Adam Baer in The Atlantic on how in the age of the playlist, we should recognize the people assembling previously published and original music for films, whether or not these sounds make them onto soundtracks.

1. 6/9/2016 Why the Academy Awards Need a 'Best Soundtrack' Category - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/02/why-the-academy-awards-need-a-best-soundtrack-category/253515/ 1/5
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In the age of the playlist, we should recognize the people assembling previously
published and original music for films.
Various
Why the Academy Awards Need a 'Best
Soundtrack' Category
A D A M B A E R
F E B 2 3 , 2 0 1 2 | C U L T U R E
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2. 6/9/2016 Why the Academy Awards Need a 'Best Soundtrack' Category - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/02/why-the-academy-awards-need-a-best-soundtrack-category/253515/ 2/5
Hollywood's film-music scene received a blow this year when, for the first
time, the Academy nominated only two tracks for Best Original Song: one
from The Muppets, and one from the animated Rio. It's a subject that's already
generated complaints--about the quality of songs, the Academy's arcane
nomination rules, and the decoupling of Hollywood with the recording
industry. What's inarguable, however, is that film music has changed. It's the
rare modern song written for a film that becomes an enduring hit like Jerome
Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight," and it's the even rarer film score that
stands alone in the manner of, say, Bernard Hermann's "Psycho." Today's
composers are often required to write music that fits a contemporary, often
more interstitial, film's tone and form; the proclivities of the director; and in a
larger sense, the broad aesthetics of an increasingly less patient, Internet-
raised pop culture.
How should the Academy respond?
The art is in the curated mix as well as in how the
collection functions as independent parts in specific
scenes.
Why not by adding a new category that the Grammys have included since
2000: Best Musical Soundtrack? To be fair, a "soundtrack" might be
considered property of the music industry only: many soundtrack albums
cannot, due to clearance rights and budget issues, include every sound and
song you hear in a movie. The Grammys awards "soundtrack" albums,
specifically: products. But the Oscars should consider "Musical Soundtrack" a
category of creative work, like Art Direction. Musical Soundtrack could
distinguish itself by referring to pre-written songs, original songs, an original
or pre-written score, and any other notes and chords heard in the course of a
film.

3. 6/9/2016 Why the Academy Awards Need a 'Best Soundtrack' Category - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/02/why-the-academy-awards-need-a-best-soundtrack-category/253515/ 3/5
Why Don't
Movies Feature
Oscar-Worthy
Songs Anymore?
Our Oscar
Predictions
The Make-No-
Money 2012
Oscar Nominees
The Academy
Awards' Anti-
Comedy Bias
MORE ON THE OSCARS
iPods have been available for over a decade, Spotify is the rage, and it's high
time for the change: Every year, music supervisors and the directors, editors,
and producers they collaborate with, go unheralded as they assemble
increasingly artful collections of songs and other kinds of music tracks to
complement films. These tracks and lists often function to tell a movie's story,
act as characters or arcs in their own rights, and mix well with a film
composer's original music, whether or not it's a symphonic score or
deconstructed sound-collage made of incidental chord progressions, loops,
and electronic beats. Of course, we also have historic original soundtracks
made of songs from the same artist—for instance, The Graduate, which could
not have happened without Simon & Garfunkel, as well as recent movies with
complete soundtracks of music by Daft Punk and Phoenix, among others.
Who's responsible for soundtracks?
A lot of people, sometimes. But
insightful music supervisors often
shoulder most of the work and lead
distinctive careers. Take, for
example, Randall Poster (Velvet
Goldmine, The Aviator, I'm Not There,
Boardwalk Empire), who gave us
Rushmore's wonderfully quirky
compilation soundtrack, as well as
all the Wes Anderson playlists, made
of unique songs including artists like
the Kinks, Yves Montand, and Cat
Stevens. T-Bone Burnett, acting as
"music archivist"—he reportedly did
not like the word "supervisor"—gave
us The Big Lebowski's beloved
soundtrack, including Nina Simone,

4. 6/9/2016 Why the Academy Awards Need a 'Best Soundtrack' Category - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/02/why-the-academy-awards-need-a-best-soundtrack-category/253515/ 4/5
Fact-Checking
'Midnight in
Paris'
Bob Dylan, and the Gipsy Kings
singing "Hotel California": a
mélange that yelped "The Dude."
And leading music supervisor Karyn
Rachtman worked with Quentin
Tarentino on Pulp Fiction to produce a weirdly epic surf-music adventure
perfect for that groundbreaking romp of a '90s So-Cal indie film.
This year's notable "soundtracks"—that is, the musical sounds we hear in a
film, not just the songs cleared to be included as part of an album for sale—
vary widely. For one, there's The Descendants (music supervisor, Dondi
Bastone), the soundtrack of which blends various "slack-key" artists from
Hawaii. Also notable is Midnight in Paris, which seems, unsurprisingly, to
have been musically supervised by Woody Allen himself, who matched
Josephine Baker and Sidney Bechet with the recurring original guitar track
"Bistro Fada" that liltingly sends us along back in time with his protagonist to
the 1920s Ile St Louis.
The art is in the curated mix, something which has to date been ignored by
Oscar, as well as in how the collection functions as independent parts in
specific scenes. Whether or not a music supervisor alone picked all of the
songs as well as the film's composer—he or she might have only worked on
clearing the rights and steering the director's choices—these professionals are
artists who deserve to be publicly celebrated as senior members of a film's
creative staff. Given our social-media-playlist-driven world, whatever
benefits and detriments it brings to the art of listening, adding Best Musical
Soundtrack to the Oscars for next year would be a welcome change for
everyone who makes and loves going to movies with open ears.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ADAM BAER is a writer based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in the New York
Times, Harper's, and Slate, on NPR, and elsewhere.

5. 6/9/2016 Why the Academy Awards Need a 'Best Soundtrack' Category - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/02/why-the-academy-awards-need-a-best-soundtrack-category/253515/ 5/5
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