The Best Movie Soundtracks Ever

Pitchfork, the once-insurgent, now-venerable music site known for provoking endless debates with its “Best Of” lists, has now weighed in with its list of The 50 Best Movie Soundtracks of All Time.

I like this list; there’s some good choices, and some good copy. (“The Brown Sugar soundtrack is perfect because every time a song plays in the film, it connects directly with Taye Diggs’ outfit,” writes Alphonse Pierre.) However, it is fundamentally incorrect.

• Purple Rain is better than Superfly;
• A Hard Day’s Night is better than Help!;
• Good Will Hunting is not very good;
• Goodfellas is better than Boogie Nights;
• Malcolm X (which isn’t even on the list) is as good as if not better than Do The Right Thing;
• The Royal Tenenbaums is better than Rushmore.

All of the choices here are evidence of the Pitchfork Problem, which is that it tries to treat indie rock, hip-hop, techno, classic rock/pop, and soul/R&B music all at once, but winds up juggling them all in a way that tends to privilege first one genre, then another. Usually 90s indie rock (which was the site’s original bread-and-butter) will always win out.

Trainspotting is third on the list, which both reflects this bias and (in my opinion) is basically accurate.

Anyways, enjoy.

• movies
• music
• soundtracks