Mar 10 2008
Music on Mondays - Soundtracks
One of my favorite kinds of music album to buy is the movie soundtrack. I mean, think about it. If you buy a CD that features just one artist, you have to like the artist quite a bit to justify buying the whole album, because even with your favorite singer in the whole wide world, you probably won’t love every song on the album.
Generic compilation albums tend to have the same songs over and over again, so again, these can be hit or miss, unless you know exactly what you are looking for. In that case, the 100-CD complete set of 80s songs is what you want. But for a decent mix of music you pretty much know you are going to like? That’s when I turn to the movie soundtrack.
Movies and music go hand in hand - it’s rare that there’s a movie out there that doesn’t contain at least a single note. The music featured in a movie, whether it’s by various artists, a single artist, or original score (that’s the no-singing background music composed just for the movie, in case you were wondering), music in the movies is carefully chosen to enhance a particular scene and/or the mood of the movie in general. When Harry Met Sally is a great example - not only did it capture NYC the way I like to think about it, the music chosen had the added benefit of making the movie timeless. Here it is, 20 years later, and it seems that the movie has hardly aged at all.
Garden State is an awesome album unto itself. Even if you’ve never seen the movie, it’s a great listen. I could go on about how it won a Grammy, or how Zach Braff picked the songs for the movie, but you’ve probably heard it all before. It’s just a great, mellow album without being sleep inducing.
Sometimes it seems there is a case of the music coming before the movie. Cameron Crowe sometimes seems that way, but the soundtracks to his movies are just as well known as the movies themselves. Say Anything is a perfect example. What person who grew up in the 80s doesn’t think that “In Your Eyes” is one of the most romantic songs ever? If that song had not been featured in that movie the way it was, it would have been just another Peter Gabriel Song. The movie catapulted the song into the stratosphere.
Next time you’re watching a movie, take note of the music. Most movies these days will issue a soundtrack to go along with it, so if you like the movie, think about picking up the soundtrack. For me, movie soundtracks are some of the best “mix tapes” I own.
I’ve always wondered why stores don’t sell double-packs of the DVD of a movie, and the associated soundtrack CD?
Wouldn’t it make sense?
I love soundtracks too. My favourites are Empire Records, My Best Friends Wedding, Almost Famous and Notting Hill I think….but I own a lot of them!!!
Congrats on your engagement! I just recently got engaged myself!!!! Best of luck with all of your planning!
Aurelius, that is an excellent idea! It would certainly be a time-save when shopping.
Lulu, thank you, and congratulations to you too!
I love love love Garden State- movie and soundtrack!
Robyn, that CD lived in my CD player for weeks on end. And the movie is great! I gotta try and get Boyfriend to watch it without falling asleep.
Interesting point there. You are absolutely right: Sound Track albums are a worthy investment.
In addition, they are usually scarce. Well, this may be interesting or not.
While digging though the dusty boxes at garage sales and flea markets for us old record collectors the real treasure is often a sound track album. Why is this?
It is because the sound track albums were made for the impulse market for those who wanted something to remind them of a movie they liked. This is back when you couldn’t just buy the whole movie a few months later, of course. All of which is to say, they didn’t make many of them.
A pop artist might release hundreds of thousands of an album (CD) while a Sound Track might reach only a few thousand. That makes it scarce in relative terms. I suppose it might still be true to some extent.
Anyjazz, that’s a good point. Even these days, finding the soundtrack to a movie that’s been out for awhile is not easy, especially the movies that came out before the video age.