Observations: Film Music

I found this post from the summer hiding in my GoogleDocs folder and it somehow never made it to the front page. Better late then never? – Michael

I’ve successfully avoided the urge to rant on about this, that and the other thing in this most public of forums. It all feels very Jerry Seinfeld. But bah, what the hell…

Has anyone else noticed how crappy music in movies has become? Let me frame this, the wife and I have watched a few movies in the last couple of weeks that made me think “would it even be possible to have this much music licensed in a single movie?” It all started with this..

First off, if you have not seen this movie you owe it to yourself to see it. One of the first things that you’ll notice is the fact that there is a bevy of bloody awesome tunes. And not just a 30 second snippet, but a full intro, verse, chorus, solo… you get the point. Cheap Trick, The Ramones, The Clash, Van Halen, Hendrix and The Cars were all well represented in multiple appearances each. And at the end of the movie I say to my wife, “you know, the damned music industry has ruined soundtracks!”

We watched this with my son Miles this evening as Huey Lewis & The News played into Billy Idol‘s “Hot in the City” into Patrice Rushen‘s “Forget Me Nots”. A truly awesome selection of 80’s classics served over the sickly sweet film. And don’t you know that when I got to the end of it I was running to the iTunes to listen to some cheesy 80’s music, dancing around like a fool.

But seriously folks, isn’t it time we get better music in movies?