Hulu’s Utopia Falls Is Pretty Out There — But Its Soundtrack Is Mercilessly Cool

What do you think would happen if you got chosen for the Hunger Games but instead of fighting to the death for survival you simply had to enter a fun dance competition? That’s the general gist of Hulu’s brand new dystopian teen series, Utopia Falls. Sometime in the distant future, the world is divided into different sectors and kids from those different groups get together once a year to put on a show. Of course, there are also more nefarious motivations at play, but the dance!

Utopia Falls follows the story of Aliyah (Robyn Alomar), a member of the Progress sector, who is chosen with dozens of other 16-year olds to go to the Exemplar and practice the arts (see: song and dance) ahead of a big show that will be broadcast through their region, New Babyl. These kids don’t know what they’re missing in their lives until they stumble upon an old archived library full of music, movies, and art that’s been hidden away for years. The new music — mainly hip-hop — starts to influence their performances and their lives until they’re ready to overthrow the government. But don't forget the dancing!

So this might go without saying, but there’s a lot of music in Utopia Falls. A lot of it has actually been composed specifically for the show (including many of the dance numbers since the kids aren’t allowed to outright dance to the outlawed hip-hop genre). But for those ones that you might recognize from elsewhere, here are all the songs you need to hear from Utopia Falls.