Sometimes in a movie or TV show the music is so perfectly suited for the action onscreen that everything synergistically melds together into a beautiful double helix strand of hippie fusion and Jah-praising.
This is called Definitive Use.
"Definitive Use is now a perfectly valid thing to say and not sound pretentious. It is also now an internet meme and wonderful game to play with your friends."For this we can thank Alexandra Patsavas (and I guess, to a lesser extent, Scorcese)!
-The 21 Gun Salute
And while we're at it, we might as well throw a shout out to Jeanine Basinger! If Jerry Bruckheimer is Michael Bay's father, then surely she is his mother!
OK sorry I got a little too Wesleyan there for a second. The point is, non-diagetic sound (sorry! Wesleyan!) can make awesome scenes awesomer. Coming up with songs that are used in this manner is now a legitimate way to spend time. What is your favorite use of a song in a film? Twitter it and then StumbleUpon your own tweet! This meme isn't going to make itself viral, people!
THE RULES:
No song from any John Hughes movie
No song from any Tarantino movie
No song from any Wes Anderson movie
No song from any Scorcese movie
No song from Boogie Nights
No song from this movie
The song cannot have been specifically written for the movie (ie- Whitney Houston in Bodyguard, Axel F theme, any original score -sorry Hans Zimmer)*
The song must accompany a specific scene (no credits music)
TV shows are OK (but not theme songs)
Montages are OKWhen arguing whether or not a song achieves Definitive Use status, it helps to use the rule of thumb that, after its use in the movie/show, it's a wrap. No one can ever put this song in another movie or show because why bother. I guess Scorsese jumped the shark with Gimme Shelter so many times that now I just associate it with De Niro smoking or DiCaprio looking angry/unshaven.
Here are my submissions for Definitive Use. If you think some are too obvious then that's cool, leave an alternate suggestion in the comments or shut up, Rachel:
What A Difference A Day Makes from Run Lola Run
Young Hearts from Karate Kid
Stop Ou Encore from Three Kings
My Life Extra from The Wire
Like A Friend from Great Expectations
The Man from Observe & ReportYou Could Be Mine from T2: Judgment Day (but not T4: Explosionier Fan Fiction and also Common For Some Reason)*
Turn Around Look At Me from Final Destination 3 (btw whoever created this fucking SLIDESHOW OF FINAL DESTINAYSH PLUS TURN AROUND LOOK AT ME deserves 100 Internet Bucks and a cardboard Rube Goldberg cutout)
I did a little polling with the public and came up with the following:
CTOWN: Go Daddy-O from Swingers
HARRIS: Lust For Life from TrainspottingHIDEOUSHINDU77: Unchained Melody from Ghost
DRE: Heart & Soul from BigARCHIE BEVINS: In Dreams from Blue Velvet
*There is a little bit of debate about this one. Some songs, while not intentionally/specifically written for a movie, were released so closely to the film that it should be rendered not OK. Like You Could Be Mine was only available for a little while only on the T2 soundtrack before the Use Your Illusions came out.
In this category Against All Odds would also fall (why am I typing like Yoda).
ps- see also: Definitive Use Reversal
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Post a Comment 13 comments:
I've always associated "You're the Best" w/ Karate Kid.
The Touch - Transformers the Movie.
August 18, 2009 at 8:42 PM
Don't Stop Believing -- Sopranos
Where is My Mind -- Fight Club
Also, Dre, that polar plagiarizer stole "Heart & Soul." It seems as though he has neither Heart NOR Soul. Nor dignity. I spit flames of fury in his general direction. May the full wrath of Palestine descend upon his loins.
August 18, 2009 at 11:37 PM
more rules: nothing from forest gump or any movie set in vietnam with helicopters.
disqualification: t2 / you could be mine cuz the music video promoted the movie. definitive use should be an organic in-movie marriage! (pause to use my inhaler)
my submissions: "push it to the limit" by paul engemann in the gettin' paid montage in scarface and "steal my sunshine" by my mainest men len in the movie go.
August 19, 2009 at 8:58 AM
Karate Kid, TF, Sopranos, Fight Club all = valid.
Forrest Gump is a good rule. It addresses Definitive Use Reversal (ie the song is so good that the movie ruins it) which Archie Bevins will write more in-depth on. I'm not sure about the 'nam rule, because that will disqualify a lot of songs from Dead Presidents.
Also, Paul Engemann is not OK, it was written for the film specifically. Go is OK. When did they use it in the movie? I don't remember.
August 19, 2009 at 11:04 AM
I'm calling bullshit on the Wes Anderson thing--Ooh La La at the end of Rushmore is the very definition of definitive use.
August 19, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Higher and Higher, the Howard Huntsberry version (originally by Jackie Wilson) in Ghostbusters 2 when the Statue of Liberty comes to life.
August 19, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Wes Anderson is a pedophile and gags on his own self-important infantile penis while he pleasures himself with his idiotic sensibilities. That disqualifies him from humanity. His very existence is a demonstration of the definitive use of bullshit hackness in the cinematic realm.
August 19, 2009 at 12:54 PM
And what, your tiny tiny tiny Asian brain can't spell a simple Italian name like Scorsese properly? Go back to building railroads.
August 19, 2009 at 2:37 PM
hey hideoushindu77,
why so angry?!?!
you must be hungry -- here, have a cheeseburger.
oh, hideous hindus don't eat beef, you say?
fine then -- eat a bowl of DICK.
actually, the case of wes anderson is an interesting one.
"ooh la la" probably IS definitive use, but really MOST of his musical usage (until LIFE AQUATIC) is as such.
however, this is UNLIKE scorsese for the following reasons:
his early usage of 60s garage/pop centered on songs that were largeley UNKNOWN to the general public prior to the films; everyone pretends that they always like the FACES, but lets be honest here, when Rushmore came out, they were still listening to Phish, Phugazi, and Phearl Jam.
With "Royal Tenenbaums," the jams get a bit less obscure, what with Nico, Elliot Smith, etc. Still in all though, one couldn't very well go putting "These Days" into another film at this point.
But with "Life Aquatic" it breaks down for two reasons:
(1) the film isn't very effective
(see my forthcoming entry)
and
(2) (see my forthcoming entry for this one too) those david bowie songs are TOO BIG for the film and have too much life of their own. wes anderson ATTEMPTED to get around this by having Dekembe Motumbo sing them in Pharsi, but no, nobody is buying that one.
and THIS is what differentiates SCORSESE: because scorsese seems to be the only guy who can take epoch-defining, giant cultural zeitgisty, HUGE songs, that are waaay to big for any film...and forever define them with his own movies. I mean: "Be My Baby"? Fucking "Layla"????!?!?!
ETc?!?!
Srsly?!?!?!
Can you believe the large testicles
on this otherwise diminutive italian man?
but scorsese is the exception that proves the rule that NOBODY else can use giant songs (just like the Beatles are the exception that proves the rule that you should never let the drummer sing/write songs).
August 19, 2009 at 5:06 PM
seger/we got tonight/wonder years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9VZna8YJe0
August 21, 2009 at 5:31 PM
"wes anderson ATTEMPTED to get around this by having Dekembe Motumbo sing them in Pharsi"
haha.
August 21, 2009 at 5:51 PM
obviously "Tiny Dancer", but I also can't hear "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" without referencing Almost Famous
August 21, 2009 at 6:38 PM
Bob Dylan - The Man in Me - The Big Lebowski
rendered completely unusable except in reference/homage to Lebowski.
August 31, 2009 at 10:57 AM