Top 5 Uses of Music In a Motion Picture- Pop Song Edition

Raptor here. I'd complain about the Spurs draft but apparently McBane revoked my fan license

Musical choices can make or break your cinematic masterpiece. Imagine Indy without his triumphant entrance music, or Dances with wolves with out it’s French horn solos. Instant sucktitude. But John Williams, John Barry, and Daniel Elfman have enough people sucking there balls. Today I’m focusing on those directors who use pop/rock songs to enhance the doing transpiring on screen.

We’ve all seen a scene in a movie where we are like holy crap that little ditty fits in perfectly with what’s going on here. The two cease to be a song and a movie, they become a (Fuck you AT&T) moment. At that point the two are forever intermixed in your psyche to a point where you cannot hear the song with out picturing what’s going on at that cinematic moment.

For the sake of eliminating argument, I’m eliminating musicals and appearances by bands in movies (Sorry Dan Band, as awesome as you were in Road Trip, your disqualified. You too Lustra/Matt Damon.).

5. Live and Let Die- Guns N’ Roses- Gross Pointe Blank (unfortunately no youtube link)

What song puts into words the increased levels of cynicism and levels of jadedness you get from getting older? What could be more jading than to returning to you childhood home after being away 10 years and finding its an UltraMart Convenience store?

4. You’re The Best- Joe Esposito- Karate Kid-

How are you gonna get ready to kick some ass in the Valley Karate Tourney? You’re gonna fucking paint some old man’s fence. How are you going to learn to defeat the bullies? Wax some cars. And What’s your reward? Joe Esposito immortalizing your general badassery with the greatest pump up jam of all time (Shut up Freddy Mercury don’t you say a fucking word.) Is that enough? More than you can possibly comprehend.

3. Everybody’s Talking- Harry Nilsson- Midnight Cowboy

I saw Brokeback, there were no great musical moments in that movie.

Despite that fact there is still an instance of a song automatically making me think of gay cowboys. Played as Jon Voigt hops on a bus heading up to New York, you actually get to see the shadows of his mind, played in odd flashbacks. And despite being a heterosexual male there’s something about both the song and Joe Buck’s don’t give a fuck attitude but in a laid back kind of way that I kind of identify with.

2. These Days- Nico- Royal Tenenbaums

Upon first viewing, this song had a weird level of irony. It’s a song of regret and missed opportunities played as a brother meets his (adopted) sister. But it stuck out. As the movie plays out and you see the level of Richie’s Love for Margot and vice versa it became ironically apt. It really could have been the anthem for this film seeing as how it’s about the grand and colossal failures of a family that should have been great.

1.Ooh La La- The Faces- Rushmore-

No one has really mastered the craft of matching music with screen like Wes Anderson. He always seems to find the perfect song for the moment at hand. Really, I could use several of the songs from Rushmore. The chorus of “you are forgiven” while Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray try to out prank each other pops immediately. But I chose this song because, when I hear it everything goes into slow motion and you realize how many strangely obvious things you missed in your life. This movie is basically a movie of people making strangely bad choices and winding up hurting those who care about them. When Miss Cross takes off Max’s glasses she get’s a weird look of realization that’s completely cemented with the vocals talking about becoming bitter about the traps of love.