Music has been an important part of movies since they added sound. The film The Jazz Singer(the first full-length film with both music and spoken dialogue) contained six songs and music was instrumental to the plot. There were movies in the thirties that were nothing more than filmed records of elaborate musical stage shows.
Then came my least favorite type of movie, the musical. A story told with standard dialogue for the most part, then interrupted by someone breaking out in a song that relates to the moment somehow. I can accept unreality in movies, but I just find the the idea that a person or group of people will spontaneously break into song (and maybe dance) so ridiculous as to not appreciate the art form. Further, music from these types of shows are normally of a character so different from that of the particular era that I don't enjoy much of the music either.
(Of course, there are exceptions. Fiddler on the Roof has such a strong story and good songs. On the whole, however, I don't like them.)
There are a host of movies, however, that feature music in a way that makes sense. I wrote last week about That Thing You Do. A movie about a (fictional) rock band ought to have a lot of music in it and this one does. A Hard Day's Night was terrific and Help was okay.
One of my favorite movies from the seventies is Phantom of the Paradise. A truly quirky and campy movie, it contains quite a few songs, mostly parodies of certain styles. Parodies without quality is easy. SNL does it all the time and the results are quite forgettable. The parodies in Phantom, however, are really quite good and listenable. Fox Movie Channel has been playing it quite a bit recently, but I have not been able to find the music online.
Tomorrow: Mockumentaries and the quirkiest music movie of them all.
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