Soundtrack

What is a soundtrack?

The word has two meanings, and filmmakers use both.

The album. In everyday use, a soundtrack is the collection of music heard in a film, released on its own, usually labeled OST (original soundtrack). Most often it means the songs: pre-existing tracks licensed for the film, new songs written for it, or both. When a record contains only the composer's instrumental music, it is usually sold as the score album instead.

The audio track. On a film print, the soundtrack is literally the strip beside the image that carries the sound. On an optical print it runs as a thin band between the sprockets and the picture, read by a light and a photocell in the projector. In post-production the word still covers the whole finished audio: dialogue, effects, Foley, ambience and music, balanced in the final sound mix.

This article covers the first meaning; for everything else an audience hears, see the sound and music hub.

Types of soundtrack albums

• Compilation soundtrack. Pre-existing songs chosen for the film, from one artist or many. Easy Rider (1969) built its road sequences on rock records, and American Graffiti (1973) plays wall-to-wall early-rock and doo-wop hits as if from car radios.
• Original song soundtrack. Songs written or recorded for the picture. The Beatles' Help! (1965) is a band film whose album is the soundtrack; the Bee Gees' songs for Saturday Night Fever (1977) became a best-selling record in their own right.
• Cast performance soundtrack. Songs performed by the cast in the scenes themselves, as in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), where Oscar Isaac and his co-stars sing the folk numbers on camera.
• Curated companion album. Records labeled "music from and inspired by" include songs that never play in the film. Black Panther: The Album (2018), curated by Kendrick Lamar, sits beside Ludwig Göransson's separate score release.
• Score album. The composer's original music on its own, covered in depth in the film score article.

Why filmmakers build a soundtrack around songs

A song arrives with baggage, and directors use that baggage on purpose.

Period and place. Three bars of a hit from the right year date a scene faster than any production design. Singles (1992) sits inside early-90s Seattle largely through its grunge soundtrack.

Character. When a character owns the music, the soundtrack becomes a portrait. In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) the hero's cassette mix of 70s pop is his link to home, and most of its needle drops play from inside the story as diegetic sound. High Fidelity (2000) goes further: its record-store characters define themselves by what they play.

Irony and counterpoint. A cheerful song over violence makes the audience complicit. Reservoir Dogs (1992) plays "Stuck in the Middle with You" on a radio during its torture scene, and the contrast is the scene.

Rhythm. Songs have tempo and structure, so editors can cut to them. Baby Driver (2017) choreographs whole action sequences to the tracks on its driver's music player, and a pop song can carry a montage that would feel slack under silence.

How a soundtrack is made

1. Script and temp tracks. Writers sometimes name songs on the page; editors cut early assemblies to temp music. Directors fall in love with temp songs, so check budgets early.
2. Music supervision. A music supervisor proposes songs for each spot, tracks what they will cost and negotiates with rights holders, working between the director, the editor and the composer.
3. Clearance. Every licensed recording needs two permissions: a sync license for the composition and a master-use license for the specific recording. The details are in music licensing. If the master is too expensive, productions sometimes record a new version of the song.
4. Spotting and placement. The team decides where each song starts and ends, whether it plays from a radio in the scene or over the scene, and how it hands off to the score.
5. Mix and album. In the final mix, songs are ducked under dialogue and shaped to the space.

Planning it on a board. In FlashBoards you can pin the song list, lyrics notes and timing ideas right next to the storyboard frames or reference stills for each scene, so the director, editor and music supervisor see which song lands on which image. Mood frames for a needle-drop scene can sit beside the licensing notes.

Soundtrack vs. score: what's the difference?

| | Soundtrack (album sense) | Score | |---|---|---| | What it is | Songs used in the film, licensed or new | Original instrumental music written for the film | | Who makes it | Many artists, chosen by the director and music supervisor | One film composer or a small team | | Timing | Songs keep their own structure; picture is often cut to them | Written to picture, timed to cuts and beats | | Rights | Usually licensed per song | Commissioned for the film |

Many films use both: licensed songs for specific moments, score for everything in between. The Graduate (1967) is remembered for Simon & Garfunkel's songs, while a film like Black Panther released a song album and a separate score album. In the technical sense, the score is part of the soundtrack, because the soundtrack is all the audio.

What makes a great movie soundtrack?

The best movie soundtracks are more than lists of good songs:

• A point of view. The songs sound like one person chose them, whether that is the director, as with Quentin Tarantino's crate-digging in Pulp Fiction (1994), or a character, as in Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Placement over prestige. A minor song in exactly the right spot beats a famous one pasted over a montage.
• A reason to exist inside the scene. Radios, jukeboxes, headphones and live performances give songs a source, which lets them do story work.
• A clean handoff to the score. Great soundtracks know when to stop and let original music or silence take over.

To study the craft, watch the scenes, not just the album: where each song enters, whether characters hear it, what the cut does on the beat.

Further reading

David Sonnenschein, Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema (Michael Wiese Productions). Jeff Smith, The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music (Columbia University Press).