In the late '70s, CBS launched the TV series Dallas, centering around a family and its main antagonist, JR Ewing, a man whose greed, ambition, lust for power, and moral ineptitude knew no boundaries. Proving that art does interpret reality and all things do indeed come big in Texas, the early 2000s brought the Enron corporate scandal, which pretty much mirrored JR Ewing's misdeeds, only this time it was real and it affected thousands of people personally. 2005 saw the documentary The Smartest Guys in the Room following and detailing the scandal in great depth. The soundtrack is a mishmash of tunes thematically chosen to give the movie a dense and dark music bed, with moments of lighthearted irony thrown in for good measure. A wide range of artists, from
Billie Holiday to
Marilyn Manson, are included here, making for jarring listening without the context of the movie. ~ Rob Theakston