Warning: This post contains spoilers for Black Widow.
Like all MCU films, Black Widow has a great score to back up its story of intrigue, abuse, and triumph over adversity, but the soundtrack also includes some pop music tracks. It's obviously not the first time the MCU has used chart tracks, with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies introducing the Awesome Mix tapes to the franchise and other notable examples dotted around like Eiffel 65's "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" in Iron Man 3.
Natasha Romanoff doesn't have her own theme music unlike some of her fellow MCU heroes, but that's somewhat fitting for a character who expresses her struggle to tell her own story. That's very much reflective of Scarlett Johansson's time in the MCU, which saw her take on key roles in several films - including taking down HYDRA's infiltration of SHIELD - but always remain a supporting figure. Now that she has that opportunity to tell her story, it seems the decision was made to use popular music to reflect on her identity instead.
While the music in Black Widow isn't as much of a gimmick as in other MCU films, the three tracks prominently featured each play a key role in the narrative as Cate Shortland's musical team has really leaned into the meaning behind them. And beyond the pop tracks used, there are a couple of very notable musical cues in other key scenes that deserve mention too. Here's every song on the Black Widow soundtrack.
The Americans-style prolog sees Natasha and her fake family escaping the US, with the four deep-cover agents bonding over Yelena's favorite song, Don McLean's "American Pie." It's later revived by David Harbour's Red Guardian as his proof that his relationship with Yelena was indeed real. The choice of the song is loaded, considering McLean's suggestion of what it means: "Basically, in ‘American Pie’ things are heading in the wrong direction. It is becoming less ideal, less idyllic. I don’t know whether you consider that wrong or right, but it is a morality song in a sense. I was around in 1970 and now I am around in 2015 there is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of ‘American Pie.’ ” Given that the song plays over images of Natasha watching her idyllic family life fade away, that meaning is hauntingly relevant.
This cover of Nirvana's classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit" plays over the credits sequence, which feels almost like an ode to James Bond movie credits sequences. Put together in 2015 by Think Up Anger and featuring vocalist Malia J, it previously featured on the soundtrack to Blumhouse horror movie The Gallows. Widely used as an anthem of teen rebellion and identity expression, the rejigged version that plays over images of Red Room victims losing their identity is almost perverse in how it flips the song's usual reception.
Originally written for Rihanna to record, Sia's "Cheap Thrills" is a strangely out of place song, given its lack of narrative resonance, but it could be that Cate Shortland's Black Widow team agreed with Sia's sentiment of the song being uplifting and used it for effect. It comes just as Taskmaster attacks Natasha out of the blue and the atmosphere established by the music makes for a bigger shock.
As well as the three songs used for the soundtrack, the score features two stand-out moments from other movies. The most notable comes at the very end of the movie when Natasha meets Mason and is given the Quinjet to join up with Steve Rogers ahead of the Raft breakout. As Natasha takes off, the familiar Avengers theme as composed by Alan Silvestri. The other is more subtle, but comes in the opening act when Yelena and Natasha are fleeing the Budapest safe house with Taskmaster and the other Widows on their tail. As Taskmaster plows through traffic in the Red Room's armored car, it's impossible to miss the similarities in the musical cues to Terminator 2's iconic bike chase scene. In both cases, there's an agenda to instantly mythologize the villain, adding a theme that would be used throughout Taskmaster's Black Widow appearances and building tension. The scores may be different, but they are certainly too similar to overlook.
