Regardless of what you think about the Charlie’s Angels movie from the year 2000, there’s one aspect of it that is undeniable: That Charlie’s Angels soundtrack is fantastic. The movie might not have aged so well (or even been that great at the time, really), but the songs that accompanied it were either already classics at the time or, in the case of a certain Destiny’s Child song, classics ever since. So, with a new Charlie’s Angels movie in theaters, how does the accompanying soundtrack stack up? Will tweens be playing CDs of it in their mom’s cars like we all did 19 years ago (or, you know, the 2019 equivalent of that)?
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The biggest difference between the soundtrack for the 2000 movie — and, also, the soundtrack for the 2003 sequel Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle — and the soundtrack for the 2019 movie, is that the one for the new film features primarily contemporary music. The 2000 and 2003 soundtracks were full of disco hits (“Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” by Tavares), ‘80s rock (“Anyway You Want It” by Journey), and ‘90s dance music (“Groove Is In the Heart” by Deee-Lite), with a few contemporary songs sprinkled in (“Ya Mama” by Fatboy Slim).
The new soundtrack, on the other hand, is almost entirely new music, much of it performed by Ariana Grande. The 26-year-old singer executive produced the album, along with Savan Kotecha and Scooter Braun, as reported by Rolling Stone. Grande appears on five songs: “Bad to You” with Normani and Nicki Minaj, “Don’t Call Me Angel” with Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey, “Nobody” with Chaka Khan (not to be confused with Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody), “Got Her Own” with Victoria Monét, and the solo song “How I Look on You." The only oldie on the album is Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls," but it’s included as a hip new remix.
While the older soundtracks might have introduced younger listeners to older music, the new soundtrack is likely to introduce all listeners to up-and-coming artists, including Kash Doll, Kim Petras, and The Voice winner Danielle Bradbery. In a message about the soundtrack posted on Instagram, Grande said she was “excited and honored to have so many phenomenal, bad ass mf women involved in this incredibly special project.” She also described the album as “poppy, mildly trappy at times, action filled.”
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The place where the original soundtrack and the Grande-produced one cross is in the creation of their respective lead singles; both are girl-power anthems performed by a trio of pop stars. Of course, for the 2000 version that means “Independent Women: Part 1” by Destiny’s Child. For the new film, it’s “Don’t Call Me Angel” with Grande, Cyrus, and Del Rey.
Not everyone loved “Independent Women” at the time, but it’s very unlikely that “Don’t Call Me Angel” will live on in even close to the same way the Destiny’s Child song has. And unfortunately, that goes for the 2019 soundtrack as a whole, too.
For one, the 2000 soundtrack was full of fun, dance-y, great-for-the-whole-family songs (well, other than “Turning Japanese”... for multiple obvious reasons) that were already successful hits before they were compiled into one album. But, more than that, the way people consumed music was different back then. Being able to buy an album with 15 songs, many of which you already recognized, was really appealing at the turn of the millennium. Now, there are so many more options in the music world and even more ways to discover and listen. Fewer people are likely to even know there’s a Charlie’s Angels soundtrack coming out.
Thankfully, if you were a fan of that 2000 soundtrack and happen to have lost your CD and, probably, a CD playing device, the songs are all available on Spotify. Time to use the future to live in the past.