A Few of My Favorite Film Soundtracks

“It’s rude to point.” — Spider-Man ‘67

You’re right Spider-Man: it is rude to point, but I’m going to point to some of my favorite movie soundtracks. For those who don’t know, a movie soundtrack can consist of the score of the film (we’ll cover that in another post) and any additional music that plays throughout the film. It could mean songs specifically recorded for the film or licensed songs that the filmmakers thought would be a good fit.

Most people dislike when a film just pumps as many top 40 radio songs as possible — and there are a lot of films that do that. It seems they put very little effort into the choices and almost any song could have been placed there. Well, not these soundtrack choices! To me, these soundtracks I’m about to share are an integral part of their respective films. The music helps build both the world and the characters. This won’t be in any particular order; so let’s just jump into it!

Footloose (1984)

I feel like if I didn’t put Footloose on this list then I’d be doing Kevin Bacon a disservice — and I wouldn’t dare do that! This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Mainly due to the fact that I grew up in a slightly less heightened version of Bomont. A lot of the music was specifically recorded for the film and I think it shows. Each song caters to the scene and the character’s emotion within that scene. The songs have a purpose.

If you’ve watched Footloose, then I bet you could go back and listen to the soundtrack by itself and know exactly which scene you are in, what characters are there, and have the same emotions from when you watched the film. Plus, this soundtrack had ‘Let’s Hear It for the Boy’ which is a straight jam and no lie I thought the title was ‘Let’s Hear It for the Boys’. Possible Mandela Effect? I think so!

Anywho, I’m listening to it right now while typing this and damn it’s so hard not to stop and dance… one second… Sorry, the chorus came on and I had to bust a move! So take a moment and throw on this soundtrack when you’re at home, cruising in the car, at work, doing homework, or just bored in isolation and cut loose — Footloose! Unless if you’re at a warehouse… Don’t cut loose at the warehouse. See if you can do all the dances from the movie for each song. Seriously, if you do that please share! We can call it the “Lousywith. Dance. Challenge.”

Listen to this soundtrack on Spotify | Watch this movie on Amazon

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Before we go on any further. This film should have won Best Picture at the Oscar’s in 2018. Don’t @ me.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse integrates music as a core element of our protagonist, Miles Morales. I mean the first time we are introduced to him he’s singing ‘Sunflower’ by Post Malone & Swae Lee. The film is exclusively bringing the audience into Miles’ headspace. Every emotion we feel is to keep us aligned with Miles. This film soundtrack is his playlist. These are the song that Miles throws on and that feeling never leaves the film. Any scene where a song starts playing heightens what Miles is going through; they achieve this flawlessly. There isn’t one song that is disposable because these songs are Miles’. Very few soundtracks perfectly encapsulate our hero, but fuck did they do it right.

To this day, I don’t think any song has aligned my emotions with a scene, with a character and a moment than ‘What’s Up Danger’ by Blackway & Black Caviar. The image of the scene is pictured above; if you’ve seen the film then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

Listen to this soundtrack on Spotify | Watch this movie on Netflix

Stargirl (2020)

I know most of you probably haven’t seen this little gem of a film yet (I’m going to dedicate an entire post to it next week) but when you do I know you’ll find it charming. Stargirl is one of those films where the music in the film is older than our characters — but somehow it feels right. The film follows a kid name ‘Leo’ (Graham Verchere) as he meets ‘Stargirl’ (Grace Vanderwaal) and tries to discover the real him while dealing with the struggles of fitting-in at his school.

I remember in high school finding music that my parents used to listen to and falling in love with it. The film builds that moment into our two leads. They’re discovering themselves through music together. There’s a scene where Leo is over at Stargirl’s house talking about his favorite song ‘Just What I Needed’ by The Cars. Leo explains how he and his dad used to just belt it out while they would drive. Stargirl tells Leo to listen to ‘Thirteen’ by Big Star — her favorite song. As he walks out, he throws on his headphones, queues up the song, and as it starts playing Stargirl runs out and gives him a kiss. Leo walks home the whole way; totally entranced by the track.

That moment is one we’ve all had on some level: a song that represents our relationship with another. A song that will always and forever remind us of one person. This film harnesses that feeling and finds a way to utilize it by having the songs come up in different moments in order to represent different emotions the characters are experiencing. This soundtrack might be short and limited to a particular song, but each one is still used to perfection to better reflect the development of our characters..

Listen to this soundtrack on Spotify | Watch this movie on Disney+

There you have it. A few of my favorite film soundtracks. As I wrote this, I started thinking back at how these songs bring me back to these certain films. The films I talk about here on Lousywith are kind-of a playlist of me. Each movie represents a moment in my life. That’s what I want to continue sharing with all of you: apiece of me through the films I love.

What are your favorite soundtracks? What’s your favorite film score? Drop us a comment and let us know!

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