Shouting, repetitive lyrics, and a shoddy rap hook by Missy Elliot; It’s everything you’ve ever wanted in a remake of your beloved 80’s Ghostbusters theme song, right? Ya, didn’t think so. Not exactly my idea of a good time, either.
Yet, that’s exactly how Columbia Pictures has chosen to roll out the first of 4 versions of the iconic theme song on the soundtrack of the new Ghostbusters movie, set to be in theaters July 15th.
Along with the Ghostbusters Fall Out Boy theme song, the soundtrack includes remakes by Walk the Moon and Pentatonix:
Ghostbusters OST Tracklist:
01. WALK THE MOON – “Ghostbusters”
02. G-Eazy X Jeremih – “Saw It Coming”
03. Elle King – “Good Girls”
04. 5 Seconds Of Summer – “Girls Talk Boys”
05 ZAYN – “wHo” *
06. Pentatonix – “Ghostbusters” *
07. Wolf Alice – “Ghoster” *
08. Fall Out Boy (Feat. Missy Elliott) – “Ghostbusters (I’m Not Afraid)”
09. Mark Ronson, Passion Pit, & A$AP Ferg – “Get Ghost”
10. DMX – “Party Up (Up In Here)”
11. DeBarge – “Rhythm Of The Night”
12. Muddy Magnolias – “American Woman”
13. Beasts Of Mayhem – “Want Some More”
14. Ray Parker Jr. – “Ghostbusters”
The new Fall Out Boy version of the Ghostbusters theme song still has us cringing and saying, “oh no, it’s just bad. SO bad.” And we’re not the only ones.
The new theme song has 73,000 likes on YouTube, and a whopping 78,000 dislikes. Yikes.
The majority of reviews have had nothing nice to say. Consequence of Sound wrote:
From the gates of hell emerged Fall Out Boy’s Ghostbusters theme song
The Verge called it:
a theme song specifically designed to make you realize what could actually retroactively ruin a 30-year-old movie
And Cinema Blend said it:
barely qualifies as music
One hopes that this is just a marketing ploy to lower people’s expectations of the film and the soundtrack, only to blow them away with the actual movie and better versions of the song.
If that’s the case, think about how crappy that would be for Fallout Boy and Missy Elliot as the debut artists of the soundtrack. It’d be basically saying, “You’re crappy, and we’re going to use your crappiness to grab people’s attention.” Being a pawn is the best.
Unlike the repetitive “I’m not afraid, not afraid” lyrics of this song, we are afraid. We’re afraid that the makers of the new Ghostbusters movie actually thought this was good music.
Is it catchy? Yes. If by catchy you mean annoying, like any other bad song you can’t get out of your head. It haunts you like “Mmm Bop” by Hanson, “The Macarena” by Los Del Río, “Who Let The Dogs Out” by Baja Men. Unlike a rick roll, we feel like it’s a major letdown.
