It’s undeniable that part of the massive success of the hit show Yellowstone is the music.
Throughout the series, music supervisor Andrea von Foerster has been praised for her use of red-dirt music from names like Whiskey Myers, Colter Wall, Charley Crockett, and even more mainstream artists like Lainey Wilson and Hailey Whitters.
But there’s one original song in the series that fans are convinced they’ve heard somewhere before: The opening theme song.
If you’re not familiar, take a listen.
The theme song for Yellowstone was composed by Bryan Tyler, an award-winning producer and composer who’s written music for movies like the Fast and the Furious series, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and more recently, The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
But fans are convinced that the original theme song for Yellowstone sounds a lot like the theme for another hit TV series, HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Every time I hear the Yellowstone theme I immediately think it’s Game of Thrones
— bowtiedamazonian (@bowtiedamazon) January 3, 2022
The theme song for Game of Thrones was composed by Ramin Djawadi, an Iranian-German composer known for his work on shows like Westworld and Prison Break, as well as films like the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
And fans seem to think there are a lot of similarities to his work in the Yellowstone theme song.
Take a listen to the Game of Thrones theme song:
There are some definite similarities, aside from both being orchestral theme songs. They use similar instrumentation, seemingly avoiding “modern” instruments in favor of classical sounds, which makes sense both for an old-school western type show as well as a show like Game of Thrones that’s set in a fictional world and time.
But across the internet, fans of both shows have taken to social media to point out just how similar the theme songs are:
Why does the Yellowstone lead in music remind me so much of the Game of Thrones theme song ?
— Mark Condit (@MarkRCondit) February 14, 2021
Does no one else hear the similarities between the theme music for Yellowstone and Game of Thrones?
— Rich (@Richard09999606) January 6, 2023
ok, you cannot tell me that the Yellowstone theme song and the Game of Thrones theme song aren’t exactly the same because it’s all I hear
— Tanya (@TanyaLouWho) December 15, 2021
sorry to say this but
the yellowstone theme song is a smooth blend of the game of thrones song & the madmen theme. sorry thank you— Bbby hd (@BobbyHD) July 27, 2020
The theme songs for Game of Thrones and Yellowstone are the same, right?
— Stacey N. Hauff (@stacey_hauff) December 8, 2022
Is it just me, or is there a striking similarity between the opening theme to “Yellowstone” and the “Game of Thrones” theme?
— Rich (@Richard09999606) March 8, 2022
Some have even wondered if they were composed by the same person (which, as I’ve already said, they weren’t).
did the game of thrones composer wrote the theme song for Yellowstone
— Mike (@cambridgemike) December 30, 2021
So what do you think? Do the songs sound the same? Or are these like those people who think “all country songs sound the same” and just aren’t used to classical music?
probably the only thing i dont like about yellowstone is they had to go and pick some game of thrones ass sounding theme song.
Doesnt fit the show at all— Jard (@JaredOfLondon) June 8, 2022
If you like the music of Yellowstone, check out our Yellowstone: The Soundtrack Playlist, featuring every song from every episode.
Shop the Yellowstone Collection from Whiskey Riff Shop
Andrea von Foerster On The Music Of Yellowstone
I’ll tell ya what, I could listen to the full Yellowstone soundtrack for the rest of my life and die a happy man… it’s easily the best soundtrack on television, and even on its own, it’s just a damn good playlist.
Needless to say, Yellowstone music supervisor Andrea von Foerster did one helluva job when it comes to giving recognition to those incredible artists who don’t get the recognition they deserve in the mainstream music industry.
She recently joined the Yellowstone podcast with Jefferson White (Jimmy Hurdstrom) to talk about the music on the show, talking everything from how she got her start, to meeting Taylor Sheridan and bagging the job, what she loves about her job, and what goes into picking out songs for the show.
She specifically chooses red-dirt country and Americana (no surprise there), because it is more relatable to the setting of the show, rather than deep south country (or mainstream country, basically) because it’s too “check-listy and name-checky.”
“Red-dirt country for anyone who doesn’t know, is typically Texas and Oklahoma. Americana and country, and songwriting in general, and there’s such a strong sense of storytelling in both states, and we tend not to use sort of deep south country because it’s a little more name-checky, and sort of party… and we don’t want to name a bunch of cities that are not in where we are.”
She also said that it was pretty easy consulting with Sheridan for the music on Yellowstone, as they both share the same taste for music.
“There was never really a proper conversation, it’s just I knew what he wanted, and my job is sort of reading the minds of everyone I work for, and he’s got great ears and the perfect musical landscape to play on, so it’s been kind of easy finding the right thing.
However, we do have a pretty narrow lane of the kind of music that we use, because we don’t have a lot of celebratory music. Ya know, we have a lot of ‘the world is ending,’ and ‘does anyone care’… There’s a lot of reflective songs, so there’s a lot of, sort of, redemption or regret, things like that.”
She then talks about how red-dirt music fits in perfectly with the depth of the show:
“We do look for people who have backgrounds in rodeo, roping, ya know barrel racing, like I have albums from a lot of barrel racers who’ve reached out to me over the years, and ya know people find me and I’m fine with that because I can’t find everything on my own.
I think the thing that comes with being from the southwest in general, or just the west in general, is space. Having this kind of sort of space and desolation and everything else it sort of matches the landscape we have on the show.”
Bottom line, she’s perfectly been able to match songs with scene, making you almost feel like you’re right there in the show.
But for her, she says the talent is already out there, her and Taylor are just helping people find it:
“We are helping elevate people who already have that amazing talent and Whiskey Myers is obviously the number one artist that wins the day on our show because they had three old records hit the top 10 after appearing on our show… they have been amazing and we continue to use their music.
We’ve used a ton of Blackberry Smoke, getting to use Charley Crockett is amazing, I’d love to use more of his stuff, we’ve used quite a few Lainey Wilson songs, Hailey Whitters… we love bolder vocals when it comes to females.. and the Colter Wall is amazing, nobody on Earth sounds like him.
Shane Smith and the Saints, I’m super excited about using this season… that was another Taylor request. Zach Bryan, and Gethen Jenkins we used a couple times, he’s fantastic. The Panhandlers we got to use this season, and then Ross Shifflett is another one, a totally independent artist that we’ve used multiple times.”
Needless to say, she deserves a ton of credit in making the show great.
