Some of the executives in MTV or Music Television are attributed to a phrase that explains a lot: “what would be of modern music if it wasn´t for us?” And they were right, but not only in that golden era of the musical channel, but also in current times, where most of the new releases find their way to YouTube, or most of the modern social media, like TikTok or Instagram. But as said before, this is nothing new, in the past, songs had to pass that “fame filter”, sometimes given by playing to a big crowd in some of the famous bars of great cities, or going to some prestigious TV shows.
For example, The Doors where a mostly local band, struggling to get out to the world before going to the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967 and being “rebels” by singing Light My Fire with their original lyrics, and not the ones that the show tried to impose on them. Of course their fame was rising before that, but surely it skyrocketed after that, selling millions of copies in quite a short period of time. Also in more recent times some of their songs like L.A. Woman had some fuel added to it, when Billy Idol created a quite interesting cover in his 1990 album “Charmed Life”, but also most of their repertory had another quite big boost in sales after the 1991 Oliver Stone biographical movie “The Doors”.
But in other cases, being associated to movies, at least in their first attempt, wasn´t really a good thing. By 1970 Pink Floyd had amassed a great fame, with two impressive records that had made the top of the lists for the time, and of course were bringing them millions in sales. But they decided that they could also have some more fame if they created the soundtrack for a movie, so they accepted the offer from the Iranian born director Barbet Schroeder to create the music for the French movie “La Vallée” also known as “Obscured by Clouds”, one of the least popular albums of the band, mostly described by critics as the less interesting of all their discography. Of course some years later they created an opera movie of their own and exploded into fame like a rocket with “Pink Floyd: The Movie”.
The impulse of TV fame
The use of some old school songs created some impulse that it might have taken much longer if not by TV or in this case web platform fame. Such is the case of the Netflix series Stranger Things, which revived some songs like “Running up that Hill” by Kate Bush, which used to be in the top 30 of Billboard´s Hot 100, and now is in the 3rd place, after the record breaking reproductions on platforms like Spotify and Youtube.
Another great example of songs that made big by the use of music listening into movies and up to fame again is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, a song that some might argue that wasn´t in decline after a decade or more, but the truth is that some songs die a lot over time. It wasn´t until the comedian and scriptwriter Mike Myers brought it in a great scene in Wayne´s World that it took over a much younger crowd, bringing it back to the top of the charts, even 16 years after its original release. And most recently again with Freddy Mercury biopic with the same name, which again took this song to the top of the charts in 2018.
If most people ask their teenagers sons or daughters if they know who Iggy Pop is, most of them will not know what they are asking about. But this genius of rock had his great comeback from the 80´s, when in 1998 the director Danny Boyle the song that Iggy Pop and Davie Bowie wrote together and never made to the top. “Lust for life” had a great revival after that movie, advancing rapidly after the British movie featuring a really young Ewan McGregor came to the cinemas. Something similar happened with the song “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel, after being featured in one of Tarantino´s most impressive movies: “Reservoir Dogs”.
Even impressive bands that broke every charts back in their day, find themselves in the best playing songs in most platforms after their appearances in movies or series. That´s the case with Metallica, also featured in the new season of “Stranger Things”, with one of their flagship songs, no other than “Master of Puppets”. As the strong point of one of their trailers, it rapidly became one of the most played videos in YouTube, and the song came first in most of the streaming platforms in the World.
It´s quite clear by now that the use of music in movies, series and TV has a great impact in whether that song will have an impact again or not. But it´s not just throwing songs out in the open, it has to have a certain empathy with the scene portrayed, and even someone as unknown outside his country like the Argentinian, José Larralde, can become a superstar for some months if he´s featured in the right part of a series, like in Breaking Bad.