Yellow Flicker Beat: 10 Details About the Lorde Song and the Hunger Games Soundtrack

The things that stand out in this song are the references to nature and the body. She imagines the body as part of the ground, and the precious stones that come from it. Her heart is fire, and this is what drives her. Nature holds a dream that escapes the ideologies that us beings will forever be attached to. By tying in imagery of the body as if it were made of these things, Lorde is really singing about a "naturalness", which is what ideology aims for.

Lorde recently released her song for the Hunger Games: Mockinjgay soundtrack. The song sounds as if it came from the head of the hero, Katniss Everdeen. Have a listen.

Lorde was given the job as the sole curator of the Mockingjay Part 1 soundtrack. Called a "match made in heaven" by the media, this makes perfect sense as she is in the age range of the film's fans, has an obvious dark side, and is seen to be as deep as Katniss. Lorde is adding the feeling from the mind of a strong teenage girl (herself) into the moments of this film that cannot be told only through words and actions.

The story is one of the future, and it's the potential that makes it so interesting. There is a reality to unchecked power, and a real resistance that exists all over the world. For example, protesters in Thailand have used the three finger salute in resistance, and it has become illegal to throw the sign up because authorities are afraid of what it means for them.

Lorde is that cool, rebellious teenage girl who we can actually picture alongside Katniss in the story. She brings the story into the musical realm, one closer to our existence, through her song and involvement in the soundtrack.

Recently, Lorde said that while curating the soundtrack she hoped to get inside the head of Katniss. She is a girl watched by cameras unseen, she is sculpted by the people and thrown into the position of a leader-a leader in a world already controlled by authority from all angles. It's a mixture of emotion, anxiety, control, and vulnerability while she sits on the ledge in between power and the resistance to it.

Yellow Flicker Beat's chorus sings of a "start" and a "flicker beat" that is "sparking up my heart". The song hits on the tension of feeling awake and alive in a moment. It's the moment of realization when you wake up from a dream, the connections you make when you share a purpose, and the power in eyes that stay open.

The soundtrack seems to be just as anticipated as the film, and Lorde will draw on inspiration from the story. Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars were among some of the artists on the previous soundtrack, and according to Page Six, Charli XCX, Diplo, and Grace Jones will be some of the voices we will hear on this one. Soundtracks can act as another part of the narrative, so this one will be big.

Music has always had it's place in the political, from protest chants to songs about the Vietnam war. Some are crafted to send a shiver down your spine and others to inform you, but music is the great connector and has it's place in resistance. Hopefully there will be a bit of this in the Mockingjay soundtrack, some music that touches on the social and not just the emotional.

The song actually sends shivers down my spine. Listening to it feels like I've just realized a power in me, right as soon as the chorus fills my ears. But music hits people in different ways, so this is just personal. The song gives us a chance to share the story with Katniss from the inside where the heart sits.