The music to the 2011 science fiction sports drama film Real Steel directed by Shawn Levy, featured a compilation of songs by popular artists as heard in the film and an album that contains the original score written and composed by Danny Elfman. The first album, Real Steel – Music from the Motion Picture, was released on October 4, 2011 by Interscope Records.^[1][2] It consists of 13 tracks featuring artists including Foo Fighters, Tom Morello, Eminem, Royce da 5'9" (Bad Meets Evil), The Crystal Method, Yelawolf, 50 Cent and Limp Bizkit.^[3] Elfman's score that featured over 17 tracks, was released into a separate album as Real Steel – Original Score on November 8, 2011 by Varèse Sarabande.^[4]

During the film's post-production process, Levy had called few of the artists to the editing room such as The Crystal Method, Timberland and Beastie Boys and showcased few scenes which they approved and this let to Levy developing a soundtrack for the film.^[5] He mentioned that Levy was a fan of Crystal Method, and while one of the songs the writer had written was "a magnificent song for this kind of lonely man montage two-third of the film", he contacted him in person, but refuted the offer so that he could use in one of his album or Levy's future films. Later, he called the duo and screened the fight sequences in the edit, and few of the scenes, including the "rousing" emotional sequences. The duo had written two different songs; "Bring the Noise" served as the introduction to Noisy Boy and a piece for the climatic fight of Zeus and Atom, that worked well. But after mixing the score, he felt that the sounds of the duo is "exactly the same pitch as the robot sound effects" which left them unheard. Later Crystal Method, collaborated with the score composer Elfman who wrote an overlay of the track that worked "exceptionally well".^[6]

Levy recalled a year ago, on collaborating with Timbaland for a hip-hop song, though some of his friends disagreed. One of his friends had shared a clip of the film to his studio which led him to meet the rapper. He showcased the full film with Timbaland and his kids, after which he agreed to do the end credits song as his kid liked and danced to the tune. Levy felt that "he was so enthused on seeing the film" which led him to write the song.^[6]

On the music supervision budget, Levy said "you always sign off on a music budget for a movie and it's X, and you're kind of like 'Eh, that's not gonna be enough,' but it's this game that you kind of have to play [...] you always know that if the movie works, and if you have a good test screening and good preview, and the studio sees a certain song that you can't afford in the movie, 7 out of 10 times they will pay for that song, and they'll go into what's called breakage to give you that song. So yeah the budget grew a little bit and we had a lot of flexibility with the artists."^[6]

Danny Elfman was chosen to compose the film's score as Levy felt that he would be one of the few composers who could do a score similar to that of the Rocky franchise, alternating guitar-based ambient music and songs with a full orchestra.^[3] The score album containing 19 tracks were released by Varèse Sarabande on November 8, 2011.

Filmtracks.com wrote "Real Steel is a score with uniquely packaged character, smart thematic loyalty, and one hell of a narrative conclusion, and any other composer attempting to match its quality in a possible sequel will face a potentially impossible challenge."^[8] James Southall of Movie Wave commented "Elfman is a professional, so everything here is technically proficient, some of the tunes are fun, but it doesn’t go beyond what any reasonably-competent film composer might have written – there’s no personality here, only occasional hints that it was actually the work of a composer whose very strong musical personality is actually one of the strongest reasons he’s been so successful and remains so popular. It’s enjoyable fluff, for sure, but fluff nonetheless."^[9]

Daniel Schweiger of Assignment X wrote "While Real Steel starts off with raw, strumming simplicity, Elfman gradually brings in his more recognizable strings lines, heavenly choirs (with a particularly angelic voice provided by Poe) and fighting mad orchestra, with thumping, metal grunge leading to the big moment in the robot ring."^[10] James Christopher Monger of AllMusic said "Danny Elfman's surprisingly upbeat and uplifting score trades in many of the composer’s signature moves (ghostly choirs and quirky, symphonic bombast) for a more lyrical approach. Rooted in bluesy, country-folk guitar and John Williams-esque slabs of pastoral Americana, Elfman still gets in the occasional explosion, but there’s a comfy, rootsy vibe that permeates the score and echoes fellow composer Greg Edmonson's work on Joss Whedon's beloved outlaw sci-fi television series Firefly."^[11]

Thomas Glorieux of Maintitles.net wrote "Danny Elfman has scared some people with his occasional quirky scores, but Real Steel is not that at all. On the contrary, it's straightforward and it barely contains his usual voice (only the use of choir hints us of his presence). Plus the biggest strength is the undeniably amazing effect it has in the movie, literally uplifting every emotional scene and each heroic fight. Making it a must to see and hear inside the context for those who are still somewhat undecided."^[12]

Credits adapted from CD liner notes.^[13][14]