Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mixes And Moments

Yesterday, I saw Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and was inspired to write a blog post about the fabled Awesome Mixes from both films (although mostly this one). If you want my thoughts on the film in general, feel free to read my lengthy tweet rant/review. However, this blog post is dedicated entirely to the collection of Classic Rock/Pop songs that are just as important in the Guardians Of The Galaxy films as the space battles or the words "I am Groot"; even the title of the film sounds like the name of a musical compilation. That being said, there are going to be some minor spoilers dotted throughout this post so if you haven't seen Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 yet and want to, come back later.

No, this isn't the cover for the soundtrack. It's the film poster and it's pretty fucking cool. It's action packed, it's got the main characters in dynamic poses and the typical blue and orange combination you tend to find on almost every film poster has a vibrant feel to it rather than the usual grainy tints. The reason I'm writing about this instead of David Bowie or Norman Greenbaum is because you could look at this poster with no context aside from the knowledge that the soundtrack is built from songs from the 70s/80s and assume the soundtrack would be full of Hard Rock.
It looks like the sort of film that'd be loaded with AC/DC and the like, not Chicago and Fleetwood Mac. In fact, the trailers for this film used their most action packed songs and even then, they changed the mix to add more emphasis to the percussion in order to punctuate the action beats. So is this misleading and disappointing? Should I demand the third film be loaded with Hard Prog and roaring riffs to make up for the Soft Rock soundtrack? Of course I fucking shouldn't, but then you all knew that anyway. Whilst it's no secret that I prefer my Rock music to actually Rock, I can appreciate a more subdued soundtrack provided it serves a purpose...and this one definitely does.
When Guardians Of The Galaxy (the first one) came out, the soundtrack took people by surprise. I wasn't a big fan of it personally, as any soundtrack that contains "Cherry Bomb" - The Runaways is never going to be perfect, but it had its moments and it's always good to see a film with an old soundtrack. Not only that but the soundtrack had relevance to the plot and gave us some insight into the character of Peter Quill. By the end of the film, Peter finds out that his deceased mum created a second mix tape, teasing the sequel and all the musical possibilities it could contain. As soon as the second film was confirmed, everyone was excited but not just for more adventures from these bunch of intergalactic a-holes. It's pretty neat that a soundtrack can generate this much hype, especially one that isn't full of contemporary chart toppers or acoustic Indie shite.

Director and writer James Gunn knew how important the soundtrack was for the sequel and this time the song choices, rather than the overall music, contained significance. Whilst there are throwaway tracks that were included for fun reasons to contrast the events taking place in the film, such as "Mr Blue Sky" - ELO being used in the exceptional opening sequence or "Southern Nights" - Glen Campbell during a scene where Rocket fucks with a bunch of predatory ravagers, it felt like the lyrics and themes of tracks were the guiding influence this time around.
The first song in the film is "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" - Looking Glass and whilst its initial use has no real importance other than to drive a point home about a character's love of music, it's later used by Ego (a living planet) as a metaphor for his relationship with Peter's mother and their role in the universe. I'm still not sure if I agree with its use in that sense, as it felt a little off-putting watching Kurt Russell recite the lyrics as spoken word whilst the song was playing (think Shatner's cover of "Rocket Man"). Plus, Ego claims the song was one of Peter's mum's favourites...so she included it on the second mix tape she made?
There's also the use of "My Sweet Lord" - George Harrison when some of the gang arrive on Ego's planet, a superb choice due to the way your perception of the song's meaning and tone change with repeated viewings of the film, and "Father And Son" - Cat Stevens during the final emotional scene, a song that perfectly fit both musically and lyrically. Whilst some songs work in this sense, others fall a bit flat. "Surrender" - Cheap Trick in the credits felt forced due to the line about mummy and daddy in the chorus, especially when you consider the fact that surrendering wasn't an option for any of the characters by the end. It was likely chosen for the aforementioned lyrics and it having more of an upbeat tone to go with the silly post-credits sequences, although I would've argued there were better songs to pick from.

The main strength of the soundtracks comes from contrasting tones, such as the use of "Hooked On A Feeling" - Blue Swede as one of the characters is tortured in the first film or "Come A Little Bit Closer" - Jay & The Americans as several characters murder an entire ship of criminals after escaping captivity. It works on different levels but it also strikes a chord with you due to being memorable in its atypical usage. The song can influence the subtext of the scene or the scene can give new meaning to the song, rather than compatible music and moments working alongside each other for a singular purpose.
One of the few weaknesses comes in the use of well known songs. Thankfully, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 only had one misstep and that was the use of "The Chain" - Fleetwood Mac. It's a great tune with two distinct sections, the latter being the one most people probably remember. However, even though it was used brilliantly in the trailer, it has no presence in the film. It reminds me of when the TV show Ashes To Ashes used the song "In The Air Tonight" - Phil Collins but without the iconic drum intro. The show's creator claimed it was because he didn't want people watching the episode and waiting for that moment without paying attention to what was happening in the scene but he got it completely wrong; that's all people are going to do.
It might feel cliche to use well known sections alongside visual cressendos in your film or show but to me, it's better than not using them and tricking your audience into waiting for something that never comes and subsequently forcing them to realise that they haven't been paying proper attention to what was going on. Not only that but the first use of "The Chain" plays during a scene with dialogue. Again, if you use a well known song in the background of a scene with people talking, people are probably going to focus on the well known song. Granted that most of the music playing during scenes with dialogue is relatively obscure in comparison but "The Chain" needed to be less obvious in the mix.

Overall, the Awesome Mixes in Guardians Of The Galaxy are great. The second one was a lot stronger than the first but still fell a bit short of being what I would call an amazing soundtrack. However, both soundtracks should be commended for not taking the easy or uninspired choices (see Watchmen) and since a third film has been confirmed, I'm looking forward to listening to all Classic Rock/Pop tracks out of the 300 potential songs that will definitely be featured if the tease at the end of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is to be trusted.
On a separate note, I composed a playlist of songs a while back that I would probably blast out on repeat if I were travelling through space (don't ask). It's definitely not the same material you'd get in the Guardians Of The Galaxy films but if you're interested, have a listen on the Spotify app below.

How To Make A Memorable Music Moment

Apologies for the missing blog post last week as I was recovering from what I can only describe as the perfect storm of a chest infection and a bit of a cold. I'm feeling a bit better now so I'm coming back with a bang or at least a noisy whimper.

I'm sure you've all seen a TV show or film that uses a song so well that it skyrockets both the TV show/film/video game and that song's popularity for a few days on social media. Maybe it was used to choreograph a fight scene, maybe it enhanced a running gag or maybe it simply played in the background in place of unnecessary dialogue during a plot-advancing montage.
Either way, there are ways to go about choosing a great song to enhance a moment and hopefully this blog post will teach you some of those ways...or, at the very least, make it look like I know how to teach you those ways.

1. Know Your Moment
It should go without saying but it's important to make sure you understand the emotion behind your moment. Once you know whether you want to make the audience laugh, cry or sit with eyes transfixed on the screen, it'll be a lot easier to choose the right song. If you want to make a moment funnier, you're probably better off choosing a song with context-appropriate lyrics. If you want to make a moment emotional, choose a song that doesn't overshadow the drama on-screen. If you want to make a fight scene awesome, choose a Hard Rock song. Any Hard Rock song, you probably won't fuck it up.

2. Choreography
Whatever's happening on screen has to match up with the song you choose. I'm not saying it needs to hit each literal beat like the "Don't Stop Me Now" scene in Shaun Of The Dead but if you're doing a car chase, a fast-paced 4/4 song is the most sensible option and if things are happening in slow motion, you want a track with a BPM below 100. I suppose those points would apply to the first point more than this one so let's talk more about ACTUAL choreography.
If you're starting off calm and building up to something explosive (whether it's a fight, death or moment of betrayal), you're better off finding a song that syncs up musically to what's happening on screen, even if it means a bit of creative editing. Sure, it's hardly an inspired move but if you pick the right song, it'll sound and look awesome. If you know and love your music, you'll find it easy to pair the rhythm of a song to the rhythm of what's happening on screen.

3. Well Known Or Not Well Known?
Let's say you've got your moment sorted out and just need to decide which song to play over it. You've narrowed it down to two perfect choices; one of them is relatively unknown but fits the scene perfectly, the other is a household track that also fits perfectly but will probably cost more to license and may have been used way better in a different show. Well, each case is unique but if the song has been used in an iconic scene(s) before then you're probably better off using something different and creating a brand new moment with a song that people will mostly associate with your scene.
At the same time, sometimes moments are elevated because the song is well known but fits perfectly with what's happening too. I remember the TV show Supernatural using "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" during a scene where a jogger is killed by a Reaper. The great thing about using that track was that the song's riff is well known enough for the average person to instantly connect the dots after hearing it, meaning they could let the music do the talking whilst the action happens on screen. As I said, each case is different but it's definitely worth researching whether or not people have probably already made psychological connections between a song and a great scene.

4. Don't Oversaturate
If you get one awesome moment thanks to the perfect use of a song, you've done something right. If you get two in one episode/film/game, you'll be lucky. Any more than that is an extreme rarity with good reason. Having one or two memorable music moments means your work is more focused and the moment is one of the highlights of the production, whereas having several in a short space likely means each moment is decent but none truly memorable in the grand scheme of things.
You can compare it to a finite quantity of awesome that each episode or whatever is allowed and the more you spread it out through moments attempting to be memorable, you more diluted each moment will become. Obviously you want to make your production memorable in more than one way but if you try to pack it full of Wayne's World "Bohemian Rhapsody" clips, you risk bombarding the viewer with too much.

5. Context Is Everything
This is essentially a summary of the previous points all rolled up into one final observation. If there's a creative way you can use a song's title/chorus to mean something other than what the songwriter intended, that can potentially create an awesome moment. Once you've picked your song, listen to the lyrics and see if they also link to what's happening in the episode/film/game. If not, maybe you'd be better finding another song or maybe you need to think about which part of the song to emphasise. Finally, is the audience going to have any kind of negative connotation with hearing that section of music in that way? If not, sounds like you have the makings of a memorable music moment!


If I don't post anything tomorrow, I'll aim to get two posts done next week although one will almost certainly be video game related.