OPINION: In a series for Black Music Month, Panama asks one of the all-important questions about Black movies: Is the soundtrack actually better than the movie?
It’s June in Black America, which means that it’s also Black Music Month, or as it’s known more contemporarily for federal celebration and proclamation purposes, African-American Music Appreciation Month. The feds are always watching, stay fresh, y’all.
Well in the spirit of Black music celebratiousness (just go with it) and debate, a thought crossed my mind. We have iconic movies we love in the Black community (mostly, some of you have no souls and hate good things) and some of those movies also include landmark, iconic soundtracks. It begs—damn near Keith Sweat-like—if a movie is iconic and the soundtrack is iconic, which one is, ya know, MORE iconic? Basically, which is better: the movie or the soundtrack?
I know. I’m literally the meme that goes “Nobody. Nobody else. Me: Wanna fight?” But what’s Black life without a little spirited conversation? Exactly. Now, in order to properly assess which is better or more iconic, we need some categories—a rubric if you will. I really like the word rubric. Anywho, For the sake of love, peace and soul (really for the sake of time), I’m proposing five different scientifically subjective and anecdotally sound categories; five because we need a potential tiebreaker:
When you think of INSERT FILM NAME HERE, do you think of the movie or the soundtrack first? While this entire exercise could probably start and end here, why would we do such a thing? Plus, people are wrong sometimes. Not me, though. Y’all.
Which had more impact? While sales should never be the main determinant of iconic status, a soundtrack can’t be iconic if nobody actually bought the thing. Or spent any time talking about it or there were no videos, etc. A movie can become a cult classic, a soundtrack pretty much needs to bop out the gate. Similarly, if a movie falls in the forest and nobody sees it, well, who in the hell left the gate open? It makes more sense in my head.
How many iconic stars are in it? Is the movie full of stars (or future stars) and does the soundtrack have a plethora of big names and features? Iconic things include iconic people. I’m sure there are exceptions to this, I hope I never get stuck with one.
What is the biggest moment? In order for something to be iconic, there has to be something that everybody can remember about it immediately. For a movie, there has to be some kind of scene (or scenes) that folks are like “YASSSSSSS!” in a Beyoncé-dropped-an-album kind of way. For a soundtrack, to be iconic it has to have a song that had the people talking.
Which has remained more culturally relevant? Admittedly, this is mad subjective, but I also objectively feel like this won’t be that hard to determine. Some soundtracks from the ’90s really just killed the game (i.e., The Show soundtrack; I haven’t even been compelled to watch the doc since probably 1999, which is a year I always aim to party like.)
This math might get fuzzy but I have my TI-83, so I’m ready to go. The first movie up in this series?
Love Jones is the 1997 film written and directed by Theodore Witcher. I think we can all agree that the movie and the soundtrack (officially titled Love Jones: The Music, released via Sony Music) are iconic. But which one is more iconic? Let’s fight.
When you think of Love Jones, do you think of the movie or the soundtrack first?
Hmm. This one is hard. At this point, I want to say the movie. Love Jones is now 25 years old and that means folks are writing retrospectives, etc. and talking about it on podcasts and whatnot. Thing is, there’s no conversation about the movie without the soundtrack, but I’m not sure folks are lining up to discuss the soundtrack the way they’re doing the movie. I could be wrong but I’m probably not.
Winner: Movie
Which had more impact?
This one isn’t as hard. In our minds and hearts, I think we all want to believe Love Jones hit theaters and knocked that thang out the park when in reality, well, that didn’t actually happen. .
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