How the 'AIR' Soundtrack Got Made

When in doubt, look to Fat Joe. At least that’s what Air music supervisor Andrea von Foerster did in the darkness of the Regency Village Theater as the film unspooled during its Los Angeles premiere in late March. “He was sitting in front of me,” she says of the rapper. “And it was so funny because every time he really liked a song, he started getting into it, you know? So, if Fat Joe approves . . . ”

She trails off, but the second half of the thought is superfluous. Fact is, anyone who’s seen the terrific Ben Affleck-directed crowd-pleaser—which chronicles how Nike marketing whiz Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon, a producer on the movie as well) and his cohorts at the then-fledgling company doggedly pursued Michael Jordan to sign a shoe contract in 1984—leaves its audience with two takeaways: 1. Wow, Vaccaro really mortgaged his soul to land a fairly untested Chicago Bulls rookie, and 2. That was the most totally awesome 1980s compilation soundtrack ever.

“It looks like an ‘80s film and it feels like an ‘80s film, so it was really important to have authentic music,” von Foerster, whose credits include 500 Days of Summer, Begin Again, and the series 1883, tells Esquire. Not just any music. All 23 needle drops, ranging from the opening guitar riff of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A” coda, are hits culled from the middle of the decade and boom with an energy befitting the movie’s upbeat tone and scrappy we’re-in-this-together personality. “The ‘80s had so many great underdog films, like Hoosiers, and we haven’t had that kind of film in a long time,” she explains. “This was a great way to have a lot of powerful positive songs from that era.” (Yeah, she knows “Born in the U.S.A.” doesn’t quite fit that mold; more on that below.)

For the proud Gen Xer, the opportunity to license her favorite childhood music and collaborate with her ‘90s idols was, to quote a Cure song not featured in the film, just like heaven. “I was a film school kid when Matt and Ben won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, and I’ve followed their careers ever since,” she says. And though she only saw the pair in Zoom meetings and didn’t have face-to-face contact until the premiere, “It was a great experience for me. I loved working with them. Ben’s an amazing director and is so clear on what he wants.”

Indeed, von Forester’s work started with Affleck (who also plays Nike honcho Phil Knight) sending her a hand-picked iTunes playlist last summer. “It was basically all songs from 1984,” she says. “And we looked into getting all of them.” And true to the Air M.O., the four-month process required some gumption and faith in greatness. Below, she breaks down all the soundtrack secrets. (Mild spoilers ahead!)

Settling the Score

Not only is Air stuffed with all those radio-friendly tracks, its score consists of 18 synth-heavy cues from various ‘80s flicks such as Risky Business, Firerstarter, and Miracle Mile. Harold Faltermeyer-scored audio clips from both Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop II make cameos, too. (Viva “Axel F!”). “We had no composer, so every single piece of music that you hear in the film is licensed,” von Foerster says. “This was an ‘80s period movie all the way.” The lone exception: Paul Haslinger from the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream composed two brief pieces, one of which plays over the closing credits.

“Summer”-time Blues

The opening montage, featuring a blur of 1984 pop culture images, was supposed to be set to the melancholic Don Henley hit “The Boys of Summer.” The Eagles singer, famously picky about licensing his music, even signed off. But the green light came too late. Enter “Money for Nothing” and Sting’s signature falsetto “I Want My MTVeeeeeee” introduction. “I love the Don Henley song and would have loved to have said I cleared him, but this song defined the MTV generation,” she explains. “And it works perfectly here.”

Now U Know

Though Prince was “all over” Affleck’s original iTunes playlist—as he should have been, given that the artist owned 1984—none of the provocative songs from his catalog made the cut. “It didn’t really fit most of the storyline,” von Foerster says. (In other words, the uber-sexy “When Doves Cry” doesn’t match with Vaccaro watching tape of a college basketball game.) Besides, she notes, Prince’s music was heard in the epic 2020 sports documentary The Last Dance. “No one wants a repeat,” she says. Plus! “That film told the Michael Jordan side of things and our film was told from the Nike side of things.”

Get Sirius

One song, however, did get airtime in both projects: “Sirius,” by the Alan Parsons Project. The rousing instrumental blared during the Bulls’ starting line-up introductions throughout Jordan’s legendary run with the team. (However, the contexts are different between the two projects, as we never even see Jordan in a Bulls uniform throughout the movie.) “It was a later addition but it was something we definitely wanted,” von Foerster says. It closely aligns with the Jordan brand, sure. More importantly, she adds, “It’s already associated with sports and has this big style and energy to pump up the film.”

First Jump Shot

Might as well ask: Where oh where is Van Halen’s No. 1 smash from 1984? (Honestly, you can’t help noticing that it could have been placed in 12 different scenes.) “‘Jump’ was in there,” von Foerster says. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, receiving a prompt and official sign-off from the guys (and the Eddie Van Halen estate) proved to be a futile effort. “We just couldn’t get any firm answers back from the band so we never cleared it,” she says. She rolled with the punches and included “Tempted” in the spot.

We’ll Do it Live

While it sounds like there was an unlimited sync budget, von Foerster wheeled and dealed with a set amount of funds. That meant she had to get creative. First she took a few short cuts—literally—and included only snippets of songs like “Ain’t Nobody,” “Sister Christian,” and “Blister in the Sun.” She also used alternative versions of the originals, such as a live track of the ZZ Top classic “Legs.” But obscure college rock indies were off the table. As she explains, “There was a bigger barrier back then to be a musician so all the songs were all gigantic back in the day. It’s not like we can use this little song you’ve never heard from 1984.”

The Mellencamp Issue

It breaks von Foerster’s Indiana-bred heart to admit that she couldn’t afford to snag John Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses” for the scene where Vaccaro calls his boss, Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) from the road in North Carolina to share that he’s about to pay an unauthorized visit to Jordan’s parents (Viola Davis and Julius Tennon). “It’s the only song we didn’t get that I really wanted,” she says. “But he’s just too much money and doesn’t clear very often.” Big Country’s “In A Big Country” subbed in.

Second Jump Shot

True story: In 1984, the Nike braintrust attempted to woo the Jordan family in its HQ conference room by showing them a rah-rah MJ promo video set to the Pointer Sisters’ peppy “Jump (For My Love).” But in Air, audiences instead hear Dan Hartman’s “I Can Dream About You.” The video is such a miss that Vaccaro quickly switches it off and delivers an impromptu impassioned speech. It turns out that von Foerster had actually secured a re-record of the Pointer Sisters number, but producers decided to insert a more mellower and appropriate track. “With the Dan Hartman song,” she says, “It was more obvious why Sonny would turn off the video.”

Bruce’s Backstory

Budget be damned, “Born in the U.S.A” plays in its entirety at the end as audiences learn the status updates on all its main players. “It required a lot of work but it was important to play for so long to wrap it all up,” says von Foerster. For starters, the anthem about the hardship of Vietnam vets is a callback to an earlier exchange in which Strasser explains the song’s often misconstrued meaning to Vaccaro. The producers decided to play into the misconception. “Many people do still think of that song as like, ‘Yay, America,’ so it was a nice way to end the story about these underdogs.” Because Springsteen sold his catalog in 2021, von Foerster says she appealed to Sony Music Publishing and Sony Masters for clearance who then reached out to his management for approval. “We made our case and they all met us to where we needed to be, thank God,” she says. Postscript to the postscript: Sony also released the Air soundtrack.

Time Lapse

Let’s address one last order of business before the DeLorean returns us to 2023. Some of the featured tunes, such as “Computer Love” “All I Need Is A Miracle” “Can’t Fight This Feeling”—not to mention “Money for Nothing”—did indeed start charting a year after Jordan signed his landmark and ultra-lucrative Nike contract. Heck, Run DMC’s “My Adidas,” the hip-hop ode to Nike’s chief competitor at the time, wasn’t released until 1986. Well? “They just were just too good to let go of,” von Foerster says. “And theoretically they could have been written and recorded in 1984!”

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