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Music in the Hunger Games

  • 3 days ago
  • 8 min read

By Sabrina Whenman


You’ve likely heard of the Hunger Games, whether it be the books, movies, stage show, or even the music. Yes, the music. But how can a book series have music? 


The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins currently has five books and five movies. 


For the books we have:

  • The Hunger Games (2008)

  • Catching Fire (2009)

  • Mockingjay (2010)

  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020) (Also called TBOSAS)

  • Sunrise on the Reaping (2025) (Also called SotR)


And for the movies we have:

  • The Hunger Games (2012)

  • Catching Fire (2013)

  • Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

  • Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)

  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

  • Sunrise on the Reaping (Releasing November of 2026)


To keep this as spoiler-free as possible, I will be intentionally vague about events of the book, but I’ve put all the page numbers in so that you can check it out yourselves. I’ve also linked an article or a youtube video for each of the songs/poems and a master list at the end that has each song. It appears with a link to the lyrics or a recording.


The Hunger Games media that likely everyone is familiar with are the first three books or the first four movies. If you've read or watched these, you might be familiar with the songs “Deep in the Meadow ” (The Hunger Games, page 234) or “The Hanging Tree ” (Mockingjay, page 123). Katniss sings both of these songs in rebellion, and openly defies the Capitol’s actions. In the first three books, Collins presents music as a key part of rebellion. It is used as a connection between the districts that were purposefully separated and pitted against each other as seen in “Deep in the Meadow”, or to criticise the actions of the totalitarian Capitol, and share the stories of people who have suffered as a result of it. For example; in “The Hanging Tree”, the final case in the original trilogy is seen in Mockingjay Part One and Two, where the four note tune that Rue sung in the first movie gets played after each rebellion broadcast to symbolise their movement.


I found that while songs were first introduced in these books, music was used more effectively as a tool for rebellion and symbolism in both “Sunrise on the Reaping” and “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, which are set chronologically earlier than the main trilogy. We don’t have any given years but “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is set during the 10th Hunger Games, “Sunrise on the Reaping” during the 50th, and the main trilogy during the 74th Hunger Games and onwards. 


“Nothing you can take from me” (TBOSAS, page 27) is first sung by Lucy Gray Baird, a member of the Covey. The Covey is a nomadic group of musicians who were forced to settle down in District Twelve after the period of war in which the Capitol took over Panem. I found this song very impactful when looking at it in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, because it’s the first song that is introduced to us, setting the tone for the novel. As she is reaped for the Hunger Games, Lucy Gray sings it, with lyrics such as: 


“You can’t take my past;

 You can’t take my history.”


 “Nothing you can take from me was ever worth keeping.”


And, 

“Thinking you’re in control. 

Thinking you can change me, maybe rearrange me.”


With this being directed at the Capitol, who is watching the live broadcast of the reaping, the overall message is how she and other people will not let themselves be changed by the Capitol, and that they refuse to give up their culture and way of life despite the oppression they face. This is even more important when knowing that The Covey are culturally separate from the rest of District Twelve as they have only been a part of the community for around ten years and are not fully accepted. Thus, this song is a meaningful act of rebellion, especially coming from a person such as Lucy Gray. 


Moving on, my absolute favourite song in the entire series is “The Goose and the Common” (SotR, pages 8 and 253). It is an English poem written in the late 18th century by an unknown author that has been adapted into a song within the book, a common occurrence in Covey's music. The original poem refers the privatization of common land and resources and the social injustice surrounding it. “Sunrise on the Reaping” is sung by Lenore Dove in the context of how the Capitol severely punishes the Districts in the form of the Hunger Games for rebelling and losing the war, which can be seen in:


“They hang the man and flog the woman; 

Who steals the goose from off the common,”  


Meanwhile the Capitol gets away with it and faces no punishment shown with:


“Yet let the greater villain loose; 

That steals the common from the goose.” 


After a few verses, it finally ends with:

 “And geese will still a common lack;

Till they go and steal it back.”


This implies rebellion against the Capitol as a solution to their issues and the second time it’s sung directly to the Capitol as a threat after someone does something to rebel, further pushing the message of the song. 


The second key way that music is used in these books is as a representation and continuation of culture. While this can be seen in the way Katniss learned the songs she knew from her father in the original trilogy, it’s seen more in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and “Sunrise on the Reaping”. 


One of my favourite examples of this is “The Old Therebefore ”(TBOSAS page 303, SotR pages 334 and 357), presented as a funeral song wishing someone farewell and saying that you will see them once you have finished your own business and done all there is to do “...here in the old therebefore.” and mourning them because “nothing is left anymore.” It’s first sung by Lucy Gray and then again by another character in Sunrise on the Reaping around forty years later, showing the importance of music in culture and how it’s carried down through generations as it’s sung. 


The Covey also uses music to remember history and knowledge of the past, and to display meaning specifically in names. Each member of the Covey has a name that follows the pattern of having a first name that is a name from a ballad or a song and then a colour, followed by a family surname. For example: Lucy Gray Baird is named after “Lucy Gray” by William Wordsworth, using both a name and a colour from the ballad; and Lenore Dove Baird, whose name comes from “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe, which speaks about a “…lost Lenore” and the colour dove, which she says is, “like the bird.”(SotR, page 7). These are both poems from our time, “Lucy Gray” being written in 1799 and “The Raven” in 1845, within the novels both of these poems (or appropriated versions of them) were performed as songs. In a dystopian setting like the Hunger Games, music is presented as a way of passing down information and history that would have been otherwise lost and by having these traditions the Covey clearly displays this.


A variety of other songs are sung by the Covey, bringing together the community of District Twelve when they perform, though I don’t have the space to mention them all here, many of them are American Folk songs or poems from our time, such as, “Oh My Darling Clementine”(TBOSAS, page 431) and, “Ah! Sun-flower”(SotR, page 154) by William Blake. Others are canonically written by characters such as Lucy Gray and continue to be seen throughout later books, the most prevalent being “The Hanging Tree”(chronologicaly first seen in TBOSAS, page 382) which was created by Lucy Gray about the events of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and was sung by Haymitch Abernathy in “Sunrise on the Reaping” and by Katniss in “Mockingjay”, as previously mentioned.


To conclude one of the largest articles I’ve ever written, the Hunger Games series written by Suzanne Collins uses music as a tool to present culture, history and community, as well as being a method of rebelling against oppression and inequality in a multitude of ways, effectively connecting the books to each other and to our own world through the use of songs and poems. 


Thank you so much for reading this if you got to the end! I actually went through and sticky tabbed each book where I could see that any songs were sung or mentioned as well as doing some additional research on each of the songs so I hope it was all worth it, and that you enjoyed hearing about the Hunger Games. As you may be able to tell, it’s one of my favourite book series and movie franchises so feel free to email me/chat to me about it if you’re also a fan. I wish everyone good luck for Music Fest, and I hope you have a good holiday break!


Master List for every song that appears in the books:

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay:

  • Deep in the Meadow (The Hunger Games page 234, recording of Jennifer Laurence from the Hunger Games movie.) 

  • Hanging Tree (Mockingjay page 123, recording of Jennifer Laurence from the Mockingjay Part 1 movie.)


The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes:


Sunrise on the Reaping (Novel only):

The Old Therebefore (Page 357, a slight variation of this recording from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.)

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