Music is everywhere! Our favorite moments in movies, video games, and television almost always have some kind of musical accompaniment. From the hauntingly beautiful “Light of the Seven” which accompanied a crucial scene in season six of Game of Thrones (no spoilers at the link) to the plethora of musical tidbits from the highway scene in the first Deadpool (seriously, Salt-n-Pepa, Juice Newton, followed by the amazing electronic score from Junkie XL), we are spoiled for choice in amazing musical moments. So I asked the contributors to tell me about their favorite soundtrack or piece of music from speculative media. Here’s what they had to say!
J.L. Gribble: Every geek/gamer/nerdy girl goes through her goth phase, and I was certainly no exception. Mine lasted about 1 month in high school, when the boy I dated my senior year introduced me to his favorite movie, The Crow. I was immediately hooked, borrowed his copy, and watched it every day for a few weeks. I still watch the movie every other year or so, usually on October 30 (as it should be). But while it definitely informed some of my creative love of the urban and dark fantasy genres, what really sticks with me is the music.
The soundtrack to The Crow was the first CD that I bought with my own money. I snagged the film’s score from a friend in college when she was downsizing her collection. I still have all the songs from both in my music collection. But while most songs elicit an “Oh, that’s from The Crow” reaction and then I movie on, one song never fails to stop me in my tracks and take a moment to embrace that fragment of inner goth left inside me.
To this day, Jane Siberry’s “It Can’t Rain All the Time” is one of my top two tragic love songs. You better believe that I listened to it a lot when that boy and I broke up soon after high school. It’s so much more than a love song. It’s an ode to eternal love, to hope, to the strength of avenging avatars, and to happily ever afters. The tragic events surrounding the production of The Crow mean that the film transcends merely the story it told. Siberry’s love theme is carried with it.
(What’s my other tragic love song? This post was almost about Kansas’s “Dust in the Wind,” used in the Highlander films and television shows whenever a beloved character dies or is killed. But the Halloween decorations are coming out, and I’m feeling the spirit of the season.)
Erin S. Bales: The soundtracks for all three Mass Effect games are strong, but the one for Mass Effect 3 is the strongest, and the most powerful individual piece is “Leaving Earth,” written by Clint Mansell. Even listeners who have never played the games (What’s wrong with you?) and never plan to (WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?), can, I think, appreciate the gravity of this song.
“Leaving Earth” plays early in the game; although, there’s a beautiful reprise of it at the end. Anyway, it plays as Commander Shepard, once again aboard the Normandy SR-2, is forced to leave Earth. (See? The title is not just a clever name.) She/he has to leave…for reasons. And really, those reasons aren’t important. All the listener needs to know is that the Commander has to go, and she/he is not happy about it. In fact, on some level, she/he is heartbroken by it. Commander Shepard never comes right out and says this, but she/he doesn’t have to because the song does it for her/him.
“Leaving Earth” begins with soft, slow piano notes, notes that are soon interrupted by the harsh yet harmonic blaring of horns (Reaper horns, for the listeners who know what those are). The piano melody is melancholy, elegiac, and the horns are startling. Sacrilegious, even. They are crows of triumph amidst tears of mourning.
However, right around the middle of the piece, drums sound. And then other instruments chime in, swelling around the piano music, and the song grows stronger, as if, despite the loss, there is still hope, still a chance to fight. The song ends on a low note, though, promising a hard battle to come.
Mass Effect 3 is my favorite game in the series. That’s partly because it’s the culmination of three awesome games. It’s partly because the stakes are pretty much as high as they could be for Commander Shepard, and her/his triumphs are contrasted with unavoidable losses. The choices the player has made for the past however many hours of her/his life come home to roost, but in this moment, while “Leaving Earth” plays, every Shepard is forced to make the same bitter, heart-rending choice. And this piece of music captures that beautifully.
When it comes to the aesthetic aspects of video games, I feel like a lot of people are drawn to fantastic graphics. And while I appreciate this, what really gets me excited is good music. A prime example of this is Super Mario Odyssey. While many have rightfully praised the jazzy vocal track, “Jump Up Superstar,” the real winners here are the instrumentals. That includes the music-box melodies of Cap Kingdom, the surfer-cool Wooded Kingdom tracks, the harp-fueled lullaby of the Lake Kingdom, and the bossa nova beats of the Seaside Kingdom. Add in the Celtic-style tunes of the Snow Kingdom, the brass-heavy theme for the Metro Kingdom, the steel drums of the Lost Kingdom, and the totally journey through the Caves in Honeylune Ridge, and you have a soundtrack that draws its inspiration from all over the world. Which, when you consider Mario’s global journey in Odyssey, is quite apt.
But my favorite piece must be the Desperado-esque “Tostarena: Ruins” from the Sand Kingdom.
This rhythmic, yet melodic theme skillfully blends together guitars, drums, pipes, and other instruments for a track that is pleasing to the ear from start to finish. I have frequenly listened to the Super Mario Odyssey soundtrack over the course of this past summer, and this track is the one I revisit the most. I especially love how the song builds up to an exciting climax at about 1:25, and then drops all of the instruments except for the drums and pipes. It’s just an incredibly cool moment that hasn’t grown old, no matter how many times I’ve listened to it.
Do yourself a favor, and check out the entire soundtrack.
Kelly McCarty: From the first time that I squeaked my recorder in elementary school music class, it was apparent that music is not one of my talents. I honestly don’t even appreciate music in a sophisticated way; I just have it on in the car or while I’m exercising. Trying to choose my favorite piece of music from speculative media was a bit of a struggle for me. I chose “Safe & Sound” by Taylor Swift featuring The Civil Wars from The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond, the official companion album to The Hunger Games. I liked The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins but Jennifer Lawrence’s superb performance as Katniss makes this one of the few times when the movie was better than the book.
I enjoy Taylor Swift’s music more than a grown woman should but “Safe & Sound” doesn’t sound anything like a typical Taylor Swift song. Her voice sounds fragile, vulnerable, and not like her. The song is a soft, haunting lullaby, meant to evoke Katniss’ struggle to protect herself and her younger sister, Prim, in an increasingly unsafe world. The sisters face hardships and limited resources even before Prim is selected to fight in the Hunger Games, a sort of reality TV show in which teenagers fight each other to the death. Katniss volunteers to take Prim’s place. The song’s lyrics “Just close your eyes/The sun is going down/You’ll be alright/No one can hurt you now/Come morning light/You and I’ll be safe and sound” make me think that the safety the song promises is actually death.
The music video is absolutely perfect, even though The Hunger Games is only obliquely referenced. Taylor Swift, wearing a white dress and looking younger than her years, walks through a beautiful but barren countryside. Smoke from distant fires rises in the distance. It’s eerie and unsettling. In The Hunger Games, Katniss lives in District 12, in the remains of modern-day Appalachia. I was absolutely convinced that the video must have been shot in Southwest Virginia (my home) because the landscape looked so familiar. It was actually filmed in eastern Tennessee, so I wasn’t terribly wrong. I appreciate that the folk music vibe of the song and the video’s location were authentically Appalachian.
Kristina Elyse Butke: (Slightly spoilery)
Let me wax rhapsodic about Tokyo Ghoul – the soundtrack, that is! Yutaka Yamada’s score is amazing in that it contains many different musical styles, and they’re so evocative in terms of mood…which makes sense, because the Tokyo Ghoul series has many different personalities of its own. That’s part of the reason why I love it so much; while tragedy dominates the story, you have moments of operatic melodrama, romance, action, and horror…and the music score reflects every style. If I’m looking for something to speak to the current mood I’m in, I’ll find a song on the Tokyo Ghoul soundtrack every time.
In terms of the musical score, each song has a German name (I don’t know why, but this seems to be a thing in Japanese anime soundtracks – *cough* Attack on Titan). One of my favorites from the score is “Licht und Schatten” (Light and Shadow) which captures the duality Ken Kaneki experiences as a human-ghoul hybrid. This is a recurrent theme in the series, where Kaneki realizes he has a foot in both worlds, and just maybe he can bridge the gap between humans and ghouls so they stop mercilessly killing one another. Who are the real monsters, here? Are ghouls and humans all that different, or are they just different sides of the same coin? “Licht and Schatten” seems to be the perfect theme for those ideas. Plus, it just sounds cool. The strings hum with a strange electricity, the beat spurs you to move onward…it’s a great piece.
My other favorite from the score is “Schmetterling” (Butterfly) because it’s just so freaking gorgeous with its harp, flute, and lush strings. This is a song about transformation. Initially it would seem like Hinami’s theme (her kagune looks just like butterfly wings) but the song recurs at many poignant moments throughout the series. When it’s played by a solo piano, it’s for intimate scenes where various characters come to grips with a significant realization; but the full orchestra version that I love so much is played in a single scene in the series, where Kaneki narrates the passage of time after a key turning point in the story occurs – the murder of Hinami’s parents. While this incident is devastating and serves as a change agent for many characters, for Kaneki, it is the moment that solidifies how much ghouls are misunderstood, and how ugly humans can be. The version of “Schmetterling” in this scene captures the literal transformation of the seasons, and then the transformation of Kaneki’s understanding of the world and people he knows. It’s a brilliant, beautiful song.
In addition to the score itself, you have various bands and singers contribute to the soundtrack (TK from Ling Tosite Sigure, People in the Box, Donna Burke, etc.), and just like the score, each song also has a distinctive personality, united by the dominant tone of tragedy. These songs are amazing (I love the main theme, “Unravel” so much) and I literally just read that Eminem sampled “Glassy Sky” (another awesome song) for his new album…so it’s great other artists recognize how brilliant this soundtrack is.
If you’re looking to experience some topsy turvy with your emotions and music styles, the Tokyo Ghoul soundtrack is for you!
Casey Price: One contributor, when I told her about this particular roundtable, found herself unable to participate. She’s a soundtrack aficionado, and said that choosing just one would be like having to choose a favorite parent, and then having to tell them to their face. I know this feeling, because I’m not able to choose just one selection, myself. So here’s a few. I’m not sorry.
First, we have a song from one of the very first CDs that I owned as a teenager: Queen’s “Princes of the Universe,” which was written specifically for Highlander (the film) and was later used in the opening credits of the television series (full song here). I’d heard Queen here and there on the radio, thanks to my parents’ fondness for classic rock, but for some reason this song hit little fifteen-year-old me right in the brain and stayed there. This song, found on Queen’s album A Kind of Magic, led to a lifelong adoration for the band. I still love most things Highlander, too.
Next, I humbly submit the soundtrack for Mad Max: Fury Road. The genius behind this, Junkie XL (remember him from earlier? Yep, he also did the score for my beloved Deadpool), created the perfect accompaniment for an amazing film. Whenever I feel the need to channel some of Imperator Furiosa‘s badass energy, I turn this on. However, I cannot recommend listening to this when you’re driving, well, anywhere. The sheer energy of the music pumps itself into your blood and gets the adrenaline flowing freely. Listen to it when you really need to get yourself in a certain mood. Just, maybe skip this one if you’re driving. Trust me.
Finally, you may recall my great and undying love for Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Naturally, I own the soundtrack — I’ve owned it in almost every possible available format. I’ve listened to it more times than I count. Trevor Jones was in charge of the fabulous score. Better than that, though? David Bowie produced several original songs for the album! While I’m a sucker for the ballad, “As the World Falls Down,” and I always sing along with “Chilly Down” (the scene with the Fireys), my favorite song from the soundtrack is “Magic Dance.”
Silly? Yes. Dated? Yep. Catchy? HELL YES. Nevertheless, this is an awesome scene in the film. David Bowie is clearly having a great time dancing around with those Muppets. The song is pure fun. If I’m ever feeling down, this is one of the songs that I inevitably turn on to cheer myself up. It works every time.
There’s our list! What are some of your own favorites? Sing out in the comments!
Featured image from Deadpool © Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment, via Movie-Screencaps.com.
I couldn’t choose. There are just so many I adore. :3
Also “Leaving Earth” is such a great piece. I once spent a couple hours just hunting down badass remixes of it.
Same here! It’s so lovely and haunting, and some of the remixes are almost better than the original. Almost. 🙂