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Consider the band T-shirt.
And sometimes, it just looks good and fits right.
When it comes to movies and on TV, much the same can be said about music itself.
The right song at the right moment can heighten the emotional impact of a scene.
It can add a layer of irony or metacommentary to a moment.
It can simply make you bang your head or shake your ass where appropriate.
Do it wrong and youve taken a cheap shortcut to your viewers heartstrings.
DO: Use well-known songs in unexpected ways that still resonate with the original intent.
Naturally, Martin Scorsese used it to soundtrack the discovery of half a dozen dead bodies.
Why does it work inGoodFellas?
No one isheartbrokenover finding poor Frankie Carbone frozen solid inside a meat truck, except perhaps Mrs. Carbone.
But theres still a sense that something has been lost, that the promised happy ending will never arrive.
Both Jimmy and Eric were at the top of their very different games here.
Scorseses library is full of this kind of music cue asisGoodFellasitself.
I get that, I do.
Im just asking people to reconsider.
We know that already.
That Floyd fuckin rules?
We know that already, too.
This combination of show and soundtrack isnt acombinationat all, really.
Juxtaposing the song and the visuals neither compounds the effects of both nor reveals something new about either.
Those bong-water impresarios are using the music in a more innovative and artful way than a major television production.
The past master of this is Quentin Tarantino.
Classic in the sense of classic rock radio?
Classic in the sense that its considered one of the top anthems in the history of rock music?
Friends, it was fucking Journey, not Jimi.
The same yearPulp Fictiondid whatPulp Fictiondid,Forrest Gumpdid whatForrest Gumpdid and won Best Picture for it.
And what did its soundtrack do, you ask?
), Volunteers, Get Together, San Francisco, Turn!
The Time-Life 60s, theFreedom Rock60s, the Hippie Halloween costume 60s.
Its a version of the decade just as rote in its throwback button-pushing as the film itself.
DO: Play the hits of yesterday if they say something specific about your characters.
It doesnt have to be that way!
They pay attention to what characters would be listening to.
They use songs specific enough to those characters to say something about their lives.
Just a straight-up, first-kiss, puppy-love, high-school-dance love song.
A song that gets a legion of YouTube commenters to say MILEVEN FOREVER!
I think its a nasty little song, really rather evil.
I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.The Sopranos maybe youve heard of it?
This is not an obscure point to make!
They let the surface-level reading of the song prevail until the final possible moment.
Which brings us to David Lee Roth, as all paths eventually must.
Same thing applies toStranger Thingsand Every Breath You Take.
And this problem wont stop at the Hawkins town line.
will become the be-all and end-all of period music on soundtracks.
ItsStranger ThingsSyndrome,time after time.
Other, better shows and movies try harder.
Can yours be one of them?
