The soundtrack "tries to capture the amazing diversity of what was on the table musically at that time," Linklater said in a prepared statement. "So many artists were at the top of their game, and it seemed like a lot of popular genres were viable.

"Metal and R&B were as big as ever, disco was still hanging in there (although it would be 'dead' within a year or so), and, thanks to the movie Urban Cowboy, country was suddenly cool in places it hadn't been before. Even more exciting was the immediacy of punk and new wave, and the first examples of this thing you'd eventually know as hip-hop.

"Over the years some of this has been parodied and made to look ridiculous, but this movie is asking you to experience it as if for the first time - from those opening drum beats of 'My Sharona' to the utter newness of 'Rapper's Delight.'"