If you’re anything like me, you’ve been absolutely swooning over everything Toronto International Film Festival over the past week. When I lived in Toronto, TIFF was always such a special time — the leaves would start turning beautiful colours, the air would get crisp, and incredible artists would descend on the city in hoards, transforming the once gray streets into a red carpeted, glamourous playground. For anyone who has ever stood in a freezing cold rainy rush line at 8 a.m. while holding a hot coffee and still feeling the magic, you know what I’m talking about.
As with movies, music holds a special place in my heart, so when they’re done together just right, I take notice. A film with an awesome score or great soundtrack can not only make or break a movie, but it can define a genre. For example, Quentin Tarantino has created so much ambiance in his films with his particular music style that the genre is easily recognizable among his fans. I mean, where would we be without Luis Bacalov’s “The Grand Duel” in “Kill Bill”? Or how about that famous “Deathproof” dance scene choreographed to “Down in Mexico” by The Coasters?
But what if we could take it a step further? What if I was so bold as to say that a movie soundtrack holds the power to define a generation — whether it be in the moment or in hindsight (although I’m aware I’m not the first person to say this, I like referring to myself as bold).
As an example, the 1995-released seminal coming of age film “Empire Records” would perhaps be one to fit the era-defining bill. A group of music-loving young people hanging out in a record store discussing music while wearing Doc Martins. If this movie — if this soundtrack — doesn’t encapsulate everything about the ’90s alt-rock zeitgeist, then I don’t know what does.
Or what about almost everything Richard Linklater has ever produced? The 1993-released day-in-the-life Dazed and Confused still has the ability to send my mom into a nostalgia-induced frenzy. Likewise with Linklater’s 2016 one-day-to-be-cult-classic Everybody Wants Some!! in which the audience follows a bunch of 1980’s baseball players through their last few days of summer vacation. Watching them belt out the lyrics to “Rapper’s Delight” and hit up every kind of bar in town to pick up girls (country, punk, pop, you name it) was not only endearing, but all-encompassing of the time (says someone who was born in ’91).
What I’m saying, in my ever-so-eloquent rant, is that we should all, as a society, pay more attention to the Music Directors of the world. The people behind the scenes whose names feverishly roll in the movie credits while we shuffle out of the building stuffing the last kernels of popcorn into our mouths. These are the people who not-so-quietly dictate how we remember a specific time in our life, whether it be an entire decade or simply a fabulous night out at the movies.
Taylor Herperger is Promotions Director at 105.3 ROCK and resident world traveller. Watch for he out and about at events around The Hat.
