Musical Analysis #1 Beetlejuice Main Theme

I was recently invited by a friend to go watch the newly released sequel to the movie Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. I hadn’t seen the 1988 original before going to the theater to see the sequel, but I knew that Beetlejuice was a well known movie with a sort of cult following, so I was excited to see what I thought of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. One of the very first things that stood out to me was the opening sequence. Not only was it visually intriguing, but I found the music to be outstanding. I was surprised to find myself dancing in my movie theater seat and I leaned over to my partner and said, “Wow! I really like this song!”. After watching the sequel in the theater, I decided to go home and watch the original and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the original 1988 film opened with that same song that had me dancing in my seat! 

When I looked into the song which is simply called, Main Titles, I found that it was composed by Los Angeles born Danny Elfman. This was the second Tim Burton film that he had composed after their successful collaboration on PeeWee’s Big Adventure. The soundtrack was released along with the 1988 Beetlejuice film. For the 2024 sequel, the song was reworked in a way that gave it a slightly more modern and (if it could even be possible) a more chaotic feel with the ease of use of more electronic instruments than what was available in 1988.

Elfman did an incredible job combining several different musical elements to give the film its unique sound that evokes an eerie feeling combined with the perfect amount of chaos. For my analysis, I will be focusing specifically on the 2024 version, but I will link both versions below. 

 

The first musical element is the timbre. There are several different instruments used throughout the piece which help bring the song to life (or death in the case of Beetlejuice!). The most prominent instruments heard throughout the song are horns (french horn, trombone, tuba) and drums. They help to deliver a very robust sound and maintain the rhythm. By placing some string instrument sounds on top of the lower resonating horn and percussion, it creates excellent contrast that just scratches the brain and accentuates the fast paced and eerie vibe of the opening. There is also a choral sound which comes in occasionally and it adds an extra spooky, ghostly feeling to the song. 

The second musical element is the tempo. The tempo fluctuates a few times throughout the song. It begins with a very slow tempo almost as if to signify the beginning, but quickly as the song progresses, the tempo picks up significantly. Throughout the meat of the song, the tempo is very fast. I believe that this fast tempo gives a sense of urgency and helps to really add eerie-ness as the strings bring in their contributions. As the song ends, the tempo slows almost completely down at the end which gives way for the official start of the dialogue and story in the movie. 

The third musical element is dynamics. This song does feature a few dynamic shifts. At the beginning of the song, it is very soft and there is a very slow crescendo that occurs which really comes into full force at the 46 second mark of the song. The song has a lot of give and take as to which instrument has the dynamic power. It appears to me as each new sound is introduced, it gets the power and each other instrument takes a dynamic step down. There’s a lot of give and take for the first minute and a half of the song. Then at 2:03, we get the biggest crescendo and culmination of all the instruments which come together for a huge end to the song. As the song comes to a close, there is a sudden drastic decrescendo and the music quiets significantly. 

The Beetlejuice's Main Titles was praised by several critics. One review by Thomas Glorieux written after the original release of the 1988 film wrote, “Because "Main Titles" is definitely one of the best Elfman openers of all time. It has what we love about him, a perfect development of a theme, a wacky beat and an Elfman magic that makes it so damn astonishing.”. In a review of the 2024 sequel published on Maze of Media it’s written, “In “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Elfman reanimates the auditory ghouls of the first film with his signature blend of orchestral and choral elements, creating a soundscape that is both nostalgically familiar and refreshingly innovative. The main theme, undoubtedly, harks back to the carnivalesque, organ-fueled frenzy of the original, yet it carries a new layer of complexity, hinting at the evolved narrative and expanded universe of the sequel.”

1988 Main Title

2024 Main Title

Works Cited

““Beetlejuice 2 (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) ” (2024): Danny Elfman Returns - Soundtrack Review.” Maze of Media, 21 Mar. 2024, mazeofmedia.com/movies/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-2004-soundtrack-review/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2024.

Glorieux, Thomas. “Danny Elfman: Beetlejuice - Maintitles.net.” Maintitles.net, 2024, www.maintitles.net/reviews/beetlejuice/#:~:text=Beetlejuice%20is%20a%20fitting%20score. Accessed 21 Sept. 2024.