Conventionality belongs to yesterday: Hitmaker Justin Tranter puts their spin on the new ‘Grease’ prequel

“This was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” says Justin Tranter of co-writing 30 songs for “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.” To capture the sound of the 1950s, the creators of a new “Grease” prequel turned to one of the key figures of 2000s pop. I really needed to focus on “Grease” and a couple other film and TV things I did because … I wasn’t burning out, but I was just like, “How many different ways can I figure out how to do those four things that pop songs are about?” So I went and did things that were really hard and then came back to pop music and was like, “Oh, thank God — I can do this in an hour.” As a songwriter, are you competitive? “What Sam Smith accomplished with ‘Unholy,’ and bringing Kim Petras along on it — if that’s not progress, I don’t know what is,” says Tranter. We always think that Hollywood and the record business are like, “Oh, this is trending — let’s go get more.” But if we really break down the charts and really break down the TV shows getting made and the movies getting made, it’s still always the same thing.