{"id":8786,"date":"2018-02-05T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=8786"},"modified":"2019-05-10T19:56:39","modified_gmt":"2019-05-11T02:56:39","slug":"the-12-best-movie-soundtrack-music-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/the-12-best-movie-soundtrack-music-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"The 12 Best Movie Soundtrack Music Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The music video as it was known in its heyday is now all but dead, reborn as online videos that roam the halls of YouTube and Tidal Exclusives. At their peak, however, they were incredibly effective short films-cum-advertisements, selling records and concert tours. Eventually, Hollywood realized they could also be used to sell movie tickets, and thus the movie music video was born: not a trailer, not a TV spot, and not a normal music video, but some conflation of all three. Hundreds were produced, but only a few stand above the rest, becoming as memorable and iconic as the films they supported. Hit the play buttons below to watch and sing along&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">12. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/3MMMe1drnZY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cGuardians Inferno\u201d<\/a> by The Sneepers (from <i>Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2<\/i>, 2017)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Guardians&#039; Inferno&quot; | Marvel Studios\u2019 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3MMMe1drnZY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The pop-music-only soundtrack has been dead for a while now, but James Gunn\u2019s Marvel Cinematic Universe entry <i>Guardians Of The Galaxy<\/i> (2014) brought it roaring back. Bolstered by the album\u2019s success, Gunn, composer Tyler Bates, and living internet meme David Hasselhoff recorded an original disco track for last year\u2019s sequel, and the accompanying music video recreates the cheesy late \u201870s vibe a little too perfectly. Hasselhoff\u2019s lyrics summarize the movie while stars Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillian, Sean Gunn, Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt, and director Gunn all show up disguised in \u201870s garb (guess Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper don\u2019t own bellbottoms). They even wedged a Stan Lee cameo in here. If someone you know has been living under a rock and you need to explain what the MCU is to them, this is your best bet.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">11. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/L_jWHffIx5E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cAll Star\u201d by Smash Mouth<\/a> (from <i>Mystery Men<\/i>, 1999)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Smash Mouth - All Star (Official Music Video)\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L_jWHffIx5E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Quick \u2014 what movie is the music video for Smash Mouth\u2019s ridiculously ubiquitous hit \u201cAll Star\u201d promoting? If you said <i>Shrek<\/i>, congratulations, you\u2019ve been raised by memes. Not to worry! Now you can pedantically annoy your friends and win at bar trivia by knowing that the song was written for, appears in, and has its video promote the cult superhero comedy <i>Mystery Men<\/i>. The video makes the connection to the movie explicit, opening with a scene from the actual film. However, it quickly bifurcates, with movie clips awkwardly inserted into a storyline about lead singer Steve Harwell performing feats of superherodom around town while the Mystery Men, um \u2026 attack the band\u2019s limo? Watch from the sidelines? It\u2019s unclear, but director McG\u2019s four color visual style somehow makes the thing work. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">10. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/VEJ8lpCQbyw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cPrinces Of The Universe\u201d by Queen<\/a> (from <i>Highlander<\/i>, 1986)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Queen - Princes Of The Universe (Official Video)\" width=\"760\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VEJ8lpCQbyw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Director Russell Mulcahy rose through the ranks directing music videos (including the first video ever shown on MTV, The Buggles\u2019 \u201cVideo Killed The Radio Star\u201d), so directing a video promoting his second feature <i>Highlander<\/i> was almost a given. Queen had several hits that were written for the <i>Highlander<\/i> soundtrack (which to this day has never had an official release!), but this video for \u201cPrinces Of The Universe\u201d is the only one 100% <i>Highlander<\/i> flavored, and it\u2019s spectacular. Mulcahy\u2019s MTV-ready footage from the film plays between the band performing in front of the Silvercup Studios sign, while the immortal Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) shows up for a brief moment ready to duel with Freddie Mercury before realizing his mistake and disappearing for the rest of the video. Guitarist Brian May\u2019s crunchy riffs destroy a mock-up of the castle set from the film, and a music video classic is born. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">9. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZfS6Nl962Qg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cWalls (Circus)\u201d by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers<\/a> (from <i>She\u2019s The One<\/i>, 1996)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Walls (Circus) [OFFICIAL VIDEO]\" width=\"760\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZfS6Nl962Qg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Tom Petty had a legendary run of music videos on his own during the \u201880s and \u201890s, with clips like \u201cDon\u2019t Come Around Here No More\u201d and \u201cFree Fallin\u2019\u201d always in heavy rotation. When he agreed to write and perform the songs and score for Ed Burns\u2019 rom-com <i>She\u2019s The<\/i> <i>One<\/i>, he brought a director he\u2019d worked with before as well as his own concepts and ideas to the music video for \u201cWalls (Circus).\u201d The clip makes reference to the film by the appearance of Burns (playing his taxi driver character from the movie) and actors Maxine Bahns and Jennifer Aniston, but other than that looks and feels like a Petty video from that period, featuring Indian imagery and iconography blending with an old-style circus tent\/sideshow set. It\u2019s psychedelic, playful in its use of black-and-white giving way to vibrant colors, and by extension makes Burns\u2019 rom-com seem much more visually rich and deep than it is.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">8. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Fe93CLbHjxQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cGhostbusters\u201d by Ray Parker, Jr.<\/a> (from <i>Ghostbusters<\/i>, 1984)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters (Official Video)\" width=\"760\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Fe93CLbHjxQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Ghostbusters<\/i> became a massive franchise and phenomenon, thanks in part to Ray Parker Jr.\u2019s titular Huey Lewis-lite shout-along song. The movie\u2019s director, Ivan Reitman, also made the video for the track and used well-chosen clips from the film. But the real fun is in the new material, which concerns a young blonde woman entering a matte painted house that is revealed to be nothing but neon furniture, black screen walls, and a bed. Oh, and which is also haunted by Parker Jr. and several kids. On top of that, Reitman recruits a murderer\u2019s row of comedy and music talent to chant the movie\u2019s title, and ends the clip with the leads of the film and the singer dancing in Times Square, complete with Bill Murray\u2019s failed attempt at breakdancing. What more could you want in a video?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">7. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/m4cgLL8JaVI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cDerezzed\u201d by Daft Punk<\/a> (from <i>Tron Legacy<\/i>, 2010)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Daft Punk - Derezzed (from TRON: Legacy)\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m4cgLL8JaVI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Some detractors of <i>Tron Legacy<\/i> say that it\u2019s a glorified Daft Punk music video; some defenders of the film say the same, only more positively. Whether you love or hate it, it\u2019s hard to deny that Daft Punk\u2019s music and <i>Tron<\/i>\u2019s glowy electronica aesthetic blend together extremely well, and the music video for one of the cuts from the soundtrack is no exception. The French duo turn up in their trademark robot outfits to Flynn\u2019s Arcade, where they play a fictional vintage game that is cleverly intended to evoke <i>Tron<\/i>\u2019s iconic light cycles but is revealed to be something totally different. The clip also acts as a sort of prequel to <i>Legacy<\/i>, thanks to Olivia Wilde\u2019s surprise cameo at the intriguingly ambiguous ending. If any <i>Tron<\/i> fans have theories or fan fiction about how Quorra found herself in a game called \u201cDerezzed,\u201d please message me on Facebook. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">6. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/8C5NLfYdZaE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cThe World Is Not Enough\u201d by Garbage<\/a> (from <i>The World Is Not Enough<\/i>, 1999)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/8C5NLfYdZaE<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The James Bond franchise has been synonymous with pop songs since the second film in the series (<i>From Russia With Love, <\/i>1963), and even embraced the advent of MTV by putting singer Sheena Easton in the main titles of <i>For Your Eyes Only<\/i> (1981). While the title sequences remained as lavish as ever, the actual music videos produced during the \u201880s and mid-\u201890s for Bond themes were a little lackluster. Enter alt-rock group Garbage with a video that, in a lot of ways, is more successful than the Bond film it\u2019s supporting. Rather than being clips of the film playing behind the band, the clip features singer Shirley Manson playing both a famous chanteuse and a deadly android assassin created in a clandestine lab (set in 1964, the year of <i>Goldfinger<\/i> as well as Bond\u2019s heyday). The song, intended to be written from the perspective of Sophie Marceau\u2019s villain in the film, becomes android Manson\u2019s theme before she blows up a performance hall. Why? Who knows, but just like Bond, it\u2019s effortlessly cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">5. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/fPO76Jlnz6c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cGangsta\u2019s Paradise\u201d by Coolio<\/a> (from <i>Dangerous Minds<\/i>, 1995)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Coolio - Gangsta&#039;s Paradise (feat. L.V.) [Official Music Video]\" width=\"760\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fPO76Jlnz6c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Dangerous Minds<\/i> was a \u201cteachers in the inner city\u201d melodrama, a sub-genre that contains numerous entries. Why the film deserves to be remembered is completely and utterly due to this song and this video. The clip was directed by music video prodigy and future big budget filmmaker Antoine Fuqua, and its moody, shadowy imagery is iconic (enough that Weird Al could easily parody it for his \u201cAmish Paradise\u201d video). It even renders the film superfluous by summing up the arc for Michelle Pfeiffer\u2019s character: she arrives in a dilapidated housing project to ask Coolio \u201cwhat this is all about,\u201d and Coolio proceeds to rap verse after verse about what life is really like trapped in the world of crime. The final scene of Coolio removing a pair of shades from a young boy, the shades representing the crime-ridden future the boy will likely have, says it all.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">4. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/noLPhZvcBpw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cDream Warriors\u201d by Dokken<\/a> (from <i>A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors<\/i>, 1987)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dokken - Dream Warriors (Official Music Video)\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/noLPhZvcBpw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Horror was huge in the late \u201880s, the slasher boom at the beginning of the decade having wrought numerous franchises from which embarrassed studios could collect a payday year after year. In 1987, the razor-glove-and-sweatshirt-wearing killer Freddy Krueger became a phenomenon, in large part thanks to this, one of the coolest rock videos ever made. Not convinced? Consider this: <i>Dream Warriors<\/i> star Patricia Arquette reprises her role as Kristen from the film in seamlessly integrated footage from the movie, along with newly shot scenes of her teaming up with Dokken. Guitarist George Lynch literally breaks through a wall using the power of his rippin\u2019 riffs. Don Dokken defeats Freddy with the power of his mighty voice. The entire video is revealed to have been <i>Freddy\u2019s<\/i> nightmare. If the power of rock can\u2019t save the world, it can at least save us from pizza-faced demons.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">3. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/RhMEKiIb86I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cAcross The Universe\u201d by Fiona Apple<\/a> (from <i>Pleasantville<\/i>, 1998)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fiona Apple - Across The Universe\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RhMEKiIb86I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One of the best Beatles cover songs deserves a great video to match it, and no less than director Paul Thomas Anderson delivers. Supporting the Gary Ross film <i>Pleasantville<\/i>, the clip distills the movie\u2019s themes of a sanitized black-and-white \u201850s sitcom town giving way to a world of color and knowledge. During a slow-motion study of a diner being looted and destroyed, Apple performs the song. Anderson\u2019s camera glides through the riot, with Apple its serene center, looking constantly joyful. It\u2019s a clever way of enhancing the song\u2019s message of spiritual enlightenment by tying it to the movie\u2019s visual representation of such. As a bonus, watch for Anderson cohort John C. Reilly near the end of the clip, right before a falling neon sign cheekily spells out \u201cthe end.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">2. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_zXKtfKnfT8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cWild Wild West\u201d by Will Smith feat. Dru Hill &amp; Kool Moe Dee<\/a> (from <i>Wild Wild West<\/i>, 1999)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Will Smith - Wild Wild West ft. Dru Hill, Kool Mo Dee\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_zXKtfKnfT8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A dubious tradition of the movie soundtrack is the rap over the end credits, a category filled with more unfortunate examples than not (looking at you, <i>Dragnet<\/i>). In the late \u201890s, Will Smith became the undisputed king of the \u201cmovie rap,\u201d thanks to his hit \u201cMen In Black\u201d from the movie of the same name. Sure, that song and that video are iconic in their own way, as Smith raps what is essentially a recruitment ad for the MiB while dancing with a CGI alien. But \u201cWild Wild West\u201d takes that song and that video and goes far, far bigger and more ridiculous. Just look at everything here: lavish dance choreography, sets exploding and\/or on fire, long stretches of time where the song flat-out stops (once to use not a movie clip but an entire action sequence made just for the video), Sisqo in chaps, Carlton from <i>The Fresh Prince of Bel Air<\/i>, Enrique Iglesias, and Stevie Wonder! Add to that the fact that the song actually summarizes the movie\u2019s plot, and you\u2019ve got yourself an apotheosis of the form. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ulOLYnOthIw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cBatdance\u201d by Prince<\/a> (from <i>Batman<\/i>, 1989)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Prince - Batdance (Official Music Video)\" width=\"760\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ulOLYnOthIw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Prince was an electric artist, intensely watchable no matter how insane his performances got. \u201cBatdance\u201d is arguably Prince at his most insane, a six-minute freak out of a nearly instrumental hodgepodge of songs from his <i>Batman<\/i> soundtrack album. As if to double down on the ridiculousness of releasing <i>that<\/i> as the album\u2019s first single, Prince enlisted <i>Purple Rain<\/i> director Albert Magnoli to helm the video, and he made a bold choice: to take each and every snippet of dialogue and music and represent it visually. Thus we get a chorus of Batpeople chanting the \u201cBatman!\u201d refrain every time it occurs, a dance troupe of menacing Jokers, and a catwalk\u2019s worth of Vicki Vales. The movie is represented not through visual clips, but through snatches of dialogue that appear in the song itself. All the while, Prince plays both himself (at a control console, watching the proceedings and playing some face melting guitar) and \u201cGemini,\u201d an original character dressed as half Batman and half Joker. The video is far from subtle, but it perfectly sums up the underlying theme of not only Tim Burton\u2019s film but decades of the Batman mythos. Being a visual tour de force inexorably tied to the movie it supports, \u201cBatdance\u201d is the ultimate movie music video. Keep bustin\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/billbria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bill Bria<\/a> busts in New York City.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The music video as it was known in its heyday is now all but dead, reborn as online videos that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":8789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1399,1381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-looking-back","category-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}