The process of making movies is a long and complicated with many moving parts. A part of the movie making process that is often overlooked or underappreciated is the soundtrack.

Soundtracks are very important to bringing a movie together. Imagine at the end of Breakfast Club if it did not play ‘Don’t You’ or if ‘City of Stars’ was not in La La Land. It just does not fit right. The movies would not be as iconic.  In recent movies soundtracks have been taken to new highs with some movies producing full soundtracks full of stars such as the Black Panther and Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse soundtracks. 

For a soundtrack to be exquisite it needs to take 3 things into account. The time the movie is set, the time when the song is played, and the scene itself with the song. Let me use Guardians of the Galaxy as an example of a perfect soundtrack. The Guardians of the Galaxy is based in the modern days but the soundtrack is all songs from the 1980’s. However, it fits because the soundtrack has a background in the movie as he plays the music off his recorder which his dying mother gave him. This gives a good reason for the songs to be older even though the setting is modern. This even makes the music in the movie have more meaning and it seeps into the story which is unique. The songs are also spread out very well in the movie. There are not too many songs one after another. They all manage to fit in the right places and do not seemed forced or take away from the film. Rather they add to the film and make it better.  Finally, each scene that the songs were placed in made it better and fit the scene. The intro scene with Peter Quill dancing is fantastic and gives off the playful vibe of the film.

Soundtracks can make movies so much better and Guardians of the Galaxy is a perfect example of it.