Parsons Playlists: Transcendental Film Soundtracks

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today we’re featuring a collection of film soundtrack music curated by Music Library student manager Colin (Class of 2021).

Films have been my go-to source of entertainment for years. In high school, my friends and I became heavily invested in the awards season of movies, in which we tried to watch every film that was nominated for Best Picture by the Academy. Movies are not measured for enjoyability by their success winning awards, nor do awards automatically make a movie “good.” Rather, this activity was something that my friends and I enjoyed doing, and exposed us to a lot of new films and directors. Particularly interesting for us in watching films was hearing the soundtrack, as all of my friends and I were involved in my school’s music program. We loved talking about the scores of films, and the impact that specific songs have through their leitmotifs or influence on the narrative. For example, we were obsessed with the soundtrack from La La Land, because, well let’s be honest; who can’t tap their foot or hum along with the songs when listening to its music?

Richard Wagner had a great influence upon the film industry and its scores due to his methodical approach to writing operas, in which the music he composed enhanced the narrative through the use of leitmotifs, or short musical phrases that indicate the appearance of a character or narrative theme. This concept was recognized by the film industry, and was expanded on by different film composers, specifically Max Steiner who is known as “The Father of Film Music.” Steiner was heavily influenced by Wagnerian musical concepts, and would incorporate leitmotifs, non-diegetic sounds and other elements that enhanced the musical experience in movies and their relation to narratives. Since Steiner, films have grown to incorporate songs into their soundtracks that are either specifically written for the movie from a preexisting band, or the rights are bought from a band to include their song in the movie. The songs themselves share the same focus that Steiner envisioned for his films, in that songs are used for a narrative purpose in order to advance the plot, express the emotions of a specific character, and/or give credibility to the environment in which the film or a scene takes place.

A sampling of films scored by Max Steiner

With this playlist, I wanted to highlight songs used in films that transcend just their immediate presence in the film. The rules of this playlist are rather loose, in that the songs included may have been written for the specific movie in which they are famous for being in, or written before the movie and added to the soundtrack and become a staple song for the film. I have included highly popular choices that the general film-viewing population would agree with, such as “My Heart Will Go On” in Titanic and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” in The Breakfast Club. However, I have also offered some of my personal choices of songs that I believe greatly enhance the movie and urge audiences to listen to the song outside of the filmic experience, but do not necessarily have the history or popular recognition by audiences. I hope that choices like “Slip Away” from Booksmart and “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman will expand your music and film libraries. I have organized the songs in order of their film’s release date, and my personal choices begin with “Send Me on My Way” from Matilda. And this playlist does not feature any instrumentally focused soundtracks that typically appear in large blockbuster films, but rather individual songs focused on lyrics. I hope you enjoy this eclectic playlist and relive some great film experiences through music!