The Importance of a Film's Soundtrack
Although we are far from the silent movie era where in-theatre orchestras and piano players were used to enhance the cinematic experience, the music that accompanies a film is still a key part of the viewing. For better or worse, a film’s soundtrack has the potential to be the most memorable part of a film. For instance, although I have only seen the “Twilight” movies once and don’t have a strong opinion on the trilogy, Bon Iver’s “Rosalyn” has been what I took away from it and almost a decade later it sits comfortably in my favorite playlists.
Which brings up another point toward the importance of a good soundtrack: it can introduce an audience to a new song or artist when it’s used in a memorable way.
Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation of William Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” is arguably one of the most memorable films of the 90’s, and with little doubt one of the most iconic retellings of the 16th century classic. In theory, “Romeo + Juliet” is a puzzling and ambitious film, combining the iambic pentameter and the old world language of the most famous playwright with the greasy-haired and flowing-shirt glamor of the 90s. However in practice, there is something so satisfying about the turmoil of the Capulets and Montagues set to a church choir rendition of “Wings of a Dove” by Prince.
Of course one must not forget Harold Pineaus’ portrayal of the beautiful Mercutio, in a Cabaret-esque flamboyance that adds a wild card to an already shuffled deck, as well as the now iconic beauty that is mid-90s Leonardo DiCaprio. The film does well to combine 16th century tropes and speech with the style and sound of a newer century, as well as reference the shift from grunge to R&B and pop that was happening at the time. Had the soundtrack been solely the same orchestral tracks we’ve seen in other adaptations, the contrasts that make the film so unique would have been much less integrated and the juxtaposition that makes the film such a beautiful and unique watch would have worked against it.
Compiling existing songs to help tell the story of a film is a delicate science, there is also the high-risk, high-reward chemistry of original soundtracks. The goal of a soundtrack is not always to create a song that will live in millions of people's minds note for note, most times it is simply a vehicle for the story to portray an emotion, event,period of time or just fill silence.
There seem to be two distinct types of original soundtracks, especially in modern cinema. The first includes songs closer to the previously mentioned "Roslyn" by Bon Iver & St. Vincent, where tracks are created with full fledged lyrics and instrumentals by individual artists or bands. These usually have an added experience of finding out your favorite artist(s) are going to have a new or existing song get featured in an upcoming movie-- which can work to boost the fanbase of both the film and whoever provided the music. "Velvet Goldmine" is a 1998 film by Todd Haynes, and tells the fictional story of the early 70's glam rock scene. The film revolves around several characters loosely based on real life artists from that time period such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and T.Rex and Marc Bolan, which meant that the filmmakers took to making the soundtrack almost entirely original songs meant to sound similar to the respective artists. Among the artists recruited for this was Radiohead's Thom Yorke. This decision to capture the sound of the glam rock stars without using their songs adds an impressive layer to the film's worldbuilding (the songs are also quite good even without the context of the movie).
The second type or original soundtrack are the ones made of songs often made by composers, that are meant to stay in the background while still being distinct enough to add to a scene. As mentioned before, a film's original song isn't always intended to be chart topping, record breaking tracks, but the fact is a large amount of the most iconic songs in pop culture have come from film. The most obvious example are the songs featured in the Star Wars films, by composer John Williams. Williams (also known for "Jaws") did an amazing job creating individual theme songs for scenes and most notably the characters. These songs work to further drive in the intention or morality of the characters as well as the emotions that are meant to be felt by what's happening in a scene. Among the most effective of his themes is the ominous Darth Vader's "Imperial March" or even simply the Star Wars theme itself which has greeted audiences close to a dozen times since 1977.