Transport yourself into your favourite films with the sounds of cinema. So many films are iconic because of the music (expertly chosen) for each scene. Here is a small selection of what would be on our movie mixtape.
BLACK PANTHER (2018)
Director: Ryan Coogler (Creed)
Music Supervisor: Dave Jordan
Iconic Scene: Opps (with Yugen Blackrok) by Vince Staples and Ludwig Göransson – Car Chase Scene – watch here
‘With Black Panther: The Album, the artist became an architect. Much like the film’s cast, which features actors from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tobago, South Africa, the U.K. and U.S., the soundtrack is Pan-African in scope. In the same way that the film’s hero, King T’Challa, attempts to reconcile a fragmented Wakanda, Lamar took on a similar project, helming a collaborative effort that criss-crosses continents, hops genres and cross-pollinates perspectives.’ – NPR, ‘Black Panther: The Album’ is Kendrick Lamar’s Parallel, Pan-African Universe.
BABY DRIVER (2017)
Director: Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead)
Music Supervisor: Kirsten Lane
Iconic Scene – Harlem Shuffle by Bob & Earl, Opening Scene – watch here
‘Wright stuffs the film from tip to tail with amazing music—soul ballads for the touching scenes, Queen’s “Brighton Rock” in a violent showdown, a cover of “Tequila” where every drum beat is swapped out for gunshots, and so on.’ – Pitchfork ‘Behind the music of Baby Driver with Edgar Wright’
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PULP FICTION (1994)
Director: Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, True Romance)
Music Supervisor: Karyn Rachtman (Reservoir Dogs, Clueless)
Iconic Scene – You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry, Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest – watch here
‘In a 1994 interview Tarantino was adamant about keeping songs fresh in his movies. “You are such a poseur and a lame-o for using a song another movie has already christened,” he said. “When people ask me what kinds of music I listen to, I never really know what to say,” he said in the interview. “I listen to all different types.” – Rolling Stone, Surf Music and Seventies Soul: The Songs of ‘Pulp Fiction’
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008)
Director: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Music Editor: Niv Adiri | Music Coordinator: Noel James
Iconic Scene – Paper Planes by M.I.A – Riding the trains montage – watch here
‘I work on the music probably more than any other element in the film,” he says. “Or as much as certainly any other element in the film.” Esteemed Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman scored Slumdog Millionaire. “I think it was quite a challenge for him,” Boyle says, “because obviously I’ve got a Western sensibility, even though the film’s set in Mumbai, and I wanted a certain kind of approach from him. But we had a great time doing it…and he got M.I.A. involved.’ – Under The Radar
CRUEL INTENTIONS (1999)
Director: Roger Kumble (Just Friends, The Sweetest Thing)
Music Editor: Amanda Goodpaster
Iconic Scene – Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve, Sebastian’s Journal – watch here
‘One of the things that makes the soundtrack so of its time is that it’s simultaneously cool and uncool. The choice of songs; omnipresent names like Fatboy Slim, Blur and The Verve sit next to cult artists lost to time: Day One, Skunk Anansie and Bare Jr.’ – VICE
THIS IS ENGLAND (2006)
Director: Shane Meadows (This is England ’86, ’88, ’90 TV series)
Music Supervisor: John Boughtwood
Iconic Scene: 54 – 46 That’s My Number by Toots & The Maytals, Opening Title Sequence – watch here
‘Set in 1983, it was a time when Uttoxeter, like the rest of the country, was awash with endless different youth tribes. There were new romantics, heavy rockers, smoothies, punks, goths, skins and mod revivalists who were into the Specials and 2 Tone. Then there were those pop culture kids who came into school wearing one green sock, one pink sock and some deely boppers on their head. People often looked daft, but were genuinely committed to their chosen denomination and would wear their identities on their sleeves with immense pride.’ – Guardian, Shane Meadows – Under My Skin
TRAINSPOTTING (1996)
Director: Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, The Beach)
Music Consultant: Allen Dam
Iconic Scene: Lust for Life by Iggy Pop, Choose Life Opening Scene – watch here
‘Music plays a key part in Trainspotting’s inclusive cool, with Danny Boyle, Irvine Welsh and co endearingly keen to show off their record collections. It is not just music from the past, though, or freshly minted Britpop hits, but a selection of timeless songs with the power to transport. Opener “Lust For Life” sounds completely of the moment but was already 20 years old. Closer “Born Slippy”, by Underworld, takes us into an unknown future with its tribal drums, aggro pill patter and trippily transcendent chords.’ – GQ, How Trainspotting’s iconic soundtrack shaped the film
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014)
Director: James Gunn (Slither, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2)
Music Supervisor: Dave Jordan (pretty much all the Marvel films)
Iconic Scene: Come and Get Your Love by Redbone – Opening Sequence, Starlord dance – watch here
While director James Gunn was finishing 2014’s smash Guardians of the Galaxy, he kept getting one note. “Nobody,” he recalls them saying, “is going to want to hear this music.” Gunn had laced the movie with eight-track-era gems – Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love,” Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” – but skeptics were sure that, say, Nineties Britney would be more commercial. Gunn’s conceit was that the tunes were playing on an ancient Walkman. “They were songs that people had heard,” says Gunn, “but probably didn’t know the name of.” – Rolling Stone
