Why Are There No Hit Songs from Movies Anymore?

[Carl]

I miss the days when the biggest songs and movies were intertwined. The Best Song category at The Oscars used to be filled with the hits of the day - "Eye Of The Tiger" battling it out with "Up Where We Belong."

Now, the category is barely breathing. This year, there are just two entries, and neither is anywhere near a hit.

The movies themselves might be to blame - Elton John did a song for a film this year, but Gnomeo and Juliet ain't The Lion King.

Why do you think movies don't break hit songs these days?

[phil]

Gnomeo And Juliet? That's Gnonsense!

[Brad_M]

There were plenty in the '80s and '90s but only a small handful in the '00s.

A few hits from the '00s are:

2008: Slumdog Millionaire

"Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)" - A.R. Rahman & the Pussycat Dolls

2004: Spider-Man 2

"Vindicted" - Dashboard Confessional

2002: 8 Mile

"Lose Yourself" - Eminem

2002: Spider-Man

"Hero" - Chad Kroeger

Eminem's song is the biggest hit ever to be written for a film.

[edna]

Maybe youtube and the net have something to do with it? "Hits" are no longer hits like before... people vote and download the songs and they care less from where it is. We used to go more to the movies some years ago as well...

[Jenny]

I think Edna's right.....with YouTube, Myspace and even TV shows, musicians don't need movies to sell their music anymore.

Also, the category is for an original song written for the movie, and most movies now don't use songs written for the movies. It seems like mostly musicals or cartoons have original songs.

I used to own many movie soundtracks, so I miss those days myself.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Guest

[TheLizard]

Also, I think a lot of those hits from movies are now so associated with cheesy 80s montages that no serious musician or filmmaker wants to deal with them.

[Rayzor]

I'm with Edna and Jenny on this one.

I remember (but not proud of) owning soundtracks from movies like "Fast Times At Ridgemont High", "The Breakfast Club" , etc... There were good tunes by good bands (at the time) but now the movies are not a medium needed to put your music out there. It's all about original score.

[Shawna]

(but not proud of) owning soundtracks from movies like "Fast Times At Ridgemont High",

I still have that! On vinyl!!

[Carl]

You bought that because of the Stevie Nicks song.

The best songs from the movie weren't on the soundtrack - no "Moving In Stereo" or "Kashmir."

[Ombre Vivante]

I think there may be quite a few hit songs from movies, except I wouldn't be able to name them because I don't watch new movies. The last I remember were the songs by Air for the 1999 movie, The Virgin Suicides (they weren't hit songs, though, but I really liked them)

[RockyRaccoon]

I can understand how some songs are associated with the cheesy 80's montages, but what about back when a new song was the theme of the movie? Like "Mrs. Robinson" and "The Graduate" or "Everybody's Talkin" and "Midnight Cowboy"?

I wouldn't mind seeing something like that again, an original song written specifically for a movie. The one I remember most recently was "Falling Slowly" by The Swell Season for the movie "Once".

[cyberjudge]

"Never Say Never" by Jaden Smith & Justin Bieber was orginally written for "The Karate Kid", in which Jaden starred. It was originally a minor top 40 hit (#33), but several months later hit the top 10 (#8) in a remixed version from Bieber's self-aggrandizing documentary film "Never Say Never".