If the gruesome subject matter of Todd Phillips’ Joker wasn’t enough to handle, the Joaquin Phoenix-led movie has left some fans a little ‘clown’ in the dumps with the use of a controversial song choice. Now, Warner Bros. is breaking its silence on the use of Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part II”.
For those who don’t know, Gary Glitter — real name Paul Francis Gadd — was sentenced in 2015 and is currently serving 16 years behind bars for historical child sex offences. Among his various crimes, Gadd was found guilty of raping girl under the age of 13.
Critics have called Joker out for including “Rock and Roll Part 2” in the movie and Warner Bros.’ apparently united stance against removing it from further showings.
According to Billboard, the studio is refusing to remove the track from Joker. There were originally worries that Glitter would receive royalties from Joker‘s use of the track, but as various sites have pointed out, he sold his master recording and publishing rights years ago. This means he won’t directly get any sync fees or royalty payments for ‘most’ of the “Rock and Roll Part 2” streams.
Speaking of which, the song rose to 1.5 million streams during the week after the Joker’s Oct 4 release. According to Nielsen Music, this was up from the 133,000 streams the week before.
The site reports that a source close to Warner Bros. confirms “there are no plans to remove the song from the Joker soundtrack or future versions of the film, contrary to recent reports.”
“Rock and Roll Part II” is used in the background of Fleck’s iconic dancing down the steps scene which has gone viral as part of the movie’s marketing campaign. It would be relatively easy to remove, however, it would definitely mess with Joker‘s visual impact.
Joker has an eclectic soundtrack of tunes that includes the likes of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns”, a Jimmy Durante version of “Smile”, and Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life”. While “Rock and Roll Part II” fits with the staircase scene, there’s no escaping Glitter’s crimes.
Elsewhere, Joker is on track to break plenty of box office records and is already getting a fair bit of buzz for Phoenix’s portrayal of Arthur Fleck. As Joker continues and we see Fleck’s descent into madness, others have called out Phillips’ portrayal of mental health. Whatever your thoughts, there’s no denying Joker is ‘laughing’ all the way to the bank.
[Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros.]