Taylor Sheridan’s unusual music request for ‘Yellowstone’ led to a theme fans now call hauntingly perfect
Before 'Yellowstone' became a hit series on Paramount+, it was just another Western drama trying to stand out in a crowded television landscape. Taylor Sheridan, the creative genius behind the show, didn't just ensure a perfect casting but also chose perfect music to bring his story to life. Brian Tyler and Breton Vivian, the composers behind the show, shared how they created the iconic intro theme.
"He was writing 'Yellowstone' and thought that he wanted to use a very cinematic approach," The music duo told Slashfilm about Sheridan. Tyler added, "He wanted orchestral music, and he wanted something very emotional that explored the dark side too, that which reflects dynamically against the beauty. It's like where tragedy is beauty, and you understand one because of the other. So I got together with him, and, you know, he has his cowboy boots on and everything, and ... he's amazing. We just started talking about music and understanding the story. And then all of a sudden, I found myself writing that first piece from the screenplay. And the 'Yellowstone theme became that."
Beyond the opening score, the series has also earned praise for its soundtrack across various seasons. Fans have taken to Reddit to share how deeply the show’s music has impacted them. On a thread titled "What is some of your favourite music from Yellowstone?" One user wrote, "Considering I was already a huge fan, pretty much all of Colter Wall’s stuff." Echoing the sentiment, a fan of the series said, "There are so many good ones! A few I’ve downloaded and play regularly are Colter Wall (Cowpoke and Sleeping on the Blacktop), Shane Smith and the Saints (Dance the Night Away and All I See is You), Zach Bryan (The Good I’ll Do), Whiskey Myers (Stone), and Tyler Childers (Lady May)." Adding to the list, a netizen confessed, "Tyler Childers - Nose on the Grindstone. Listened to it on repeat for, like, 6 months."
Speaking to Behindthelens Online, Tyler shared how he approached the music for 'Yellowstone,' "What’s interesting about YELLOWSTONE and the approach with it was that I studied up on the old west a bit. Even though this is a modern tale, the 'Old West' has that shadow over every cowboy hat and rancher that’s out there. It’s a story about ranchers and cowboys, basically, but the music of the 'Old West' is imported, in a sense, from immigrants who came here. They were pioneers who walked across the land and any instruments that they could bring from, for instance, Europe or wherever they were from."
He explained with an example, "Just take Ireland, for instance. Irish immigrants would bring their fiddles.They wouldn’t necessarily be from the highest upper class of Europe, and so they would have maybe slightly more humble roots with their instruments. They wouldn’t be Stradivarius violins. They’d be what we now know as “fiddle.” And as they got here and they kind of traveled across to the west, really under hardship, they would need entertainment, and they’d play their instruments. But they would be gypsy-styled instruments from Europe that became American because they became folk instruments again. So that was really why I based it around those instruments. It was going back to what the roots of even what the old west was, kind of that mythological feel of old instrumentation."
