Simply because the Nineteen Eighties irrevocably altered the best way film soundtracks work, the movies of that decade formed musical tastes greater than ever earlier than.
Positive, the previous a long time introduced us game-changers like Blackboard Jungle, Straightforward Rider, Shaft, and so forth., however within the Nineteen Eighties it was nearly as if there have been shuttle buses taking moviegoers from the theater to the document retailer to frantically scarf up the tunes the newest cinematic smash had simply lodged of their brains, swiftly turning the tracks into High 40 fodder.
Purchase the perfect Nineteen Eighties film soundtracks on vinyl now.
A few of the interval’s most influential artists received even greater by contributing songs to the precise soundtracks. And a few acts would possibly by no means have damaged via in any respect if it hadn’t been for the movies that featured their music. Whether or not we’re speaking about digital music, R&B, new wave, or pure pop, the wedding between music and films that occurred within the Nineteen Eighties was a relationship that set the tone for every little thing in its wake.
Nostalgia buzz
It wasn’t solely new tunes that Nineteen Eighties movies injected into the cultural consciousness. Simply as American Graffiti helped spur the ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll revival within the ‘70s, the ‘80s fetish for ‘60s nostalgia got its biggest boost from the silver screen. Through the device of Robin Williams’ position as a U.S. Military DJ, 1987’s Good Morning Vietnam put ‘60s rock, pop, and soul hits to the fore, from The Beach Boys’ “I Get Around” to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” And as a interval piece set within the 1963 Catskills, Soiled Dancing included loads of tunes inextricably linked to these instances.
However 1983’s The Large Chill beats all rivals as the primary big cinematic engine placing ‘60s music back into the cultural conversation. The story, centered on a group reuniting to mourn the passing of a friend, sets things up perfectly for a soundtrack dripping with Motown hits and classic rock staples. From the film’s first moments, the place The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” performs on the funeral, The Large Chill concurrently performed off of Boomers’ latest arrival at center age and launched the sounds of the ‘60s to a brand new technology.
The bespoke method
The overwhelming majority of Nineteen Eighties soundtracks took a bespoke method, reaching out to a number of the hottest acts of the day for sonic adornment. Within the course of, the Nineteen Eighties charts swelled up with extra movie-derived hits than any earlier decade.
Kenny Loggins was the uncontested prime canine of the phenomenon, taking tunes that he sang for Footloose, High Gun, and Caddyshack to pop immortality. Even Prince took a soundtrack flip, scoring large in ‘89 together with his music for Batman. Generally turning out a custom-made music for a soundtrack might put an artist excessive—Ray Parker Jr. had a No. 1 hit together with his 1984 theme for Ghostbusters.
And despite the fact that Huey Lewis & The Information had been already driving fairly excessive earlier than they received concerned with 1985’s Again to the Future, the music they wrote and carried out for what turned out to be that 12 months’s runaway field workplace hit put them on prime proper together with it. The tune nearly by no means received written—when director Bob Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg requested Lewis to dream up a theme, he mentioned he didn’t have any concepts for a music known as “Back to the Future.” However they advised him that wasn’t a requirement and he might simply give them no matter his subsequent composition turned out to be. The consequence was the band’s first (however removed from final) chart-topper, the hard-charging “The Power of Love.” Huey even has a cameo within the film, axing Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly from auditions for the highschool promenade when Fox begins taking part in his personal tackle the tune.
Synth fever
Synthesizers had been an integral a part of the Nineteen Eighties musical mainstream. Acts like The Human League, Comfortable Cell, Eurythmics, Tears for Fears, and Bare Eyes introduced the British synth-pop revolution to U.S. radio and MTV, making electronics a ubiquitous presence.
However there was a spate of European synth jockeys who would possibly by no means have become main pop considerations if it weren’t for the Nineteen Eighties soundtracks that took them into the hearts of American audiences. Greek electro-wizard Vangelis had spent the ‘70s establishing himself as a progressive electronic auteur, with a series of albums that made him an underground hero. But before he wrote his richly romantic theme for 1981’s Chariots of Hearth, nobody would have ever imagined that an instrumental tune from a movie about British athletes within the Twenties Olympics might change into a No. 1 pop hit.
German synth legends Tangerine Dream made an identical, albeit much less dramatic, leap from ‘70s prog cult-hero status to the American mainstream when they scored 1983’s Dangerous Business, the movie that made Tom Cruise a star. Particularly when their hypnotic, sequencer-driven tune “Love on a Train” turned the backdrop for a steamy, basic scene between Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay.
It was one other younger star’s breakout movie that endeared America to Swiss digital duo Yello, whose skittering, screwy “Oh Yeah” turned a U.S. dance hit because of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. And regardless of profitable work on the scores for Midnight Specific and American Gigolo, it’s unlikely that German composer Harold Faltermeyer might have change into a world pop sensation if 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop hadn’t included the tune that launched a thousand breakdances: synthtastic electro-pop/hip-hop merger “Axel F.”
The tastemaker
If there have been ever an Nineteen Eighties film soundtrack museum, John Hughes’ work would have its personal wing. In the identical approach that the movies he produced, wrote, and/or directed tapped into what it felt prefer to be a teenager looking for oneself in these days, they had been full of latest songs that had been completely in tune with their instances.
Granted, a lot of the music from these movies was chosen by music supervisor and former A&R man Tarquin Gotch, who additionally compiled the majority of it onto the 2022 field set Dwell Strikes Fairly Quick: The John Hughes Mixtapes. But when Hughes hadn’t helped deliver ‘80s classics like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Weird Science, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off into being, such songs as Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science,” Flesh for Lulu’s “I Go Crazy,” and Common Public’s “Tenderness” would by no means have been burned into our hearts and minds the best way they had been.
Whether or not it’s OMD’s “If You Leave” backdropping the romantic triangle taking part in out between Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, and Andrew McCarthy within the promenade scene that closes Fairly in Pink, or Easy Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” including a triumphant tone to the ending of The Breakfast Membership, the Hughes motion pictures had been filled with sounds synonymous with their topics. And for little-known bands just like the short-lived Lick the Tins, whose Celtic-tinged reboot of the Elvis Presley normal “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is the music behind the heart-grabbing ending of Some Sort of Great, the Hughesverse supplied their solely brush with fame.
Music/film tie-ins turned exponentially greater and bolder within the a long time that adopted, however the template for all of it took form in a time that’s too usually swept below the rug after we may very well be embracing it anew.
Purchase the perfect Nineteen Eighties film soundtracks on vinyl now.
