Over the last few years I have taken an interest in collecting physical media. It started with vinyl records, moved into Blu-Rays and 4K DVDs and now includes comic books. I have a running list at a local comic shop and a local record store for things I am looking for. The comics are easy, it is mostly stuff I read as a kid in the 1980s. The DVDs I collect are a mix of new and classic movies. The vinyl records, my most prized collection, are made mostly up of movie soundtracks, and I am finding that almost all of my wants come from films prior to 1990s.

What happened to the movie soundtrack? Now I know some of you are out there are saying, '“All movies have soundtrack, they have an Oscar for film score.” Yes, I know, but I am not talking about score, I’m talking about songs. The only current director I can see doing a proper playlist for his movies is James Gunn. Both “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies and “The Suicide Squad” have killer soundtracks that help tell the story of those movies. I also own all three of those records. All the other modern movies, and I am using the word modern to represent the entirety of the 21st century, have a score and one song that usually plays over the end credits. We can do better than that.

Back in the 1980s every movie had a soundtrack with songs, and many of these songs became instant classics. Try to imagine “Rocky III” without “Eye of the Tiger”. I bet you are humming the beat right now. There is no “Top Gun” without Loggins explaining a highway that leads to the “Danger Zone”. “The Karate Kid” is not only one of the greatest love stories ever, but it also reminds you that “You’re the Best” around and ain’t nobody gonna take you down. We learned in the mid eighties that “The Power of Love” is our key to getting “Back to the Future”. Before Optimus Prime fell in battle, he had “The Touch”. Not all of these movies are great, actually yes they are all great, but these songs are timeless bangers.

The movie soundtracks were not always populated with original music. The aforementioned “Harold and Maude” used music that was already popular. “The Lost Boys” used music from The Doors. “Vacation” used a Lindsey Buckingham B-side. Weird Al leant “Dare to Be Stupid” to a particularly stupid part of “Transformers: The Movie”. Even today, James Gunn uses classic songs from a bygone era to back his superhero spectacles much like the iconic soundtrack to “Dirty Dancing” and “The Big Chill. All these movies owe part of their legacy to the music supervisors who crafted these iconic albums.

Many of the movie soundtracks from the past are as important, if not more important, than the films they back. “Purple Rain” the album is “Purple Rain” the movie. The collection of Cat Stevens songs that accompany “Harold and Maude” bring an extra melancholy and quirkiness to another one of our greatest love stories. The Blondiesqu and rockabilly in “Streets of Fire” is one of the few redeeming spots in a mess of a movie. Many of these movies may have been lost to time if it was not for their epic soundtracks.

We need to bring back the classic movie soundtrack. Scores are great, but remembering my favorite movie scenes through songs with lyrics is a piece of heaven. Let me know if I’m just an old man yelling at a cloud, or let me know what other classic movie soundtracks need to be remembered. As Stan Bush tells Daniel and Hot Rod, we need to “Dare” to champion the reemergence of the movie soundtrack.

RD

RD is the founder and Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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