For example, period films like Knight's Tale, and more recently S. Coppola's Marie Antoinette, have used several modern rock pieces throughout. I find this utterly ridiculous and totally out of place. What's the point?

Nuff ranting here... What comes to mind in terms of bad musical scores?

Pat

Ok, here's a blast from the past -- Flash Gordon. The movie wasn't all THAT bad (although people would beg to differ) but a disco inspired soundtrack just ruined it.

Speaking of soundtracks, I've always thought that Quentin Tarantino had a knack for interesting choices in his soundtracks. Most of his choices, IMHO, were quite good.

I can't take my eyes off of you....

I hated that song.

Many types of music are far too specific to the dated trends that they attach themselves to. They project a feel for the era that they were written and released within. I know this is true with many of the films that I watched recently that were made in the 80s. In order to suite my taste, a couple of key ingredients must essentially be present to formulate a really great soundtrack.

This formula does not apply itself to soundtracks that merely consist of different pop music songs of one form or another. When a CD comes out with the popular filler of songs which helped to make up more or less an effective musical collage to support the film, personally I think those are more of a greatest hits compilation than a real soundtrack. After all, these bright musical stars against and over all bleak black fabric of musical space actually only constitute a relatively small portion of a whole. This type of marketing offers highlights from a soundtrack because that's where the money is and we can all appreciate that.

For me, a great soundtrack is composed and written from an original standpoint. It doesn't rely on previously attained musical heights but rather creates them within the film's context. In this sense the film and music are really one.

This accomplishes several really important and potential musical functions. The basic biggies that come to mind are:

Timelessness, Sequential development and reinforcement & emotional response support.

I agree, dynomutt, about Tarantino's choice of music, like in Kill Bill, for instance. Oh for sure, there are many many exquisite examples of what WORKS, too many to name here.

And when we go back to the oldies, music plays NON-STOP throughout the entire film; quite distrating, actually.

By the way, in contrast to clairabelle's observation about oldies playing music throughout the movie, there's the stuff from the 60s and earlier when NO music played! I mean, look at movies like "Day of the Jackal" (the original, of course, not that mishmash of a remake with Bruce Willis -- assassinating the First Lady? Puh-leeze ....), "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", and "The Seventh Seal".

With some of these oldies, I kind of WANTED some music -- the panoramic views with pure silence was kind of unnerving. I wanted some music so that SOMETHING would happen. ;-)

On the other hand, I so agree with Clairabelle re older films from the 1940's playing inappropriate, saccharine music non-stop, which adds nothing to the film. A perfect example: I just watched "Dragon Seed", with Kate Hepburn, set in China. Had they played a bit of oriental-sounding music, it might have been ok but the circa 1944 garbage that Hollywood inserted almost ruined the movie for me!

Older: The Sting & Star Wars
New: The Number 23 & The Bourne Ultimatum

My vote for worst soundtrack goes to 'Blade Runner'. Great film, still looks fresh, but sounds like deepest 1980s.

I actually loved the inclusion of the Queen song in Flash Gordon. It felt right for the campy/theatrical mood of the film, and this was one of those fun, midnight movie sort of films we would flock to and just have fun. Besides, wasn't Topol in this film? How many times do you even get to see Topol in a film?

What's the production term for how musicals segue from talking to playing the song and dance number? I remember being bothered by how they transition into and out of the musical numbers in Grease. I always did prefer the old musicals to the modern ones, though (by old I mean pre 70s).

My idea of a wonderful soundtrack was that from Some Mother's Son by Bill Whelan.

I recall going to one of those Batman movies and having to leave because of the bombastic to the point of absurdity soundtrack. I've not seen any of the Batman franchise since.... scarred me for life I guess.

When I mentioned this subject to film-studies-daughter, she came up with 'American Beauty' as a particularly good soundtrack - not the kind where you buy the CD, but the kid where the music is an integral part of the message or atmosphere.