Chris ponders the cultural death of the soundtrack and Batman Forever...
While this series is mostly curious on how music is used in the movies, it’s interesting to also consider a film’s soundtrack outside of them as well. There were times when film soundtracks were provided some of the most popular and culturally recognized music, but those days are essentially over. Perhaps one of the first films to birth the “songs inspired by” soundtrack moniker was Batman Forever.
And much of its songs are simply filler, either referencing characters or existing as discarded b-sides (make that c-sides) from hip artists with some. It’s merely a package to be merchandised and sold next to action figures and tie-in product. It started a model to be repeated in blockbusters to come, from The Hunger Games to Twilight to Space Jam.
Perhaps this transition from essential companion to disposable collection of unrelated songs is partly to blame for the cultural death of the soundtrack. There have been Junos and Moulin Rouges that have felt significant, but in this way Batman Forever was the beginning of the end. Just look at how this year Ingrid Goes West used Forever’s soundtrack for jokes - a movie partly about consumable culture made reference to this very soundtrack as a rarefied consumable product.
You could argue that this was true for Tim Burton’s original Batman and its slew of silly Prince tracks, but even those songs spoke to a particular aspect of the Joker’s personality. As a soundtrack, Forever’s songs end up working backwards from the normal formula: instead of music that’s like a piece of the film to be carried with us, here it is a sideways entity that music evoke the experience. No wonder a hodgepodge of U2, PJ Harvey, and The Offspring pales in comparison.
The one example of musical importance that Forever does have is Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose”, and it’s tacked on as a credits track. Guys, this song still slays. No matter how you slice it, the song has essentially nothing to do with Batman, except maybe as reflective of sexual stirrings one might feel from a mysterious man with sculpted leather nipples. Doesn’t that romantic sweeping chorus just burst in like a sweeping cape-clad hero to save you? Yes, indeed it does. This song is sex. Contemporary franchises’ family-friendly vision has somewhat made us forget the subtle sexual undercurrent to superhero appeal, but including this song under the Forever banner feels like a wink to that - and at the time when that neutering was just beginning.
But the video does that “working backward” recall some of the film’s. Seal’s open chested, wind blown crooning on a rooftop next to the Batsignal itself stirs up the image of... Nicole Kidman. Her Dr. Chase Meridian attempts to seduce Batman by lighting the Batsignal and then opening her trench coat to him on arrival. Is Seal supposed to be summoning Batman for bootknocking, threatening public safety and tax-payer dollars inherent in the use of the Batsignal? No judgment, Seal, because we get it.
So even with a fabulous track, the “soundtrack as product” model divorces music and the movies in a way that shorts both of their potential combined impact. Imagine if “Kiss From A Rose” was used during the Batsuit closeup montages (Batnipple! Batwrist! Batbutt!) - now that’s a more fitting song use.
Previous Soundtracking Favorites:
Frances Ha
Meet Me In St. Louis
Mistress America
The Bodyguard
Young Adult
...all installments can be found here!