Five of Michael Fassbender’s favourite songs
Michael Fassbender has remained a fixture of contemporary cinema. Whether he was playing the role of Magneto in the X: Men franchise or giving breathtaking performances as Steve Jobs, Fassbender has always given integrity to every role he plays, inhabiting the character in a way that very few of his colleagues can match. While he might pull from the great movies of the past, Fassbender is also indebted to the music that got him to where he is today.
When guesting on the program KCRW, Fassbender showed off an eclectic mix of songs as some of his favourites. Among some of his picks included the stark sounds of new wave, like Gary Numan’s classic synthesiser song ‘Cars’. As Fassbender was coming up as a child, he remembered his brother buying him the Numan album Pleasure Principle because of how much he loved that song.
Aside from the sounds of glitchy new wave, Fassbender also had a deep passion for the sounds of R&B and pop, bringing up Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye as his picks. When talking about the classic ‘Human Nature’, Fassbender believed that the ballad epitomised what Jackson stood for, saying, “I just picked that one as a sort of one that really encapsulates the idea of Michael Jackson – for me anyway. Somebody that basically gave his whole life, I think, to an industry”.
He even saw some of Jackson’s signature moves from an acting perspective, noting that his signature Moonwalk felt indebted to what acting choreographer Bob Grosse was doing around the same time.
Although many would cite Jackson as one of the greatest singers of his generation, Fassbender believed that Marvin Gaye deserved to be called the greatest of all time. When discussing his song ‘Sexual Healing‘, Fassbender marvelled at Gaye’s range, going on to say, “The sweetness and the sour of what’s going on in his songs and sort of the way he delivers them, there is a lot of frailty there and a lot of emotion. And just the ease with which all of that is delivered by him. His voice is amazing”.
The soft side of music isn’t the only side of Fassbender, though. Throughout his teenage years, he admitted to having a heavy metal phase, including ‘Master of Puppets’ by Metallica in the list, mentioning that it gave him more of an identity whilst living in the countryside. He reminisced: “I think music is a very big deal for teenagers and especially in places away from cities. It’s kind of the one outlet you can get. There’s not a lot of options other than, you know, fields and mountains, which are beautiful and great, but in terms of any action, it was found through some sort of music. So yeah, heavy metal was big”.
While all of these songs might not fit together neatly onto a playlist, the diversity of material is more of a reflection of how Fassbender approaches his own career. These acts might seem to make music that comes from different worlds, but each piece of their music makes up the fuller picture of what makes Fassbender tick.
Five of Michael Fassbender’s favourite songs:
- ‘Cars’ – Gary Numan
- ‘Human Nature’ – Michael Jackson
- ‘Sexual Healing’ – Marvin Gaye
- ‘Master of Puppets’ – Metallica
- ‘Gimme Shelter’ – The Rolling Stones
For Fassbender’s final entry, he went back to the origins of British rock and roll, bringing up The Rolling Stones hit ‘Gimme Shelter’. He explained: “I think more than any other song, there is a real sense of foreboding or, you know, something is about to happen. There’s almost sort of anticipation at the beginning of this song, and then just the backing vocals on it are, for me, what makes the whole song work”.
While the Stones’ original was all about setting up a post-apocalyptic atmosphere, Fassbender also mentioned how well the song has been used in other contexts, such as the main motif at the beginning of too many Scorsese films to count.
