The Great Gatsby (Music From Baz Luhrmann's Film)

When it came time to sort out the soundtrack for his adaptation of The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann and executive producer JAŸ-Z had a clear goal: “Translate jazz, which was African American street music, into a hip-hop sensibility,” Luhrmann tells Apple Music. “To open the door, to feel the energy and the pulse.” It isn’t just that hip-hop succeeded jazz as the foremost musical expression of Black America (and America generally, really); it’s the way rap’s sometimes tragic preoccupation with wealth and status mirrors Gatsby’s own—a pursuit that seems to make Gatsby happy until it doesn’t. Emeli Sandé’s 1920s-hot version of Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” makes the connection explicit, but songs like Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” are just as pertinent: The only real difference between alienation then and now is the date on the calendar.