Why do so many movie soundtracks blow? This is a question I get a lot.
And I have a decent answer (although some of the soundtracks these people complain about aren't that bad in my opinion).
Sometimes the director has certain songs in mind for scenes, if not whole films.
Examples:
Quentin Tarantino, "Pulp Fiction"
Brian Helgeland, "A Knight's Tale"
Cameron Crowe, "Almost Famous"
Sometimes the director has come up with some good songs, but wants a fresher aproach to the rest, or more music to fill out a soundtrack, and so hires a music supervisor. A music supervisor usually picks songs by genre, which not only attracts a certain audience, but makes it easier to sell.
Example:
Pete Tong, "Human Traffic"
A lot of times, the studio will overrule the director, and hire a music supervisor to compile a set of likeminded songs, usually from the studio's parennt company's record label. This has become omnipresent, and in situations like the later Batman films and Mission:Impossibles, there were not enough songs to comprise a soundtrack, so extra titles were added as songs "inspired" by the film. In some cases, they were songs written for the film and later dropped. This practice is the biggest express moneymaker and so is more widely used.
A new practice slowly emerging is an album being released that is mostly songs from the film with some "inspired" tracks, with other songs for the film intentionally left off. This allows the studio to release a SECOND soundtrack album, usually to coincide with the films debut on video.
Example:
More Music From The Fast and the Furious
The only thing that those "inspired by" songs were inspired by was the money. For example the Scream soundtrack was filled with songs that fit the movie, because that film was a low budget flick that the studio did not have huge marketing ambitions around. The film makers simply used songs that they thought fit the film. Both of the sequels had much weaker soundtracks because Miramax had sights on building a soundtrack that would sell big.
And neither one did IIRC.
I should note that mostly instrumental soudntracks like Dogma and Lord of the Rings (both by Howard Shore) don't seem to sell that well.
Is Titanic still the best selling soundtrack ever? Last I heard it was.
It is still number 1.
The fact that instrumentals don't usualy sell as well as ones that feature popular artists, which is why for movies like The Matrix they release both a "musical score CD" and a "Songs from the Motion Picture CD".
The Billy Elliot soundtrack has hardly any songs from 1984 on it, most seem to date from 1972-9. I've been compiling a collection of songs for my sisters 18th birthday from this year & I'm amazed how many good & relevent songs were overlooked.
What was a great song like "Hush" doing in a porker like "I Know What You Did Last Summer?" (I think they even did a cover, not the Deep Purple original.)
I saw an interview with Rob Zombie (who directed a horror movie that is in the process of looking for a distributor) where he was talking about horror movie soundtracks. He said that lots of these teen-slashers have put songs that don't belong on a horror soundtrack. He makes a good point but the ironic thing is that HE appears on about half of those soundtracks.
I saw an interview with Rob Zombie (who directed a horror movie that is in the process of looking for a distributor) where he was talking about horror movie soundtracks. He said that lots of these teen-slashers have put songs that don't belong on a horror soundtrack. He makes a good point but the ironic thing is that HE appears on about half of those soundtracks.
The Matrix soundtrack kicks some serious @$$. Rob Zombie, Manson, Rammstein, Prodigy, Deftones, Hive, Monster Magnet, and this ~awesome~ classical/techno piece.
I thought some of the music for "Marie Antoinette" was poorly chosen. They should've stuck with 18th Century music. It would have been more appropiate.