X-Men: First Class is a superhero movie, but also a period piece. The Matthew Vaughn directed prequel is set during the sixties and sees Professor Xavier’s mutant team of heroes in their infancy, dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Since it’s set in the 60s, you’d think that might mean a fantastic opportunity for a great, period specific soundtrack. You’d expect the film to use songs from artists like The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix. Maybe even throw a little Righteous Brothers in there. Oh and how about a boy band? Wait, a boy band?
Multiple sources are reporting that Vaughn is hiring the British boy band Take That to provide music for the film. Specifically he plans to use their upcoming single “Love Love” which will then be released as a tie-in with X-Men: First Class on June 1st.
This is, perhaps, not entirely unexpected. There’s a precedent here. Vaughn has worked with Take That before, using music from the group in his 2007 fantasy movie Stardust. The difference this time is that, of course, Stardust was a fantasy movie and not particularly period specific. You can use any kind of music you want there. But First Class is set in the 60s, and the Beatles where the closest thing there was to a boy band back then. This is all wrong.
I’ll let Take That prove my point for me. Here’s one of their songs from Stardust. Click play, close your eyes, and try to imagine a bunch of hippies sitting around in the 60s, smoking peyote, and enjoying this. You can’t.
