Why Make Music… Episode 103 | Hosted by Willa May | WDMNation MEDIA
Have you ever watched a movie and realized the music was doing just as much storytelling as the actors?
It happens all the time.
A familiar song begins playing, and suddenly a scene feels different. Something funny becomes sentimental. Something romantic becomes unsettling. An ordinary moment becomes unforgettable.
Sometimes we remember a movie because of its soundtrack. Other times, a movie introduces us to a recording we might never have discovered otherwise.
And occasionally, the relationship becomes so strong that it's difficult to imagine one without the other.
That's the subject of Episode 103 of Why Make Music…, titled Modern Cinematics.
Over 95 minutes, host Willa May takes us through six examples of popular music finding a place in contemporary filmmaking and movie promotion.
Not as a technical lesson about music licensing, but as a conversation about artistry, creativity, production, culture, and the emotional power of a well-chosen song.
The Song That Sends You Back to the Artist
Consider Steve Lacy's "oh yeah?" and its appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Here we have a massive superhero franchise using a contemporary recording to help establish the emotional atmosphere of its closing moments.
But something interesting happened beyond the theater.
The placement helped bring renewed attention to Lacy's music, including recordings elsewhere in his catalog.
For an artist, that possibility is significant.
One song can become the introduction to an entire body of work.
And sometimes that's more meaningful than the immediate attention surrounding the featured recording.
When the Song and Movie Become Inseparable
Then there's "Sunflower" by Post Malone and Swae Lee.
Released in connection with 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the song became a cultural phenomenon.
Its melodic, relaxed production helped establish the youthful musical identity of Miles Morales, while the film gave the recording a visual world that audiences could immediately recognize.
"Sunflower" eventually became the first RIAA-certified double-Diamond single.
Of course, a successful film doesn't automatically guarantee a successful song, and vice versa.
But sometimes two creative projects complement one another so effectively that they become part of the same cultural memory.
For many listeners, hearing "Sunflower" immediately brings Spider-Verse to mind.
That's a remarkable relationship between a recording and a fictional world.
Barbie, Billie Eilish, and the Art of Restraint
One of the most fascinating musical moments in Barbie comes from Billie Eilish and Finneas.
"What Was I Made For?" was written specifically for the movie after the siblings were introduced to its emotional themes.
And instead of responding to Barbie's spectacular visual presentation with an equally enormous musical production, they created something intimate.
Piano. Voice. Space. Emotion.
The result is a recording that explores identity and purpose without needing to explain everything.
It's also a reminder that great production isn't necessarily about how much you add.
Sometimes it's about knowing what to leave out.
The song serves the film beautifully while remaining powerful as an independent recording.
Mitski, M. Night Shyamalan, and a Different Kind of Romance
Now imagine taking an existing song with an established emotional identity and placing it inside a completely different story.
That's part of the appeal of Mitski's "My Love Mine All Mine" in the marketing for M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming supernatural romance, Remain.
The song's tenderness helps establish an atmosphere of love and longing.
But this is a Shyamalan project, so the audience understands that things may not remain quite as comfortable as they initially appear.
The familiar music becomes part of the trailer's emotional strategy.
And here's an interesting distinction: a song doesn't have to appear prominently in a finished movie to become valuable to its marketing.
Trailers are their own creative experiences.
They need to establish tone, generate curiosity, and communicate an idea in a limited amount of time.
Sometimes an existing song can accomplish that extraordinarily well.
Taylor Swift Meets Toy Story
Music also provides opportunities for major entertainment franchises to connect with contemporary audiences.
For Toy Story 5, Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff created the original recording "I Knew It, I Knew You," inspired by the journey of Jessie.
It's an interesting collaboration because Toy Story already has such a recognizable musical heritage.
Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me" has been associated with the franchise for decades.
Introducing a new song requires a balance between maintaining that history and contributing something fresh.
The collaboration also became a coordinated promotional event, with Disney and Swift's team using their shared initials, T.S., as part of the marketing campaign.
It's a reminder that a movie song can become more than a soundtrack selection.
It can become part of the larger cultural experience surrounding a release.
When a Familiar Song Becomes Something Frightening
Our final example may be the most unusual.
Jordan Peele's Us took the familiar musical identity of Luniz's 1995 hit "I Got 5 On It," featuring Michael Marshall, and introduced audiences to a deeply unsettling reinterpretation.
The "Tethered Mix," involving composer Michael Abels, transforms recognizable musical material into something haunting.
It's an especially clever idea for a movie concerned with identity, doubles, and disturbing reflections of familiar things.
A song audiences already know suddenly feels different.
Not because its original identity has disappeared, but because the arrangement and cinematic context have changed the emotional experience.
It's a fascinating example of what production, arrangement, and storytelling can accomplish together.
And it raises a wonderful creative question.
How many other emotional possibilities might exist inside a song we've already heard a thousand times?
The Life of a Song Doesn't End With Its Release
There's a larger idea connecting all six examples.
A recording doesn't necessarily have one purpose, one audience, or one lifetime.
A song can be written specifically for a film.
It can be discovered years after its original release.
It can become associated with a character.
It can help introduce an artist to new listeners.
It can become part of a promotional campaign.
Or it can be reinterpreted so dramatically that audiences discover an entirely different emotional dimension within it.
For independent musicians, that's an encouraging possibility.
Here at WDMNation MEDIA, we're continuously developing the ThinkTimm catalog of original music, exploring new approaches to songwriting and production, and preparing recordings for opportunities across visual media.
That doesn't mean every recording will eventually appear in a movie.
But it does reinforce the value of creating distinctive music and giving that music the opportunity to exist beyond its original release.
There's something rather beautiful about making a recording today without knowing what someone might hear in it five or ten years from now.
Why Make Music?
Because music can carry emotion across time.
Because one person's creative expression can become part of another person's story.
Because the right combination of images and sound can communicate something neither could express quite the same way alone.
And because sometimes the most interesting chapter in a recording's life begins long after the artist thought the work was finished.
Episode 103 of Why Make Music… celebrates those possibilities through six different musical and cinematic relationships.
It's an entertaining conversation about familiar artists, memorable recordings, and the creative choices that shape our experiences with movies.
And perhaps the next time you're watching a film and a song unexpectedly catches your attention, you'll find yourself asking a different question.
Not simply, "What's that song?"
But, "Who thought to put that song right there?"
And why does it work so beautifully?
Listen to Why Make Music… Episode 103: Modern Cinematics
Hosted by Willa May. Produced by WDMNation MEDIA.
Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes, 4 seconds.
Explore original music, videos, and creative projects at ThinkTimm.com and WDMNationMEDIA.com.
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