How many times have you watched a movie and it plays a familiar song? Not just familiar, but redundant. Think of all the times the director wants you to think a character is having the best day of their life, so "Walking on Sunshine" starts playing in the background. What about when the character is acting like a tough customer, so you hear "Bad to the Bone" to reinforce this image? Or with every single movie and TV show about Vietnam, the director chooses "All Along the Watchtower", "Fortunate Son", or "For What It's Worth", as if they are the only songs that existed during the counter-culture era? Despite having a wide library of music at their disposal, some directors choose the same, familiar song and repeat it in similar contexts.
Film is a visual and auditory medium; you listen and watch the movie to understand it. It's disappointing when a movie just goes through the motions and chooses a song, not because it's groundbreaking, but because it's familiar. Picture any movie about the south. What do you hear? Dueling banjos? "Sweet Home Alabama"? Cash or Haggard? In my opinion, this is lazy and almost insulting to the audience members. Music should be used to complement and aid the action and tone of a film, not prepackage it. It demonstrates a lack of respect to the person who paid $8 (or more) for the feature film.
To clarify, I do understand why directors choose these songs. It's that sweet nostalgia that we cannot seem to get enough nourishment from. We crave it, we feed off it, and we objectify it. Every time I hear "I got the power," I feel empty and I lose some respect for the director, and the person who choose that song. (I'm looking at you trailers who kept on choosing that one catchy indie song for every single family flick of the current year.)
I get it. You're probably tired of me ranting about what many consider to be a minimal aspect of movies. But think about the importance of a song in a movie. What could replace "Ride of the Valkyries" in "Apocalypse Now"? Or "You Never Can Tell" that plays while Mia and Vincent dance? Music is an important cornerstone of the movie. It creates tone, it describes characters, it serves multiple purposes.
English director Edgar Wright is one such man who understands this. Whether it be the survivors attacking a zombie to the beat of "Don't Stop Me Now" while the song plays in the background of "Shaun of the Dead"; or how he and Nigel Godrich crafted the perfect soundtrack for "Scott vs. the World", in which it reflects the Toronto music scene and the transitioning period of the title character. Music cannot be separated from a film: the two are intertwined. They are a match made in heaven. However, based on recent trends, they seem to be more star-crossed lovers.
