My last post about Slam Dance got me thinking. Particularly about how I used to find out about music.

Films have always been a great, awesome source of new music for me. I’ve discovered Django Reinhardt, LaVerne Baker, the Fibonaccis, Babyland, and that incredible song by the Chambers Brothers, ‘The Time Has Come Today’ (you know you’ve heard it!) while watching movies.

I LOVE soundtracks. I buy them a lot. I own over 200 soundtrack CDs.

And now I’m going to betray my industry and criticize product placement.

It bums me out that a song doesn’t get in to a film today unless someone gets paid. I’ve seen movies that were just fluff made to sell a soundtrack CD. That just sucks. Then there are awesome movies with equally awesome soundtracks, like Boogie Nights, Grosse Pointe Blank, Snatch, Dazed & Confused… I’d like to think that those musical choices were made in accordance with the story, not to sell X number of whatever people actually buy anymore. And what happened to scores? Are those now relegated to indie films? David Lynch movies? Does no one compose music for films anymore?