When a film is made, part of the main process of getting the soundtrack together is finding the right musician's to play for the album. Sometimes it's a single song or it is an entire soundtrack. These top five albums made for a movie by handpicked musicians have been, for the most part, nominated or they have won an Oscar for not only guiding the movie along on screen, but also creating great songs that still hold up long after the credits roll.
5. Aimee Mann, Magnolia (1999)
Magnolia, released in 1999, was a highly-acclaimed work praised for its litany of superstar actors who drove this film about dramatic patchwork of interrelated stories set in the San Fernando Valley. Popular 90's folk singer Aimee Mann was the artist selected to write the soundtrack that gave this movie it's depth. From songs like “Wise Up,” sung by every member of the cast at one point, to the melancholy pop jam “Save Me,” (nominated for an Oscar for best song in 2000), every inch of this soundtrack manages to leave it's mark on the mood of the film .
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4. Badly Drawn Boy, About a Boy (2002)
Based off the novel by Nick Hornby, the soundtrack to the Hugh Grant rom-com About a Boy had entrusted into the hands of English singer-songwriter Damon Gough, better known under his musical moniker, Badly Drawn Boy. Gough is known in the UK for his extreme sounds, often employing several instruments on his own. This was a challenge for him but he had made one hell of a soundtrack, each song was prepared for each scene in the movie, yet the flow of the soundtrack doesn't feel choppy. Unless of course you count weepy songs like “A Minor Accident” that chop straight through your heart with Gough's bard-like folk track brimming with honest emotion (and loads of harmonica playing).
3. Eddie Vedder, Into the Wild (2007)
What happens when Sean Penn asks Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder to work on a movie soundtrack for him? You get something as untamed as the music for Into the Wild, the 2007 film that was based off California-born, Alaskan traveler Christopher McCandless who wanted to live life like Henry David Thoreau. Vedder, was later nominated and won a Golden Globe for the song “Guarantee” and the soundtrack debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200 chart.
2. M. Ward The Go-Getters (2007)
Rarely does the music of a film contribute to the start of a band. But in the case of M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel's folk duo She & Him, they trace their origin back to 2007 indie film The Go- Getter. Deschanel, one of the stars of the film, sang back up vocals for a few of the songs on the soundtrack and after having met M. Ward, they started working together. Ward landed the job of writing the film's soundtrack after director Martin Hynes saw him open for the Bright Eyes, which ought to give hope to attention-starved opening acts everywhere.
1. Trent Reznor and Attics Ross The Social Network (2011)
Known for his industrial sound in the band Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor worked with yet again David Fincher for another one of his edgy movies. The duo has also worked together on a few dark, crime-ridden flicks, including Se7en and the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the 2012, Reznor and partner Atticus Ross won an Oscar for best composure for their work with the soundtrack for The Social Network, the fictionalized origin story of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg. Listening to the mix of haunting atmospherics and dark, innovative electro that weaves in and out of the score, you can hear why.
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