expect in ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ It’s fun, powerful and clever, but we wanted to rub people the wrong way, and juxtapose the Bellas‘ performance.” But more so, the double entendre - you can have a cappella any way you want it.”ĭas Sound Machine’s competition song is a precisely-performed mash-up of Fall Out Boy’s pyro-friendly “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)” and DJ Khaled‘s inherently confident “All I Do Is Win.” Explains Sharon, “They’re great and they know it, so there’s this braggadocio, obnoxious quality - story-wise, it makes you root against them a bit more. “We have a lot of current music in the movie, and this gives you a fun, rock-pop throwback hit that’s very a cappella. “Each group had to do an entire arrangement of the song with choreography, and shot them in full for the montage,” Sharon recalls, stressing he fought for the song choice. Introducing the Worlds competition, the Journey track is performed by professional groups Pentatonix, Penn Masala and The Filharmonic, as well as two other fictional groups fronted by Sing-Off alumni - in five languages. The charge was to create an unbeatable group and then try to beat them, but bottom line is, we cheated.” However, the group, led by actress Birgitte Hjort Sorensen and YouTube star Flula Borg, is mostly composed of “awesome dancers” and back-sung by professional singers, including Sharon. “We went back and forth on how much accent to have in there,” says Sharon of the comedic moment. Villainous German singing troupe Das Sound Machine is introduced with an intimidating, robotic rendition of Muse’s “Uprising” (licensed only after director Banks wrote a plea to singer Matt Bellamy). It’s so ridiculous, and yet explains what a cappella is, for those who didn’t see the first movie.” “Over dinner one night, Liz and I thought, what’s the stupidest thing a male collegiate group can do to a song? A gospel breakdown. “They give us an opportunity to anchor the film in the college a cappella world, so we wanted something quaint, funny, silly and felt small-scale in comparison to the Worlds stage,” explains Sharon, adding that the Treblemakers is composed of Broadway alumni Skylar Astinand Ben Platt along with actual collegiate singers. The Treblemakers only get one number in the sequel, and it’s Mika‘s 2007 song. “And Liz Banks went to University of Pennsylvania and didn’t sing in a group, so this might have been her first-ever a cappella singing!” The tradition in that group now is that one person, for absolutely no reason ever addressed, wears a giant banana suit, and he’s responsible for that Monty Python-level of obscurity,” noted Sharon. “John sang in the Amherst Zumbyes he’s the most knowledgeable person about this world. While the original movie’s introduction featured Boyer’s voice with the Treblemakers, this Universal theme song is touted by a cappella announcers John Michael Higgins and Banks. Just before leaving to shoot Lifetime’s docuseries Sing It!, Sharon broke down 9 of the film’s arrangements, including director Elizabeth Banks’ a cappella debut, the Green Bay Packers’ “ Bootylicious” moment, the Treblemakers‘ “ridiculous” breakdown and numbers from the “perfect” a cappella group: “We wanted to go bigger, but create music that, first and foremost, served the story,” says Sharon. “Let’s remember that the biggest breakout hit of the movie was a 1937 tune sung by a woman onstage with nothing but a plastic cup - completely impossible to predict,” Sharon recalls telling the team, which included a cappella maven Ed Boyer (who arranged for Glee’s Warblers), seasoned songwriter Alana Da Fonseca and Tony-winning composer Tom Kitt. So with a much bigger budget, the sequel - which challenges the female a cappella group to compete on a global level - licensed up to 60 songs from more well-known artists. Read More ‘Pitch Perfect 2’: Watch the Barden Bellas‘ Epic Mash-Up of Beyonce, David Guetta, Pat Benatar (Video)
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