Picture this: you’re sitting in a movie theater, watching an excellent film, then in the background you hear a crazy beat you just have to have. You try to remember how it goes, go home (maybe IMDB the soundtrack if it’s up already) and download it. Now it’s yours to listen to at your whim. Movies are a phenomenal source for finding new music, and we’re here to make life a little easier when it comes to remembering those great tracks. Here are ten movies with soundtracks that will blow your mind (and eardrums) away.

Empire Records: When a movie’s central characters work at an independent record store, you can assume the soundtrack is going to be grade A. Watch as these quirky characters (including a young Renee Zellweger) fight to keep their small record store from being taken over by the large corporate chain world, all the while enjoying its alternative sound.

Songs We love: Gin Blossoms–”Til I Hear It From You”, The Cranberries–”Liar”, Toad the Wed Sprocket–”Crazy Life”, Cracker–”Whole Lotta Trouble”

Almost Famous: A 2001 Grammy award-winner, Almost Famous tells the story of director Cameron Crowe, Rolling Stone Magazine’s youngest ever music journalist. As young William Miller (the character based on Crowe) travels with the up-and-coming band Stillwater, he not only learns the ins and outs of the industry, but he also meets some great, albeit bizarre, people on the way. All the songs featured in the film were hand-picked by Crowe, because they meant something to him on his own journey.

Songs We Love: The Beach Boys–”Feel Flows”, The Allman Brothers–“One Way Out”, David Bowie (live version)–”Waiting for the Man”, Simon & Garfunkel–”America” and, if you’ve seen the movie, who can forget the iconic “Tiny Dancer” bus scene (by Elton John)? Click here to view the actual scene from the movie.

Garden State: Indie rock at its finest comes in the form of the Garden State soundtrack. Zach Braff directed this hipster movie, not to mention he personally selected each song, compiling a Grammy award-winning soundtrack. Even in the movie, Natalie Portman’s character shows enthusiasm at the soundtrack—“You gotta hear this one song. It’ll change your life, I swear”—referring to The Shins’ “New Slang.”

Songs We Love: Colin Hay–”I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You”, Theivery Corporation–”Lebanese Blonde”, Frou Frou–”Let Go”, Iron & Wine–”Such Great Heights”, Zero 7–”Waiting Line”

Pulp Fiction: In Pulp Fiction, we can see the soundtrack as an extension of the characters. They are all soulful and funky, but have a frightening cutting edge to them (if you’ve seen the movie, you understand).

Songs We Love: Dick Dale and the Deltones–”Misirlou”, Urge Overkill–”Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”, Dusty Springfield–”Son of a Preacher Man”

Rushmore: Director Wes Anderson originally intended for the entire soundtrack to be almost entirely made up of The Kinks songs. As filming continued, he ditched this idea, although one still remains, “Nothing In this World”. A free-spirited movie should be coupled with a free-spirited playlist, and that is exactly what we get with Rushmore.

Songs We Love: The Creation–”Making Time”, Cat Stevens–”The Wind”, John Lennon–”Oh Yoko”, The Faces–”Ooh La La”

Donnie Darko: The original version of this film, which only had original scores composed by Michael Andrews, was surprisingly popular despite the movie’s commercial failure. The one and only song on the soundtrack was “Mad World”, one version by Andrews’ childhood friend Gary Jules, the other by popular ’80s band Tears For Fears. Jules’ version was a 2003 Christmas #1 in the UK singles chart. Because of the film’s high European demand, director Richard Kelly issued a director’s cut in 2004 along with a subsequent British re-release. After that, the film took off on both sides of the pond.

Songs We Love: INXS–”Never Tear Us Apart”, The Church–”Under the Milky Way”, Duran Duran–”Notorious”, Joy Division–”Love Will Tear Us Apart”, Echo & The Bunnymen–”The Killing Moon”

Twilight: Many will say that Twilight’s soundtrack is better than the movie itself! After its 2008 release, the soundtrack debuted at #1, selling 165,000 copies in its first week alone. This is considered the bestselling theatrical movie soundtrack in the United States since Chicago.

Songs We Love: Paramore–”Decode”, Muse–”Supermassive Black Hole”, Linkin Park–”Leave Out All the Rest”, Collective Soul–”Tremble For My Beloved”, Iron & Wine–”Flightless Bird, American Mouth”, “Never Think” by Edward Cullen himself, AKA Robert Pattinson.

Good Will Hunting: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote Good Will Hunting in their early days, when they were still virtually unknown. This film skyrocketed them to the top with an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1997. Along with the highly respected film is its soundtrack, which was also recognized at the awards ceremony.

Songs We Love: Elliot Smith–”Miss Misery” (which doesn’t appear on the official soundtrack playlist, but it was written specifically for this movie), The Dandy Warhols–”Boys Better”, Al Green–”How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”, The Waterboys–
“Fisherman’s Blues”

21: Last on our list, a film whose soundtrack is just as rebellious as its screenplay. Aside from the dreadful Soulwax remix of the Rolling Stone classic, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, 21 has a great soundtrack!

Songs We Love: MGMT–”Time To Pretend”, Peter, Bjorn & John–”Young Folks”, LCD Soundsystem–”Big Ideas”, Mark Ronson featuring Kasabian–”L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)”

Photo credit: ArnoldH13, GooseRadio

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