Variety picked up on a movie soundtrack renaissance way back in 2018, when albums from Black Panther and The Greatest Showman were taking over the charts and the streamers. It was a phenomenon last seen around the late 1990s, when Titanic sold millions of albums – or in 2006 when Disney’s High School Musical soundtrack launched Zac Efron’s career.
So, how do soundtracks both enhance big screen storytelling and shape pop culture – and which are the best movie soundtrack albums of all time?
From Silver Screen to Top of the Charts: The Impact of Movie Albums
Movie soundtracks have been a staple since the 1920s – the first feature-length film with synchronized sound was the musical drama The Jazz Singer in 1927, which included twelve songs. Hollywood classics such as The Wizard of Oz and Singing in the Rain then cemented the popularity of musical soundtracks – and the soundtracks helped to increase the popularity of the films.
When MTV reigned supreme in the 1980s, the vogue for filmmakers working with music artists on their soundtracks shot up a gear: 80s icons like Flashdance, Footloose and Dirty Dancing were all elevated by their soundtracks.
And now, tech is playing its part. Kevin Weaver, the West Coast President for Atlantic Records, told Variety, ‘If you look at the last handful of years, there’s been an incredible resurgence. It feels like when the right music is aligned to the right media, especially with new means of music distribution, primarily streaming, it’s created a whole new world for soundtracks that didn’t previously exist.’
Streaming and soundtracks also go hand in hand as, with a soundtrack such as Black Panther’s, you get a variety of different artists which then attracts a broader audience. People can pick and choose who – and what – they want to listen to. And if enough of them listen to one particular song, it can spawn a cultural phenomenon.
Think of The Greatest Showman’s anthem, ‘This is Me’. Atlantic’s Weaver, who released the soundtrack, revealed that, ‘We knew the song was saying something really important in how it speaks to the themes of individualism. And as current affairs played out in front of our eyes, the song connected with people in a very meaningful way.’
It’s a soundtrack that’s hit well over a billion streams as a result. Meanwhile, ‘Rewrite the Stars’, which was sung in the film by Zendaya and Zac Efron, has had an ongoing life outside the movie, with Anne-Marie and James Arthur making it a hit all over again as part of The Greatest Showman – Reimagined album in 2018.
Panic! At the Disco released their version of ‘The Greatest Show’, Kelly Clarkson took on ‘Never Enough’, while P!nk and her daughter Willow recorded a heartfelt take on ‘A Million Dreams’. Two music albums from one movie, showcasing a huge variety of artists? That’s not only making the songs stand-alone successes, but also repeatedly putting The Greatest Showman front and centre, years after its original release, and constantly expanding its fanbase.
Disney are experts at creating the kind of on-constant-rotation hits that engage younger audiences. Can there be many people on Earth who haven’t heard ‘Let it Go’ from Frozen? Or ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ from Encanto? Disney brought on Broadway legend and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to guarantee the success of the Encanto soundtrack; released in 44 languages in addition to English and Spanish, it became one of only six soundtracks from animated films to hit No. 1 in the US since Billboard started publishing their top 200 weekly in 1956.
The MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy – Awesome Mix 1 has, according to the OfficialCharts.com, spent 500 weeks on the Official Soundtrack Albums chart since its release, demonstrating the expert art of compiling tracks which sound great while you’re watching the movie, amplify the action, personify the characters and also make for the perfect soundtrack wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing.
More Bang for Your Buck: How Music Albums Amplify Movie Releases
When you’ve got a blockbuster music album, you can use it to hype up your film both pre-release, and long after it’s hit screens worldwide. Take Barbie: The Album – Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance the Night’, which soundtracks the brilliant dance party sequence in the movie, became a hit the moment it was released on 25th May 2023 (the movie was released on the 21st July). So that’s at least two months’ worth of free PR, with its meta ‘This Barbie is making a music video’ visuals (including film clips), wall-to-wall airplay, over 200 million Spotify streams and immediate buy-in from Dua’s fans (she of course also has a cameo as one of the movie’s mermaid Barbies.)
There were four more singles from the album, ‘Barbie World’, ‘Speed Drive’, ‘What Was I Made For?’ and ‘Choose Your Fighter’ – with everyone from Nicki Minaj to Sam Smith, K-Pop stars and Billie Eilish involved, that’s a huge spread of fandoms being engaged. TikTok listed Minaj and Ice Spice’s ‘Barbie World’ and Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’ as the songs of the summer as they’d soundtracked so many of the platform’s videos.
Not to mention the fact that Ryan Gosling was so into his ‘I’m Just Ken’ anthem that he and Mark Ronson got together to create a brilliant version of it for the holiday season, months after the film’s release – giving Barbie yet another marketing push.
Artists releasing brand new tracks from a movie’s soundtrack (rather than a pre-existing one chosen by a music supervisor) creates more interest in the movie. Think of the huge worldwide success of Lady Gaga’s ‘Shallow’ for A Star is Born – plus, at the opposite end of the blockbuster scale, her original song ‘Hold My Hand’ from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack.
Original songs such as these can also be nominated for all the major awards – affording another opportunity to raise the movie’s profile. Gaga and co-star Bradley Cooper’s performance of ‘Shallow’ at the 2019 Oscars resulted in a hurricane of social media posts and she took home the Oscar for Best Original Song.
How Film Music Albums Enhance Cinematic Narrative
When you’re compiling a film music album, directors and music supervisors work together to pick both artists and tracks that can illustrate their characters, action and emotion, plus create the film’s overall feel.
Barbie director Greta Gerwig sent Mark Ronson a playlist of music she loves for inspiration, and the pair assembled a dream list of artists they wanted to be on the Barbie album. Each of the artists who signed on to the project were shown the scene they were going to write for and were given free rein to approach the songs with their own distinct music style.
Music plays a pivotal part in the film, as Margot Robbie told Rolling Stone: ‘You’re hearing lyrics that are responding to what’s happening onscreen, so the music became more than just music — it became a device to enhance what the audience was watching and experiencing, and got to be the voice of the audience.’
‘I’m Just Ken’ is a perfect example of a song that goes to the heart of a character. When Ronson read the script, he ‘instantly had this idea for this lyric: “I’m just Ken/Anywhere else I’d be a 10”. It just seemed funny. It felt a little bit emo, like, this poor guy. He’s so hot, but can’t get the time of day. It’s about this guy that just can’t get out of his own way. We all have these masks that we put on to impress people and all we really want to be is ourselves.’
But the Barbie soundtrack isn’t short of heavyweight emotion either – Billie Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’ is quietly devastating, coming at the point in the movie where Barbie is questioning everything she’s ever known about herself, and her world.
Go behind the song with Billie’s co-composer, her brother Finneas, to find out what makes the song so compelling (and a potential Oscar winner):
Action films can use music to illustrate and enhance too. Director Edgar Wright filled car chase thriller Baby Driver with near-constant music, and a ton of musical easter eggs. He revealed that the seed for the opening scene, a breakneck getaway set to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s ‘Bellbottoms’ – was sown before Wright was even a filmmaker. When he first heard it, he told Pitchfork.com that, ‘When I listen to this song, I think of a car chase – what is the movie that goes with this vision?’
The film has soul ballads for emotional scenes and a cover of ‘Tequila’ where the drum beats are swapped for gunshots; the eclectic selection ricochets from Queen to The Damned, The Commodores to Beck, Blur and Barry White. And music drives every element of the storytelling: the characters also discuss music extensively, and artists including Flea, Big Boi and Killer Mike all make appearances.
Unforgettable Soundtracks: The 5 Best Movie Music Albums
Barbie
Barbie the Album was produced by super-producer Mark Ronson and it’s a who’s who of fantastic female artists, including Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Karol G, Ice Spice, Charli XCX, Haim, Ava Max and Billie Eilish. Plus, there’s Sam Smith, Tame Impala and Khalid. It’s got dancefloor bangers, ballads and melancholic tunes: in short, something for every Barbie and Ken.
Oh, and if you’re a vinyl fan, you could of course buy an amazing hot pink version of the album.
Mark Ronson was originally brought on board to produce two songs for the film, but his role expanded to executive-producing the whole soundtrack and scoring the movie alongside collaborator Andrew Wyatt. Together with director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women), the music team wanted to cover the whole pop landscape – from dancefloor to drill, summery reggaeton to glossy K-pop and that tear-jerking Billie Eilish ballad.
Black Panther
Marvel’s Black Panther is set in the fictional African nation of Wakanda and, as music remains one of the main outlets for storytelling across Africa, it was a given that it would play a major part in the movie.
Director Ryan Coogler worked with his longtime collaborator Ludwig Göransson on the Oscar-nominated score. A separate ‘inspired by’ Black Panther album was curated by hip hop legend Kendrick Lamar. Eight songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100 just over a week after the movie’s release and the album won two Grammy Awards, one for Best Rap Performance, for ‘Kings Dead’, by Jay Rock, Lamar, Future and James Blake.
These tracks marked the first time multiple original recordings had been used in a Marvel Studios movie and as NPR.org highlights, Lamar was, ‘as the director of its musical vision, charged with creating a universe and casting a capable team of musical avengers for the first time.’ Lamar brought together South African artists Babes Wodumo, Saudi, Sjava and Yugen Blakrok; British soul with Jorja Smith; trap, courtesy of Future, 2 Chainz, and Swae Lee and pop, through Canada’s The Weeknd. R&B, international hip hop, South African gquom – the album mirrors the movie by showcasing unity through the diversity of both its genres and artists.
The Bodyguard
The ultimate music album for a movie? It’s got to be The Bodyguard – still the biggest-selling soundtrack album of all time, with more than 45 million copies sold worldwide. Released in 1992, the first part features songs sung by the film’s star, Whitney Houston, whilst the second showcases artists including Lisa Stansfield, Bill Withers, Kenny G, Curtis Stigers and Anna Bartlett Warner.
The standout track is obviously Houston’s version of Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’, which conquered the charts worldwide, spending 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and 10 weeks in the UK and Australia. When Houston released ‘I’m Every Woman’ and ‘I Have Nothing’, she became the first female act to have three songs in the Top 20 simultaneously. The album broke numerous records worldwide – not least the one for most albums sold in a single week – it was the first to sell over a million copies in a week since tracking began.
Pulp Fiction
The 90s were definitely a high point in terms of music albums accompanying movies. Think Trainspotting – whose soundtrack turbo-charged the 90s Britpop scene – and obviously The Bodyguard. But the stats don’t lie: having spent over 1090 weeks on the Official Soundtracks Album chart since its release, the Pulp Fiction soundtrack beats them all, hands down, for enduring popularity.
As well as 16 songs, the Pulp Fiction film soundtrack album featured dialogue and scenes from the movie, so that when you listen, you’re straight back in the world of Royales with cheese. The movie itself had no traditional film score – just an eclectic group of songs which majored on 60s surf music. As director Quentin Tarantino revealed, ‘It just seems like rock ‘n’ roll Ennio Morricone music, rock ‘n’ roll spaghetti Western music.’
Tarantino was an early adopter when it came to reviving classics like ‘Jungle Boogie’ and introducing them to a brand new audience. (Something that TV shows like Stranger Things have capitalized on recently – just think Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’.) His use of music mirrored the story he was telling and its stylized, timeless nature. The tracks he chose with music supervisor Karyn Rachtman, from Chuck Berry’s ‘You Never Can Tell’ to Urge Overkill’s ‘Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon’, created a very specific personality full of quirky characters and a cool ensemble cast.
The director revealed in an interview that, ‘When I have an idea for a film, I’ll go through my record collection and just start playing songs. I guess in some ways to find the personality of the movie, the spirit of the movie.’
Grease
You can’t talk original soundtracks without acknowledging one of the best-loved of all-time, Grease from 1978.
You’ve probably seen the movie a hundred times, you may even have been to see the stage show. But did you know that one of the soundtrack double album’s biggest hits was an ‘emergency song’ that was hastily written overnight to fill a gap? Yes, ‘You’re the One That I Want’ was composed by John Farrar, who presented it to Grease’s director – who hated it, but they were out of options. Olivia Newton-John, however, loved it, a choreographer threw something together on the spot, and movie history was made.
Solo songs were written specifically for the movie’s stars – ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ for Olivia Newton-John and ‘Sandy’ for John Travolta, whilst early girl groups such as The Chiffons and The Shirelles provided inspiration for tracks such as ‘It’s Raining on Prom Night’. The T-Birds and the Pink Ladies were based on real-life people that the writer, Jim Jacobs, knew in high school in the 1950s.
Originally a Broadway show, the soundtrack’s hits bridge both the 50s and the 70s – with the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb supplying the ‘Grease’ opener sung by Frankie Valli. ‘Summer Nights’ is the perfect example of a song that sets up characters’ personalities (with Sandy and Danny’s very different takes on their summer romance), as well as the plot’s driving conflict, as is Rizzo’s solo, ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’, which shows her hidden, vulnerable side.
The soundtrack went on to sell over 30 million copies and was the No. 2 bestselling album of 1978 – behind Saturday Night Fever, which of course also starred John Travolta.
More Great Movie Music
These are just a few of the best movie song albums from over the decades – check out the top 10 best selling movie soundtracks of all time or our rankings of the Star Wars soundtracks.
Looking for inspiration for your own movie soundtrack? Explore our music for movies playlist, or the best in indie background music, discover our new releases, or sign up for a tailored subscription to license music.
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