Scores, Needle Drops, and Why Music in Film Is Important

In honor of the recent Grammy Awards, this latest episode of One Moore Hollywood Podcast has our hosts, Chris Moore, Katie Marpe, and Dennis De Nobile, discussing needle drops, scores, and why music in film is so important. 

Few would deny that the perfect song at the perfect moment can add atmosphere or elevate the emotion of a moment in film–exponentially so, some would say (that someone being Moore). Whether in the background or as part of a scene, a needle drop is when a preexisting song is played in a movie or T.V. show. An alternate way to add music to a film is with a score–original music made for the movie and played intermittently throughout.

How To Get (the Right) Good Music in a Movie

According to Moore, you spend a lot of time figuring out how to get good music into your movie. 

Music rights are costly, and you never know how the approval process will go–if you have a specific song in mind, this can be even more stressful. When Moore worked on the first American Pie with Universal Pictures, he and the music supervisor sought out modern-day pop songs (circa 1999) to represent the teenage boys on screen. They wanted to set the tone of a particular time and place to attract a teenage audience, and they knew music would help.

"Sound and music influence how you feel and emotionally connect with the story."

–Chris Moore

At one of American Pie's first test screenings, all the bigwigs at Universal attended. At the time, American Pie's budget was around 10 million dollars, and the test screening was set up to prove that this movie could be a commercial success. The audience went wild throughout the screening, and at one point, Moore distinctly remembers one of Universal's most senior executives turning to him to say, "You just got 2 million more dollars for music." This exec knew that the more modern pop hits they could get in the film, the more appealing it would be to the target audience. "Music matters,” Moore says, “They're dropping big dollars to get the rights to big popular songs." 

In the case of Manchester by the Sea, the musical journey looked a bit different. While the music was primarily score, Moore remembers when the director, Kenneth Lonergan, showed him a scene with "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'" by Ray Charles playing over it. "It really, really worked," Moore says. 

OMHP’s Favorite Movie Music Moments

In the late nineties and early 2000s, contemporary music placement in T.V. was starting to become a big money-making thing. Marpe recalls the beloved soundtracks to popular shows The O.C. and Grey's Anatomy (shout out to Chop Shop Music Supervision). "Those soundtracks were everything to me in high school," she says. 

Moore remembers when record labels began offering reduced prices on newer songs to get them into a show or a movie. Launching bands gets much more challenging when there's so much content out there, and getting them onto a prime T.V. or film slot can be valuable if the moment is impactful enough.

"I think music in movies is so important. It's one of my favorite things if done well."

–Chris Moore

In Marpe’s current adult state, she’s a fan of a good score (all the Hans Zimmer scores, to be precise). Soundtrack-wise, she loves Baz Luhrmann’s string of unforgettable films such as Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby, and, most recently, Elvis. 

De Nobile notes that the song "Danger Zone" in Top Gun was used so perfectly in the 1986 original that it was used again in Top Gun: Maverick for a nostalgic throwback to the first.  Similarly, De Nobile can't even listen to "Where Is My Mind" by the Pixies without thinking of that one scene in Fight Club. The film Black Panther is another of De Nobile's favorite examples of music used to excellent effect.

"When you watch these things [moments of music in film], people think, what's the soundtrack of my life? It's almost a way to feel more relevant or more here on the planet."

–Chris Moore

The soundtracks that stick with Moore are from Dazed and Confused, Pulp Fiction, and (believe it or not!) Disney's Beauty and the Beast. "Disney had some bangers," Moore insists. 

Listen to the entire episode here: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or iHeartRadio.