I have always loved film and TV soundtracks. Often they introduce me to artists I haven’t heard of before and provide an interesting variety of songs and artists with a common mood or theme.
star wars soundtrackSoundtracks have become more important in recent years. The cynic in me acknowledges that studios have simply worked out that it is yet another revenue stream they should take advantage of, but it is more than that (or at least I hope it is). Soundtracks help to build the tone and mood of a film or series. In classic films, do you really take note of the music (obviously I’m not talking about classic musicals)? I can’t say that I generally do. Not until they started doing epic Hollywood scores. The first one I fell in love with was, of course, the John Williams score for the original Star Wars trilogy.
Soundtracks are no longer limited to original scores. The soundtracks that tend (*sweeping generalization alert*) to do well are those that feature pop songs. Having said that, most film releases will either include a few tracks of original score alongside the pop songs or release an entirely separate album dedicated purely to the score. The selection of the appropriate pop songs is an important job – but picking from existing songs hasn’t proven enough for music supervisors recently. It is becoming even more common to have songs written specifically for the content of the film and performed by popular artists.