REASONS TO: LISTEN TO SOUNDTRACKS

Photo by Oleg Ivanov on Unsplash

If "you are what you listen to" is true, I'm a hearty combination of a girl band singing about love and a white guy playing an acoustic guitar (insert shrug emoji here). Having said that, when I'm sat in my car at 7.30am trying to pick a playlist for that morning's commute, I always find myself drifting towards a slightly different genre – Mamma Mia, The Greatest Showman, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower spring to mind. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a decent soundtrack. And here's why.

- My heart has a habit of becoming emotionally invested in movies (and the accompanying music, by extension)
- Music can evoke forgotten memories in a few simple notes and I have so many great ones where movies are concerned
- Yes, my favourite song may be an odd choice, but Come On Eileen wouldn't mean quite so much to me without The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- And on that note, neither would Heroes by David Bowie. No one can take that tunnel song away from me (*cough* so lame, Kas)
- The Luckiest by Ben Folds is one of my all time favourite songs, and that's all down to the incredibly powerful About Time
- I would never have discovered Jaymay without Happythankyoumoreplease. Or Blind Pilot, for that matter (cheers, Josh Radnor)
- Juno may not have made it onto my list of favourite movies, but Cat Power's Sea of Love tugs on my heart strings every single time
- Musicals. Need I say more? (I've become incapable of getting in my car without performing a one-man rendition of Mamma Mia or The Greatest Showman)
- The scores from soundtracks have found a way of moving me like no other music can (The Notebook and Love Actually, I'm looking at you)

The moral of the story? Pay attention to the music in the background of your favourite (or even your most hated) movies; you'll find some of the greatest music ever made. P.S. a take-away from me, having written this piece? I seem to have a (pretty big) thing about using brackets to make a point. And I'm not even sorry.