I drove back from Student House this afternoon. I left my key, picked up my deposit (and my bathrobe, which I’d left), got a reuben at the local sandwich place, and set off. It was sunny (or at least bright) when I left, but within an hour it had started to rain, and then to rain torrentially. The speed limit was 65, but traffic at one point slowed to 15 MPH, simply because we couldn’t see anything.
Luckily, I had a new CD to keep me occupied. As a graduation present, Christina gave me the soundtrack to Tsotsi, a South African movie that I’ve never heard of. It’s a great album, particularly because it covers a wide range of moods, styles, and languages (many of the songs are in African dialects). I had a realization listening to it: soundtracks are naturally better. A soundtrack must have music that covers the whole range of emotions expressed in the movie, which is hopefully wide. Soundtracks are also subject to the demands of the director, not only the whims of the artist. The director has a stronger incentive than the artist to have music that appeals to a wide audience.
Anyway, it’s a fun CD, if you don’t mind not being able to understand the words.
who is Christina?
I am Christina
And, also, I am a Kaplan Teacher! Thank you (and Paul) so much for your help with my presentation.
(I thought it would be best to let Christina introduce herself)
yea great, that really provides me with a lot of information…
Ben & I went to high school together.
sort of.
I see, you were a freshman when Ben was a senior…that’s the “sort of”. Where do you go to college?
Minor problem with your analysis: most of the music on “Tsotsi” is by the same artist, and most of it, I think, previously released, so it’s more of a defacto “best of”. In the US, the best-selling soundtracks are “the Bodyguard,” “Saturday Night Fever” and “Purple Rain.” The first two contain material by other artists, but are mostly treated (by Wikipedia, say) as Whitney Houston and Bee Gees albums, and the third is all Prince. (soon after, though, come true-compilations Forrest Gump and Dirty Dancing. Then ‘Lion King’, more or less a big-budget Elton John album). So I don’t know if the key to a (commercially) successful soundtrack can be automatically assumed to be emotional or musical variety. Also, it’s not uncommon for a soundtrack to *not* solely consist of music used in a movie, so you can’t assume they’re subject to the demands of a director–see “from and inspired by”. My impression is a lot of soundtracks are treated as cross-promotional opportunities (see the big hits Chad Kroguer and Evanescence/Amy Lee managed to have thanks to exposure in Marvel movies). This doesn’t mean there’s bad music on them, but it does mean you can’t treat soundtracks as outgrowths of the demands of the film. I’m fond of compilations too, though. You feel like you know more listening to one.