Music Exploration - Soundtrack

This is a bit of a series I plan to do. At the beginning of last year I found myself in possession of an iPod Touch. 8 gb, very nice. At the time I only had a 128mb player of no known brand, so it was a little bit daunting. This series will go through the different ways I used to fill it, starting with Soundtracks.

I originally filled it with the itty bit of music I already had combined with music from my best mate. Now, if I had to choose a genre to call myself, it would have to be punk (but I really do listen to all types). My best mate is into R&B and hip-hop. We do have crossover moments, but not really enough for me to leave my ipod the way it was. It was time to find more of "my" music.

So I started searching for new music. At first I thought "Easy peasy. I'll just pick my favorite artists and look up similar bands". Uh-uh. Does anyone know what you end up with if you do that? That's right. The most boring iPod in the history of iPods. Worse still, you end up with an iPod that lack inspiration. That means when you eventually realize you don't want to hear a single song on there, you can't figure out what you do want to listen to!

Then one day I was watching "The Departed" (great film) and for the first time, I clearly heard the song that was playing in the background. It was "Shipping Off to Boston" by The Dropkick Murphys. The next day I had it on my playlist.

The next film I watched was "P.S. I Love You" (good film). Towards the end of the film I found once again that I was paying more attention to the soundtrack than the film. The song playing was "If I Ever Leave this World Alive" by Flogging Molly. The next day I had that and a couple of other songs from the soundtrack on my iPod. A couple of weeks after that I had entire Flogging Molly albums.

From that point onwards I started listening carefully to the soundtracks of any film I found myself enjoying. Especially the ones that appeared to be trying to do something a little different. Nowadays I have music from every Tarantino film released (including "Inglourious Basterds"), "Juno", "O Brother, Where art Thou", "The Crow", "Tank Girl", and others that I can't remember.

So my point is that if you find yourself stuck for something new to listen to, try going through some of the more recent movies you enjoyed and checkout what's on the soundtrack. It can be pretty darn rewarding!