Whatever Happened to the Movie Song?



Celine Dion is amazing. Don't believe me? YouTube 'Celine Dion is Amazing.'



So, uh... whatever happened to the movie song? You know what I'm talking about. Songs like 'My Heart Will Go On,' 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing,' 'Iris' and 'I Will Always Love You.' Songs that would come across as super cheesy under normal circumstance, but because they're attached to a Hollywood blockbuster end up being kinda awesome in their own cheesy way. Either way, there's still a lot of cheese I guess. Anyway, you just don't see the movie songs enough these days. Or is it just that they're not good enough to warrant attention any longer. I can think of two songs from 2010 that were used as promo tools for a movie; 'Alice' by Avril Lavigne, for Alice in Wonderland and 'Neutron Star Collision' by Muse, for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Both songs managed to pull off the impossible by both sucking and blowing.

 

If you look at this year's Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song, you'll see two songs from Burlesque that no one cares about (or knows about, looking at ticket sales for the movie), Gwyneth Paltrow singing some country tune, American Idol winner Carrie Underwood's contribution for the new Narnia movie and Mandy Moore's track for Tangled. Have you heard any of these songs on the radio? Have you seen any music videos for them?

Let's go back to the 1998 Golden Globes. In that year, Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli's, 'The Prayer,' a promo song for Quest for Camelot beat out 'Uninvited' (Alanis Morissette, City of Angels), 'When You Believe' (Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, The Prince of Egypt) and 'Reflection' (Christina Aguilera, Mulan). At the 1998 Academy Awards, 'When You Believe' ended up walking away with Best Original Song in a field which also included 'The Prayer' and 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing' (Aerosmith, Armageddon). Have you noticed the people that are singing these songs? Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Aerosmith, Alanis Morissette and Andrea Bocelli. These are people that racked up A LOT of sales during the 90s. Compare that to the nominees for this year; Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, Cher, Gwyneth Paltrow and Carrie Underwood. Actually, don't bother... there is no comparison. Possible reasons why movie songs today suck, #1 - music's biggest stars no longer sing them.

You know who else you can blame for a lack of quality movie songs? Disney. Yes, that Disney. They used to be all over the movie song, especially for their animated features. 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight,' 'Colours of the Wind,' 'A Whole New World,' 'Beauty and the Beast,' 'Under the Sea' and 'You'll Be In My Heart' all won an Academy Award for Disney. What song did Disney release this year? 'Alice.' Possible reasons why movie songs today suck, #2 - Disney stopped being awesome.  

'Alice' isn't that bad. It's definitely better than 'Keep Holding On.' Possible reasons why movie songs today suck, #3 - Avril Lavigne.

Even Bond themes have taken a hit. 'The World Is Not Enough' or 'GoldenEye' vs 'You Know My Name' or 'Another Way to Die?' It's not even a competition. Possible reasons why movie songs today suck, #4 - Daniel Craig.

Ok, so maybe the possible reasons that I've been throwing out aren't all that good. What do you think? Whatever happened to the movie song? And, because you demanded it... here's 'My Heart Will Go On.' Enjoy!