Sunday Top Ten - Soundtracks by non-film composers

Although it can be proven that there are exceptions to the rule, a commonly accepted generality about the Academy is that its music branch is a highly insular clique, showing a persistent preference to established mainstays and often avoiding artists who don't work explicitly in the realms of film and television. But despite the fact that the music branch shies away from such composers, many filmmakers have welcomed their refreshing outsider take on movie music, especially so in the last decade. I thought I'd give a shout out to some of the finest film scores (yes, I'm including song scores as well) from musicians whose notoriety primarily stems from outside the relatively narrow niche of film scorers.

(Interesting side note: The Golden Globes are much more receptive to outsider musicians than AMPAS, having bestowed nine nominations upon the following ten scores compared to the Academy's two.)

10. Purple Rain (1984), Prince
Here's one of those aforementioned exceptions to the rule. Even though 80s pop sensation Prince (as he was formerly known) had never worked in film, he managed to snag himself an Oscar for penning nine songs for his own star vehicle Purple Rain.


9. Where the Wild Things Are (2009), Karen O
I'd be remiss not to acknowledge the assist Karen O got from Carter Burwell on composing the soundtrack to Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, but the meat of the music bears her signature indie style. The HFPA was cool enough to nominate her. AMPAS was not.


8. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Peter Gabriel
Martin Scorsese's controversial Passion play was the first feature scored by the New Age soloist who gave us "In Your Eyes". Listening to the score and his chart-topping singles, you might not guess they were written by the same guy. He would write another great score in 2002 for Rabbit-Proof Fence.


7. Into the Wild (2007), Eddie Vedder
The Pearl Jam leading man lent rich vocalization to the themes and attitudes pervading Sean Penn's Into the Wild with a slew of terrific original songs. Unfortunately, with Disney's Enchanted hogging three of the five slots, there was just no room for Vedder to find a nomination.


6. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Bob Dylan
Being a big Peckinpah fan himself, Dylan was quite insistent on being involved in the director's take on the eponymous sheriff and outlaw, going so far as to request acting in the film, which he did! But more importantly, he came up with several folksy ballads to frame the story.


5. TRON Legacy (2010), Daft Punk
It was easy to predict that with the French techno duo working on a movie like TRON Legacy, we would be in for more of their familiar electronic tunes. But what we actually got was a robust score that infused the best of their synthpop stylings with the best of conventional Hollywood scoring.


4. Flash Gordon (1980), Queen
This is intended to be slightly tongue-in-cheek, but how could I omit one of the greatest rock bands of all time from any list for which they qualify? I can't. Besides, given that the story/writing/acting/production is all so ridiculous, the score is legitimately the most awesome aspect of this movie.


3. The Social Network (2010), Trent Reznor
A very recent exception to the rule. Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor (and let's not forget his collaborator Atticus Ross) triumphed over convention at this year's Academy Awards with an atypical but evocative score that simultaneously captures setting and character.


2. Saturday Night Fever (1977), The Bee Gees
It was with their shufflin' soundtrack to this iconic pulp classic that the Gibbs brothers set off a cultural shock wave that brought the disco movement into the mainstream. The Academy may not have been ready for disco, but the rest of the world was clearly itchin' to strut to the Bee Gees' falsetto harmonies.


1. There Will Be Blood (2007), Jonny Greenwood
Although rudely disqualified from Oscar consideration for layering in a Brahms concerto and some of his own previous compositions, the Radiohead guitarist's contribution to Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is nevertheless one of the most brilliant and creative musical scores in recent memory, bleeding out the psychological horror story writhing beneath the film's surface.