With one exception, the songs were created specifically for the film and debuted in it, although some appeared on subsequent albums or greatest hits albums by the participating artists. U2’s “Until the End of the World”, had been previously released on that band’s 1991 album Achtung Baby, albeit in a different version. In commissioning the songs, director Wim Wenders asked the musicians to anticipate the kind of music they would be making a decade later, when the film was set.