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10 soundtracks that changed the worldFilm 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.
