The song My Chemical Romance made to parody ‘Twilight’
For any up-and-coming band in the 2000s and 2010s, the soundtrack to the Twilight films felt like a golden ticket. Although the film franchise might not have aged as well as some of the more celebrated teenage angst films of the time, the musical accompaniment always presented a hodgepodge of great music, both indie and mainstream, putting acts like Linkin Park next to Mutemath and somehow making it fit. For all of the emo aesthetics that were brought out of songs by Paramore, where were the genre’s pioneers, My Chemical Romance, in the mix?
In theory, bringing in the band responsible for The Black Parade seems like the perfect choice for the Twilight franchise. The rock stalwarts had built their empire on songs about the darker side of life, and Gerard Way and the gang had even contributed a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Desolation Row’ for the Watchmen soundtrack. Instead of being welcomed in with open arms, Way was ice-cold towards the franchise.
By the time Robert Pattinson started becoming everyone’s favourite vampire, MCR were already miles beyond their early years. Though The Black Parade was still fresh in everyone’s minds, their next album, Danger Days, brought with it new adventures, soaking itself in glossy synthesisers to tell the story set in a Mad Max-style apocalyptic timeline.
When talking about their aesthetic, Way had not been all that comfortable with the band’s gothic demeanour becoming cool, telling Q Magazine (via Songfacts), “With things like Twilight, the idea of anything gothic like vampires wasn’t scary any more, they were sexy or contemplative. To me vampires are the new Jonas Brothers. So we’ve gone the opposite way”.
Although Way was adamant about not contributing a song to the movie, the back half of their next album had a slight jab at their contemporaries on ‘Vampire Money’. Capping things off with a ‘Ballroom Blitz’-style role call, Way pokes fun at bands that just want to have their names plastered alongside the movie franchise, thinking it will catapult them to superstardom.
The phrase “vampire money” also originated from what some interviewers were asking about My Chemical Romance at the time, with guitarist Ray Toro recalling, “The guy asked us if we were going to get some of that ‘vampire money’ everybody wants. So that’s what the song’s about. I think songs for soundtracks can be cool, but we don’t buy into the movie. We don’t personally enjoy it, but that’s not to say it’s bad”.
Even if the members were fans of the movie, cashing in to make a quick buck was never the point behind their music. Compared to the stories that come to life onscreen, Way was looking to paint a picture in the listener’s mind rather than be a member of the cool band that soundtracked a chase or fight scene.
In the context of their cover for the Watchmen soundtrack, Way approached the song from a completely different perspective, wanting to reimagine Bob Dylan’s words as if they were being hammered out by a punk rock kid rather than an acoustic guitar-toting troubadour. While the song may have been written as a joke, Way thought that it was a sign of professional maturity to opt out of the film, saying, “A lot of people around us were like, ‘Please, for the love of God, do this fucking movie.’ But we’d moved on”.
