Movie Soundtracks That Rock!
Movie Soundtracks! What a better way to create a dramatic, frightening or funny moment to a movie just by adding music. Whether it’s a car chase, a romantic moment or a crazy shootout. Either way adding music to the movie just revs up the senses and makes you want more! If there’s an amazing musical interlude involved, it’s got my attention!
The Parameters For This Blog
Just like my all over the place musical tastes, I also like to meander into the movie realm as well. For this blog, I’m omitting musicals, concert films or scores (these will be other blogs). Instead, we’re focusing solely on soundtracks that include a wide variety of songs.
Even more, we’re interested in your opinion as well when it comes to great movie soundtracks. So, lets take this time to discuss some of our favorite films. For example, every time I hear The First Edition’s “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”, I think of the Big Lebowski. Overall, a hilarious movie and fantastic soundtrack.
The Cult Classic – Easy Rider
This delightful gem is a cornucopia of psychedelic rock, acid rock, folk, country, hard rock and more. The songs that make up the soundtrack pretty much narrates the movie. While some ponder on what the point of Easy Rider is about, true fans already know and just roll their eyes.
Dennis Hopper uses cinema and music to establish what’s going on in the film in a beautiful sublime way. Add some awesome classic rock, motorcycles and two popular actors and you have the perfect setting for a film. To this day, it still tops the lists of movies with the best soundtracks.
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a George Lucas’ masterpiece. It’s a smart, funny and sensitive film unlike anything else he made before or since. The film is so minutely observed you realize that this is George Lucas’ own story. It’s what he did in Modesto those final nights before heading off to USC.
But wait, there’s more! You also receive a quick lesson in early rock ‘n’ roll and vintage doo wop while checking out cool vintage cars. Seriously, it captures some of the greatest songs that defined an entire era. Plus it has Wolfman Jack who makes this movie even more special.
Other Movies Soundtracks to consider: Dazed & Confused, Pulp Fiction, Almost Famous, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Garden State, Less Than Zero, Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, The Departed, Grosse Pointe Blank, Boogie Nights, Times Square, FM, I am Sam, Grease, Until The End of The World, Forest Gump, Across the Universe, Purple Rain, Jackie Brown, Into the Wild, Shaft, The Breakfast Club, The Crow and The Graduate.
Guardians of The Galaxy, Pirate Radio, Juno, Rushmore, The Big Chill, Superfly, Saturday Night Fever, Friday, Mo Better Blues, Shaun of The Dead, Boomerang, Harder They Come, Reality Bites, Urban Cowboy, Good Morning Vietnam, Menace To Society, Wayne’s World, Swingers, Shrek, Singles, Sixteen Candles, Space Jam and Stand by Me.
High Fidelity – Empire Records
Anyone who knows someone who works or spends time in a music store understands this film and Empire Records.
The Quintessential Blues Movies
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers is one of the best blues movies with a cult following. Not only a great movie but it has becomes a pop culture phenomenon. One of the great things about this movie is that it pushes the blue’s genre of music to the forefront. To this day it continues to do so. What started out as a comedy sketch on Saturday Night Live, morphs into live performances and touring. Eventually the movie happens, and the rest is history!
Originally only opening to about 600 theaters at the time. Ackroyd and Belushi starting showing up at various theaters to create a buzz around town. In the end, “The Blues Brothers” made $115 million, becoming one of Universal’s most enduring hits and by far its greatest farce. I can’t say one bad thing about this movie.
Other Blues Movies Soundtracks: Paris Texas (Ry Cooder), Cadillac Records, Crossroads, Cadillac Records, Devil In A Blue Dress and Roadhouse Blues.
And The List Continues
The Bodyguard, Magnolia, Singles, Beverly Hill Cop, Judgement Night, Heavy Metal, Remember the Titans, Full Metal Jacket, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Saturday Night Fever, Lost Highway, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Back to the Future, The Fast and Furious, Donnie Darko, 500 Days of Summer, Reservoir Dogs, Goodfellas, I’m Not There, Eddie and the Cruisers, 24 Hour Party People, 28 Days Later, 8 Mile and Pretty In Pink.
Even More!
Straight Outta Compton, A Knight’s Tale, A Streetcar Named Desire, Baby Driver, Blow Up, Buena Vista Social Club, Go O.S.T, Hackers, Heat, Juice, Lost in Translation, Natural Born Killers, Pretty in Pink, Project X, Pump up the Volume, Romeo and Juliet, Rushmore, The Great Gatsby, The Lost Boys, Trainspotting, Walk the Line and the Watchmen.
Movies, Games, Streaming
Nowadays, with the option of streaming your favorite movies, and concerts, Netflix, Hulu, Disney and most major networks give you options to hear more music. Guardians of the Galaxy has several great playlists, Driver Parallel Lines has a funky Jazz soundtrack etc. Nowadays, some of the best music can be heard on video games. GTA 5 has several stations you can jam to while playing the game. Rock Band, Guitar Hero and too many more to list. Do you love classic rock? Then check out this awesome mix tape below and the other volumes floating around.
Be sure, to check out the other blog posts: https://jbonamassa.com/category/blog