Link :
http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=170555
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From: Prakash Balaramkrishna <prakysn...@yahoo.com>
To: arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2009 11:01:45 AM
Subject: 10 Soundtracks that changed the world - NOW Magazine
10 soundtracks that changed the world
Film soundtracks have had a huge influence on mainstream listening
tastes. Here are 10 albums that forever altered the musical landscape.
The Harder They Come (1972)
With
this album, Desmond Dekker, Toots & the Maytals and, of course,
Jimmy Cliff endeared themselves and the genre of ska and roots reggae
to a new audience worldwide – particularly in the UK, where Dekker
would later become a Mod sensation and Toots Hibbert would be covered
by the Clash and other punks. Nothing’s better than the originals,
though, which sound as good today as they did on their release date.
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
It’s
impossible to separate the influence of the Beatles’ first film from
that of the soundtrack itself. Richard Lester’s mockumentary
spotlighting the perils of the Fab Four’s mega-fame was a precursor of
the music video and paved the way for the Monkees’ TV series. But the
LP, the Beatles’ first with all-original material, had its own impact,
especially George Harrison’s work on his Rickenbacker 12-string, which
moved many bands, including the Byrds, to go for a harder, more rock
’n’ roll sound.
Shaft (1971)
To
introduce the black private dick who’s a sex machine to all the chicks,
Isaac Hayes lays down a sonic wall of funk perfectly matched to Richard
Roundtree’s bad-mother swagger. But the Oscar-winning Theme From Shaft
was just the first track in a sinewy soul score that still makes Gordon
Parks’s 1971 actioner stand out from the blaxploitation pack.
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
The
iconic dance film that made John Travolta a star launched the disco
craze across the world. Unfortunately, the plot was based on a
completely fabricated article by a writer who later confessed to having
no knowledge or understanding of the culture, and the extremely
successful soundtrack has since been criticized for contributing to the
whitewashing of the black and gay roots of disco in favour of the Bee
Gees’ mainstream pop version.
Wild Style (1982)
Hip-hop
was pretty much unknown outside of a few American inner cities when
Wild Style was released, making its soundtrack the first time most of
the world heard the genre. A number of similar films soon followed, but
this was the first to expose the culture, and featured early innovators
like Grandmaster Caz, Fab 5 Freddy, Grand Wizard Theodore and the Cold
Crush Brothers.
Purple Rain (1984)
In
the film, Prince takes his muse, Apollonia, on a motorcycle ride out to
a quiet spot by the lake where skinny dipping was an inevitability.
Within minutes, Apollonia’s jaw-dropping physique is on full display.
But this, one of the film’s more satisfying scenes, has nothing on
Prince’s flawless soundtrack. Purple Rain was for him what Thriller was
for MJ – a career-defining hit.
Singles (1992)
The
grunge soundtrack for this rom-com eclipsed the actual film, becoming a
bestseller months before it even hit theatres. Nirvana, one of the only
Seattle bands not included on the soundtrack, had already blown up the
year before, but this compilation, including Pearl Jam and Alice in
Chains, brought the music into the mainstream, leading to a shortage of
cheap flannel shirts and an abundance of generic alt-rock radio
stations.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
You
could argue that Quentin Tarantino had already made his soundtrack mark
with Reservoir Dogs, but this was the one that really made it into the
popular consciousness. The mixture of surf, early rock’ n’ roll and
soul brought guitar hero Dick Dale back from obscurity and introduced a
new generation to classic R&B sounds, reminding the world that Al
Green’s version of Let’s Stay Together is the only one that really
matters. (Sorry, Tina Turner.)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
By
the time this soundtrack hit shelves, the Coen brothers were known for
memorable soundtracks. (Kenny Rogers’s Just Dropped In is rarely played
without a Big Lebowski reference.) But this T-Bone Burnett-curated mix
of vintage bluegrass, both originals and well-done covers, grabbed more
attention than the movie.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Thora
Birch may have danced to Jaan Pehechan Ho over the Ghost World credits,
but Slumdog Millionaire put Bollywood on the Billboard charts. The
Slumdog mix juggles propulsive pop (M.I.A.’s Paper Planes), A.R.
Rahman’s Bollywood-flavoured underscore and the theme from Who Wants To
Be A Millionaire? to guide viewers through the movie’s time-scrambled
structure – all the while building to Oscar-winning number Jai Ho. That
beats a flatful of Scottish junkies from that other Danny Boyle pic,
Trainspotting.
