Dubstep, the social glue responsible for connecting an entire subculture of kids whose common interest is often just partying, has provided a unifying thread an unlikely place: it’s on the soundtracks to both Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Harmony Korine’s recent Spring Breakers. Though the connection may seem at first superficial — Luhrmann’s, after all, resurrects the classic 1920s tale of a self-made man in vain pursuit of past glory, while Korine’s follows four young girls on a spring break bender that turns violent — they actually raise similar questions of the American Dream.

Or, at least, one of them does: Luhrmann’s indulgent, over-the-top adaptation misreads Fitzgerald’s novel, whereas Korine’s self-aware, sexed-up critique of a generation is, while unrelated plot-wise, a more faithful extension of the spirit of Gatsby.

You’d only have to ask a high-schooler, or even a precocious middle-schooler, to appreciate the basics of the The Great Gatsby’s thematics. It is at its core a study of people who want: Jay Gatsby yearns for his former love Daisy Buchanan; Daisy is in turn taken with the conspicuous consumption of Long Island, along with the hordes of New Yorkers who attend Gatsby’s legendary social gatherings. Gatsby and Daisy’s emotional desires are masked by materialism, and the veneer of wealth eclipses all.