In just a few weeks, listeners to Brokeback Mountain Radio have cumulatively spent more than 420 hours listening to the service.
“Brokeback Mountain Radio is carefully programmed with music taken from the soundtrack of the award winning film as well as from my own collection of music that could easily be inspired by the film and fits the overall mood and theme of Brokeback Mountain,” said Phillip Dampier, music coordinator and founder.
“The playlist has been evolving over time since the channel began, with a mix of both instrumental and vocal songs,” said Dampier.
“Listeners using Live 365’s player can vote up or down on individual tracks, and I pay attention to those votes when deciding which tracks stay and which are retired,” he said.
Track selection is a painstaking process for Dampier.
“Finding slide guitar music that fits for this film is very difficult, owing to Gustavo Santaolalla’s unique vision when he developed the score for Brokeback,” he said.
Santaolalla recently took home as Oscar for his score for Brokeback Mountain. Unfortunately for film music fans, all of the music from the film never appeared on the soundtrack CD.
“There are significant gaps, leaving score fans with only about 10 minutes of original music and it’s never enough, especially with The Wings which is the most inspiring song on the soundtrack and lasts all of two minutes,” said Dampier.
Dampier has borrowed from earlier scores by Santaolalla to broaden things out.
“In particular, a few songs from 21 Grams work very well on Brokeback Mountain Radio, especially one track (??Did This Really Happen??) that almost seems like a premonition for his score work for Brokeback Mountain.”
Unfortunately, not every track works. Santaolalla, Argentinan-born, blends a lot of Latin American influences into his soundtracks, and that just doesn’t work for a film based in rural Wyoming.
Other music on Brokeback Mountain Radio comes from artists that also do movie score work, as well as a few artists from the new age music category.
“Santaolalla’s score is often more like aural wallpaper – it’s not there to intrude on the film but rather set the mood and the tone and often, new age music can get along well with score music,” Dampier said.
Among the vocal tracks, Brokeback Mountain Radio has a few taken directly from the soundtrack as well as others that Dampier chose himself.
“The vocal tracks are easy and hard to pick at the same time. It’s not been a problem to take a few tracks from the soundtrack and include them, but a few just don’t belong on Brokeback Mountain Radio, especially Linda Ronstadt and Steve Earle; they are great artists but they add little to the story,” said Dampier.
“Finding country and western music that complains about lost love or a relationship gone bad is not a problem. Isn’t that at least 75% of country and western music anyway?” Dampier asks.
“But the music I chose has to fit the story; it has to pass the test of ‘can you imagine Jack or Ennis singing one of these songs in his own voice?’ I’ve found dozens of songs that are promising but for one line in the song which throws the whole thing off meaning I have to keep looking,” Dampier said.
Brokeback Mountain’s total playlist runs around three and a half hours. Dampier says that if there is support for the channel, he can expand the number of songs played. All of the artists are compensated and the streaming service is compliant with copyright laws. Although the streaming provider inserts occasional advertising into the stream, Dampier does not profit from the channel.
“I pay for it out of my own pocket,” he said.
Brokeback Mountain Radio was created, in part, as a promotional tool for BetterMost.net, Dampier’s website devoted to helping movie fans “finish the story in their own lives.”
“There are some excellent fan sites up and running now with thousands of users devoted to understanding this outstanding film. BetterMost was created to fill a niche – I’m interested in helping people apply the emotional energy they feel from the impact of the film into making changes in their own lives so that they never find themselves in Ennis’ shoes. We’re always trying to look forward at BetterMost,” Dampier said.
“People can fire up Brokeback Mountain Radio and have it run in the background while they write about what they are feeling on BetterMost,” he added.
Dampier is always on the prowl looking for new music to introduce to the channel.
“I know there are music experts out there who can point me to music I have yet to discover, and I am always looking for suggestions,” he said.
