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300 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Tyler Bates
Released	March 6, 2007 (2007-03-06)
Studio	Abbey Road Studios
Genre	Film score
Length	59:56
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Tyler Bates
Tyler Bates chronology
Tarzan II (2005) 300 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2007) Shooter (2007)

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Filmtracks
Movie Music UK
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ScoreNotes
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300: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the 2007 film of the same name by Tyler Bates. The album was released by Warner Bros. Records on March 6, 2007, three days before the film opened for public viewing.

Production and composition

In July 2005, composer Tyler Bates began work on the film, describing the score as having "beautiful themes on the top and large choir," but "tempered with some extreme heaviness." The composer had scored for a test scene that the director wanted to show to Warner Bros. to illustrate the path of the project. Bates said that the score had "a lot of weight and intensity in the low end of the percussion" that Snyder found agreeable to the film. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and features the vocals of Azam Ali (where she implements ethnic wailing). A standard edition and a special edition of the soundtrack containing 25 tracks was released on March 6, 2007, with the special edition containing a 16-page booklet and three two-sided trading cards.

The lyrics sung are in Bulgarian, Greek and Latin. The opening lines of the track "Come and Get Them" are "Ferto! – Parte to!" (φέρτο! – πάρτε το!) translating as "bring it! – take it!". It is said that Leonidas exclaimed Molōn Labe! (Μολὼν Λαβέ!) when asked by Xerxes to surrender their weapons, which is translated into English as "Come and Get Them".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tyler Bates

Copyright issues

The score was criticized for its similarity to other then-recent soundtracks, including James Horner and Gabriel Yared's work for the film Troy. The heaviest borrowings were said to be from Elliot Goldenthal's 1999 score for Titus. "Remember Us," from 300, is identical in parts to the "Finale" from Titus, and "Returns a King" is similar to the cue "Victorius Titus". On August 3, 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures acknowledged in an official statement:

... a number of the music cues for the score of 300 were, without our knowledge or participation, derived from music composed by Academy Award winning composer Elliot Goldenthal for the motion picture Titus. Warner Bros. Pictures has great respect for Elliot, our longtime collaborator, and is pleased to have amicably resolved this matter.

Reception

Upon its release, the 300 soundtrack received mostly negative reviews from film music reviewers, largely due to the Goldenthal plagiarism. Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com refused to review the album upon its release, later giving the album one star and quoting Bates as saying "I have as much respect for a garbage can lid as I do for the orchestra. Both of them can be entirely useful and important in the scope of a movie, if you look at them the right way." Clemmensen responds "That's a wise statement, but it's completely irrelevant unless you can actually use that garbage can lid in a manner that doesn't break the law.".

The soundtrack debuted at #74 on the Billboard Top 200 and rose to #52 in its second week. It has sold 37,638 copies to date.

References

1. Daniel Robert Epstein (July 13, 2005). "Exclusive Interview with Tyler Bates, Score Composer for The Devil's Rejects". UGO. Archived from the original on December 13, 2006. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
2. "WB Records to Release 300 Soundtrack". SuperHeroHype.com. January 19, 2007. Archived from the original on November 7, 2007. Retrieved January 21, 2007.
3. "300 Soundtrack To Hit Hard". IGN. January 31, 2007. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
4. Justin Bielawa (February 27, 2007). "300". Music on Film. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved March 18, 2007.
5. James Southall. "300". Movie Wave. Archived from the original on March 20, 2007. Retrieved March 18, 2007.
6. Demetris Christodoulides. "300". Score Magazine. Archived from the original on June 17, 2008. Retrieved March 18, 2007.
7. "300 on DVD". August 3, 2007. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
8. Clemmensen, Christian (September 13, 2009). "300 (Tyler Bates)". Filmtracks.com. Retrieved February 24, 2019.

• 300 (comics)
• 2007 soundtrack albums
• Warner Records soundtracks
• Tyler Bates soundtracks
• Action film soundtracks
• Epic film soundtracks
• Adaptations of works by Frank Miller
• Albums involved in plagiarism controversies