Soundtracks That Stayed With Me
Some movies stay with you because of the story. Others because of a character, a scene, or a moment you never quite forget.
But sometimes, long after the details begin to fade, I still remember the music.
I've always noticed music in movies and television. A great song can completely change the way a scene feels. It can make something more exciting, emotional, unsettling, or unforgettable. There have even been movies over the years that I didn't necessarily love, but the soundtrack made the entire experience better. For someone who has loved music for most of his life, soundtracks also became one of my favorite ways to discover it.
I really started noticing that in the early '90s. One of the first soundtracks that had a major impact on me was Singles. The film was set against the Seattle grunge scene and featured many of the bands I was already listening to at the time, along with others I was still discovering. I loved the movie, but hearing that music woven into the story made the soundtrack take on a life of its own.
Then came Pulp Fiction in 1994, during my first year of college. The movie was unlike anything else I was watching at the time, and the music was just as unpredictable. Surf rock, funk, soul, and songs I recognized mixed with music I'd never heard before. That's how I discovered Urge Overkill's version of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," a song I still listen to today.
That became one of my favorite things about soundtracks. You weren't listening to a single band or album. You were being introduced to an entire collection of artists at once. One song could lead you to a band, that band could lead you to an album, and suddenly, you had discovered a completely new corner of music.
If you love finding new music, go back and listen to old soundtracks. There are treasures everywhere.
As the '90s continued, there was one great soundtrack after another.
The Crow had a dark collection of rock music that fit the film's atmosphere perfectly. Trainspotting combined electronic music and punk with artists like Iggy Pop, Underworld, and New Order. The music captured the energy, chaos, highs, and lows of the story so well that it became difficult to separate what I was hearing from what I was watching.
Television did the same thing. Shows like Felicity, Roswell, and Grey's Anatomy introduced me to songs and artists I might never have discovered otherwise. Sometimes I would start watching the story and walk away with new music. Other times, a song I already knew would suddenly feel different because of the scene it became attached to.
That's part of the magic of a great soundtrack.
Years later, Divergent gave me another one of those moments. There's a scene where the characters zip-line through Chicago while M83's "I Need You" plays. The song builds along with the scene, turning what is already an exciting sequence into something that feels much bigger.
The music takes you on the ride with them. Without it, the scene would still exist. But I wouldn't remember it the same way. That soundtrack became one I could listen to from beginning to end and then immediately start again. Even today, if I could experience a soundtrack for the first time again, Divergent would be the one.
Of course, soundtracks aren't only collections of existing songs. Some original scores become so connected to the stories they were written for that a few notes are enough to bring an entire world back. Think about Star Wars or E.T. You don't need to see the screen to know exactly where that music is taking you.
That's what great music can do. It becomes part of the story. And somewhere along the way, it becomes part of our story too.
A Soundtrack Worth Revisiting
For this month's Only One Life playlist, I wanted to share ten songs from movies and television that have stayed with me over the years. Some I discovered through the screen. Others I already knew but came to appreciate differently after hearing them used in a particular story or scene. Together, they represent different decades, genres, soundtracks, and periods of my own life.
There's Underworld, Jane's Addiction, Jimi Hendrix, Cowboy Junkies, The Cure, M83, The La's, Ursula 1000, Dido, and Urge Overkill.
Listen to Only One Life Playlist #3 here:
I hope you don't stop with these ten songs. If one catches your attention, find the soundtrack it came from and keep listening. That's how I discovered so much music over the years, and it's still one of my favorite ways to find something I haven't heard before. What's interesting is that these songs mean something different to me now.
When I was younger, I bought CDs and played the same soundtracks over and over because the music was new and I loved it. I wasn't thinking about preserving any of it. I certainly wasn't wondering what those songs might mean to me thirty years later. Now I am.
Today, I'm creating Spotify playlists and cataloging music that has followed me through different periods of my life. Somewhere in that process, I've realized that I'm not only saving songs. I'm saving memories.
A song from Pulp Fiction can bring me back to my first year of college. Singles takes me back to the music I loved in the early '90s. Dido can remind me of Roswell. M83 can put me right back into that scene from Divergent.
Years can pass, but the right song can make them disappear in seconds. Maybe that's what I've loved about soundtracks all along. Movies and television give us characters, images, dialogue, and stories. Music adds another layer of emotion to those moments. When the two come together in just the right way, they can create something we carry with us long after the screen goes dark.
That's why soundtracks will always have a place in my life. And that's why music will always have a place here at Only One Life.
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