what’s your favorite music?

How are you gonna talk about big budget musical supervision, and not talk about "I Need A Hero" from the ending sequence of Shrek 2?! One of the absolute best examples of a pop song being naturally integrated into an animated movie, to the point where the song itself probably became as popular as it did due to that film!

Let’s be real honest here, one of the greatest uses of licensed music in movies is John Powell’s rendition of Get Up Offa That Thing by James Brown in Blue Sky’s *Robots!*

Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright, and John Hughes movies have some of the most memorable music supervision I've witnessed.

Given copyright issues, it is impressive when a music supervisior can balance studio demands with a strong atmosphere.

I wish you pointed out Suicide Squad. So many rights to so many great songs, and barely any of them were used in a "right" way.

This occurred to me when I was watching the recent Lackadaisy pilot. It's about prohibition era booze-running with a violinist as the protagonist, so the soundtrack primarily utilizes era-appropriate violin-lead swing music. And then in a moment of when an action scene unexpectedly ramps up from tense to bombastic, the soundtrack momentarily breaks out of its era, _and goes full swing-dubstep fusion._ It lasts only a handful of seconds before returning to a more traditional tune, and yet the result is stunning. The tonal shift slams into the audience at the exact right moment, hangs in the ears just long enough to be comprehended, then dissipates into a violin solo before its presence can threaten the viewer's immersion. Had it been directed with any less finesse, a sudden intrusion of DUBSTEP into 1920s era fiction would have been downright disastrous. It's also the sort of experimental flourish that a major studio would never sign off on.

James Gunn is a very VERY good example with great music supervision. The Awesome Mixes are some of the best movie soundtracks, and the fact they sync so clearly with the story, especially ‘The Chain’ in Vol. 2 is awesome. It got me so seek out older music on my own, and the intro to the first movie is still iconic to this day

The Marie Antoinette movie from 2006 had some great use of anachronistic music to establish Marie as a rebellious figure who was ahead of her time.

Guardians of the Galaxy had the most iconic music supervision, so much so that it plays a main part in the story. It even plays a part in the titles of the movies (Volume 2 and volume 3). James Gunn is so good with music supervision. Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad also have great music supervision. Just something I wanted to say

Breaking Bad has the best Music Supervision of all time, from all the cooking scenes to Walter rolling the barrel with Take My True Love By The Hand to ofc Baby Blue and El Paso in Felina. Absolutely the goat

Glad you mentioned Aftersun. The needle drops in that film are some of the most striking and purposeful I've ever seen.

I think The Last of Us: Part II uses 'Take on Me' beautifully in comparison, a perfect example of how popular music can be handled in media.

Not sure if it means anything but my friend and I came to the conclusion that the reason 80s songs were chosen in the Mario movie, especially the “Take on me” during the donkeyKart scene, was to appeal to the nostalgia of Boomers when they played Mario in the 80s when it was most popular. Kind of like how the storyline appeals to babies and all the references & Easter eggs appeal to fans in between.

My friend recently got me the soundtrack of clockwork orange for on vinyl, and it really reminds me how music within a piece can really set the tone and do storytelling shortcuts that other tools can’t. You get the same effect in Mean Girls, which is really the only reason I think it’s more enduring than Clueless.

Aftersun’s use of Under Pressure was such a gutsy move but it paid off 100 fold. I’ll never hear that song again without getting slightly choked up

Surf's Up had the greatest music supervision of any movie ever.

The most recent example of music supervision and needle drops I absolutely loved was in BEEF. They stuck to a style (mainly 90s alt and grunge more specifically) and it worked so well. The songs fit the tone of the show perfectly imo and it’s a great example of good music supervision. “Mayonaise” by The Smashing Pumpkins playing in the end credits of the finale was what sealed it for me.

Thomas Golubić is a fantastic music supervisor, some of the things he did for better call saul contributed so much to the memorability of the show

Atlanta has some of the best music supervision I've ever seen in a TV series.

As soon as I saw the shrek 2 I need a hero I knew this would be a good video

bro aftersun's music supervision might be one of the best i've ever seen. tender, losing my religion, and under pressure, all in one place but never once felt overwhelming, because all of it fits right into the scenes wells intended. she DESERVES to get that 3 iconic music. show out to lucy bright the music supervisor, as for her hardwork we got one of the best scenes of 2022

I nearly choked from a kind of mad and disheartened laughing fit when I heard _Holding Out for a Hero_ in the Super Mario movie, cause I had heard it in the Tetris movie the week before. The difference is that the Tetris movie utilizes the track so much better cause they change the language of the lyrics to reflect which country they were in; going from Japanese to Russian. That's _earning_ the rights to use a particular track.

Some other TV shows/films have great music supervision. Atlanta on FX, HBO’s Insecure, and Spike Lee’s films. They’re all pretty great imo. One part in Atlanta in particular is when Darius and Alfred are in Amsterdam on a drug trip, and they listen to Stereolab. Even though I heard the song years ago, felt like I heard it for the first time.

I liked alot the music in Spiderman Into the Spiderverse, is not just licensed music but is literally Miles playlist, is very well integrated and songs like "Whats up Danger" makes the scene very powerful

music supervision is the reason why small movies like project x are so memorable

As someone currently writing a needle drop focused movie, this is extremely helpful stuff! And yes, the Mario movie had some rather out of place needle drops which felt unnecessary given the rich library of Mario music the film could (and did!) pull from

I’m surprised you weren’t big on Euphoria’s music supervision because I think it’s some of the best I’ve ever seen. I was really impressed by a lot of music moments there like the winter formal dance music, Lorde’s Liability still shot in Jules special episode, all the classical music in the season 2 finales, etc etc

Napoleon Dynamite has one of my favorite soundtracks and i feel it’s incredibly underrated in that sense as well as just being a crazy underrated as a film

A scene that always comes to mind when music supervision is discussed is the pool scene in Booksmart where they licensed Slip Away from Perfume Genius. Watching it at home with me dad, he said “Wow this pool scene is going on kind of long” and I mentioned it’s probably because they had to pay somewhere around 3-5 thousand dollars to use the song so they felt like they had to get their money’s worth and use the whole thing.

I remember watching Cruella one of my biggest critiques was "Craig Gillespie was given too many resources for needledrops and it was pretty excessive. You can tell he had a smaller budget on I, Tonya and it makes the few needle drops much more effective"

I think this would be a great topic to talk about with trailers too. The other night I saw Renfield and there was a trailer for another vampire movie; something called the Voyage of Demeter or something like that, and I just remember being absolutely floored by this incredibly original and fresh approach to Dracula that it was taking, and I was getting really excited too….and then they started playing Bullet With Butterfly Wings by The Smashing Pumpkins and my smile instantly went away. Which honestly has nothing to do with my opinion on the song or the band because I do really like that song and I think they are truly a great band, but that just did not fit at all for a movie set on a boat centuries ago and it kinda killed the momentum for me. Just a thought.

Then you have rare occasions where a last minute change in a movie catapulted a musician to stardom, which was the case of The Exorcist, after William Friedkin rejected the opening score by Lalo Schifrin and used Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells instead, which at the time it had just come out.

One thing I'd like to point out is that music can truly enance the power, the emotions, the meaning of a film, but the opposite is very true and inportant as well: by linking particular images, moments to some music you basically boost the feeling of it while listening to it creating a new experience

A Knights Tale is an honorable mention when it comes to music supervision done right. Never has Bowie fitted so well in a medieval world

I mean, I think the obvious example here is the use of Holding Out for a Hero in The Super Mario Bros. Movie vs. its use in Shrek 2. There's an entire generation that associates Holding Out for a Hero with that very specific scene in Shrek 2 and it works so well. It's thematically appropriate and just on the nose enough. For Mario, it would have made much more sense to do something original. A composition of small, but ultimately flawed, riffs on the original Super Mario Bros. theme until it finally reached the point where he (almost) makes it. I loved the original score in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. I think it succeeded in honoring and playing with the original themes. The pop songs took me out of the world and the scenes. It felt more like Illumination studio interference than anything. One of the best scenes in the movie is one of the Donkey Kong/Mario side-scrolling scenes with an originals core honoring the SMB theme. It's well-animated and actually takes advantage of its medium while also flowing with the score.

Megamind has all the hits and used them at the right time. I’m surprised that no one’s mentioning it

I do think there's an underrating of anachronistic needle drops, one of the absolute legends of needle drops, Sofia Coppola, basically establishes the entire tone of the film, a 1700s period piece, with post punk, alt rock, and electronic music.

When you're listening on shuffle and you get a song you discovered thanks to a movie, and it makes you remember it it's one of the coolest feelings

i leaned over to my buddy during the mario movie and said they should be using donkey Kong country music during that section. hearing that they were going to but changed their minds breaks my heart

You did not need to attack me about my 2015 blurryface era

No mention of Kavinsky in Drive is crazy, Cliff Martinez really got that soundtrack going places

Spider Man 3 use of "People get up and drive your funky soul" by James Brown for the Cool Peter scene.... now that's PERFECT music supervision.

the ham-fisted 80s hits in Super Mario were actually painful

This is so interesting to me. When I write I think of songs that would play in the background of a scene so this job is so cool.

A recent example of bad music supervision that stands out to me is the first Shazam. There's a scene that plays around four seconds of a Twenty One Pilots song, which is just long enough for me to recognize it, ask why it's in there at all and take me of the movie fir a moment.

ive only watched aftersun once and i wasn’t fully invested BUT whenever I hear under pressure, all I can think about is aftersun. so i applaud the music supervisor on aftersun!

I love the music in Scott pilgrim so much because most of the songs in Scott pilgrim were songs that Bryan Lee O'Malley listened to while creating the comics

Wes Anderson also is great at incorporating music in film

Using music supervision is one of the things I really want to utilise if I ever get to make movies as I really think they can be used really well depending on the scene

I personally thought “Take on Me” was used pretty well in the Mario movie, until I heard Brian Tyler’s track that they passed on. “Drivin’ me Bananas” is such an exciting mix of classic DK Country music, it kills me that they didn’t use it.

Idk why but some of my favorite music supervision was the use of Send Me On My Way in Ice Age

8:20 THE DISS TO TWENTYONE PILOTS😂

Two series that don't get nearly the recognition they deserve in terms of music supervision are Letterkenny and Shoresy. The soundtracks are phenomenal, completely making the emotion of the scene pour through you (episodes 5 and 6 of Shoresy specifially).

Shrek 2’s soundtrack is god-tier

the Blurryface jumpscare wasn’t what i was prepared for

Honestly I think Euphoria has some of the strongest music supervision of any TV Show. Writing and all the supposed controversy surrounding the show aside, so many classic hit songs were cleared to be part of that show from Hold Up by Beyoncé in it's pilot episode to Hit Em Up by Tupac and Party Up by DMX in it's S2 premiere alone which is pretty damn cool.

the music at the end of your video is good music supervision

we all know that stuck in the middle with you in reservoir dogs is the best song selection for a movie ever

Im so glad you mentioned Baby Driver, my favorite movie, music is so big in movies, a big part why I liked the club fight scene in John Wick because it was so close to the music I hear here in college!

Real talk, my dream career is to be a music supervisor. It's the perfect combination for me since I'm a musician, and film is the art form outside of music I'm the most enamored with. That being said, as much fun as I had with the Mario Bros. Movie, MAN there were cues that instantly had me rolling my eyes. Thunderstruck playing during the beginning of the Mario Kart sequence made me audibly say "Really???"

Shrek and the Sonic movies are my personal favourite examples of music supervision done right. Could ALMOST say the same thing with the animated Mario movie with the exception MAYBE being Take On Me, as Karsten pointed out!

Honey wake up Karsten Runquist just posted a new video

I liked the obligatory succession clip at the end

Was having a boring day but then karsten uplaods!

Music in film and tv is overall super overlooked

One TV show that doesn't get as much credit as it should for music supervision is Breaking Bad. The songs all match the scenes they are played in and enhance the mood.

Me seeing *Take On Me* in the Mario Movie: Then something just snapped, something inside of me. I didn't care anymore...

The Worst Person in the World might be the best example of faultless music supervision in recent memory

i got chills when you started to talk abt music supervision and then showed a clip of the great gatsby 💀

When I was watching the Mario movie and they played Mr Blue Sky, I thought "this song belongs to GoTG", and when they played I Need A Hero, I thought "this song belongs to Shrek 2". I have no clue what that says about music supervision but yeah

Sofia Coppola movies are soo good with this, the crazy on you needle drop, the Cool needle drop, ah :)

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I FEEL LMAO i was thinking the EXACT same thing and im so happy you feel the same way holy crap lois

Mrs. Doubtfire did a good job with music supervision.

My father credits Almost Famous’ use of Tiny Dancer for making him a fan of Elton John’s music. When Elton John was popular, my dad was a kid and never listened to his music because he didn’t want to be made fun of for “being gay” (listening to gay music). Elton John’s time as a chart-topping star passed, but when my dad saw Almost Famous - which would become one of his all-time favorite movies - in the theater, Tiny Dancer made such an impression on him that he started listening to Elton John’s entire discography. He says that he has never heard a song go better with a movie before or since. He told me this story a few weeks ago and I really wanted to share it. The end

Not the blurryface jumpscare 😭😭

The greatest music supervision will always be in The Sopranos

Unmade by Thom Yorke in Peaky Blinders has got to be one of my favorite song choices in a show. It's one of the most beautifully directed sequences I have ever seen, and it's stuck with me since the day I watched it. That scene alone made me fall in love with filmmaking and creative direction in general. You've illustrated some great points on music as a method of enhancing storytelling in this video. Great work!

I think that the 80s Needle Drops *kinda* work in the context of the movie. But I would have preferred characters singing original songs like how Jack Black’s Bowser sang “Peaches”.

i fucking love the music supervision in Trey Edward Shult's Waves

I wish you would've included Mr. Robot, think it's a really great example of the playlist approach

A good soundtrack should compliment a sequence. When the song choice is too much, it takes you out of the scene. Meanwhile, you will barely separate the difference when it works.

The music from Air was absolutely painful. Every 10 minutes it was just "ReMEmBEr THiS sOnG FrOm 1984???"

HBO's The Last of Us really had fantastic music supervision, in my opinion. Not only did they utilize music from the game in their original places (or at least one I can think of), the music supervisor input music to significant effect instead of just having popular music for the sake of having popular music. Songs like Depeche Mode's 'Never Let Me Down Again' and Pearl Jam's 'All or None' played in brief but significant moments with characters or introductions. But more than all of those, what they did with Linda Ronstadt's Long, Long, Time was unbelievably effective. I was listening to the podcast accompanying the show, and in the podcast's third episode, Craig Mazin talked about how he was struggling to find a tune that would fit Bill and Frank's relationship and whatnot. So, he brought the idea to the show's music supervisor, and according to him, at least, it only took a few seconds for them to choose 'Long, Long, Time' by Linda Ronstadt. And Mazin knew that was ~the song~ to choose. Regardless of how people feel about the episode, the song nailed what they were going for. It didn't surprise me that it went viral afterward, and it's hard not to think of the episode when I hear the song after that show. Even when listening to that song specifically on Spotify, I see moments from that episode played on it.

at the "mario trying to beat the course" scene i was triggered to put "push it to the limit" instead of the Shrek 2 hero song

"I Need a Hero" and Shrek 2 belong together.

My favorite recent example of music supervision has been in the netflix show BEEF. Not only does each song like perfectly close out it's respective episode, but the fact that a lot of the songs are from the 90s which is around when the main characters grew up, it makes them work from an internal character development perspective as well

Under pressure in Aftersun really is the epitome of music supervision Edit: Oh wow I hadn't gotten to that part yet, really glad you showcased one of my fav movie :)

Karsten your continued originality is lovedddd by your fans, new fave video for sure

So, this means we can expect Beastie Boys' 'No Sleep Till Brooklyn' be used better in the _other_ Chris Pratt movie coming out next month?

Disagreed with your Take On Me take. I will never get tired of that infectious bop! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

I was happy that Clerks got a miniscule mention plus this video will make me think harder about music supervision in the movies I am writing (cause I have some smaller songs and bigger ones on playlists that are the soundtracks)

There’s exactly no lyrical music that needed to be in the super Mario bros movie

In Red Rocket they actually did takes where Suzanna Son was singing an original song, just in case they wouldn't get the rights.

I feel so stupid for forgetting that supervision was an acc word and clicking on this video thinking that karsten would explain a fancy film term LOL. nevertheless, I learned a lot, and being a music superviser sounds like a fun (but also stressful) job.

In my opinion Ana Lily Amirpour is one of the greatest when it comes to music supervision in her movies. She always finds the perfect tunes to strengthen her scenes.

I don’t know if James Gunn does it himself or he just has an amazing supervisor, but all of his movies have perfect Music Supervision for being such large productions. Obviously his Guardians Trilogy is great at this, but I think it’s really impressive to compare Suicide Squad (2016) to The Suicide Squad (2021). The quality and memorability of the scenes and tracks in the latter movie is tenfold more impressive than the original movie. Peacemaker is another great example of this.

This reminds me of Xavier Dolan's Mommy where Lana Del Rey plays at the end, which seems like an absurd song choice but it just fits so well

my fav music supervision was def bridget jones' diary!!! like colin firth and hugh grant fighting to it's raining men?? undefeated

I’ve just made a video essay about Trainspottings music and I love it so much