Going to go with soundtrack vs. score, though there are plenty of movies with beautiful scores.
So what soundtracks do you recommend, or just gets stuck in your head?
Right now I’m hooked on the Hacker’s Soundtrack. The movie came out at a time when I was living with crackers <not hackers, hrmph> and was going to raves with just this music, and that music still energizes me in a way most techno stuff just doesn’t.
Fave song from there would be ‘Cowgirl’, which I now use as a mini-workout song. <even has a slow-down at the end >
It’s good to distinguish between soundtracks and scores, since it’s a rare score that has much variety. The only ones I can think of (scores, that is) that pass the test for being listenable more than once or twice were by Henry Mancini. His scores had a theme and perhaps a variation or two in different styles or tempi, but for the most part were made up of “incidental music” that might have been on the radio or record player as semi-background things. The best movie example would be Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Hatari! being a contender.
Other composers whose soundtracks/scores are memorable and worth repeated playings include: Lalo Schifrin, Edward Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein and a few others from back in the day.
The only soundtrack (non-score) I can even remember well enough to comment on would be from Pulp Fiction. The Easy Rider soundtrack may have been the first I noticed that was made up of popular songs of the day and which were just there to be heard as much as for any dramatic purpose. I tend to overlook all but the very best of those.
The song I remember liking best was from Reservoir Dogs with Michael Madsen dancing to it as he prepared to cut off a guy’s ear. Stuck in the Middle, was it?
If you’re talking soundtracks: Besides the aforementioned Pulp Fiction and Easy Rider soundtracks, I’d have to go with Purple Rain, Girl 6 (horrid movie, tho’), Leap of Faith, and Rattle and Hum.
By the same token, The Sopranos soundtrack CD’s make for some fine listening and driving music. As I understand it, David Chase was a lot like Tarantino in being right there for the music selections.
Favorite tunes from the show:
It’s Bad You Know (Burnside)
Got to Serve Somebody (Dylan)
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