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Soundtrack

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For the digital music creation software of the same name, see Soundtrack Pro.

Soundtrack refers to the recorded sound accompanying a visual medium such as a motion picture, television show, or video game.

Physical portion of film

In terms of film formats, the soundtrack is the physical area of the film which records the synchronized sound.

Movie and television soundtracks

Main article: film soundtrack

The term soundtrack most commonly refers to the music used in a movie (or television show), and/or to an album sold containing that music. Sometimes, the music has been recorded just for the film or album (e.g. Saturday Night Fever). Often, but not always, and depending on the type of movie, the soundtrack album will contain portions of the score, non-diegetic music composed for thematic effect as the movie's plot occurs. In 1916, Victor Schertzinger recorded the first music specifically for use in a motion picture, and releasing soundtracks of songs used in films became standard in the 1930s. Henry Mancini, who won an Emmy Award and two Grammys for his soundtrack to Peter Gunn, was the first composer to have a widespread hit with a song from a soundtrack.

The soundtrack on a record can contain all kinds of music (including "inspired by"; see the Harry Potter soundtracks), contained in a movie; the score contains only music by the original film's composer(s).

The best-selling soundtrack to date is The Bodyguard, the lead single of which, "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston, is one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Video game soundtracks

Soundtrack may also refer to the music used in video games. While sound effects were nearly universally used for action happening in the game, music to accompany the gameplay was a later development. Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway were early composers of music specifically for video games for the 1980s Commodore 64 computer. Koji Kondo was an early and important composer for Nintendo games. As the technology improved CD-quality soundtracks replaced simple midi files starting in the early 1990s and the soundtrack to popular games such as the Final Fantasy series began to be released separately.

Book soundtracks

To this date, only once has a soundtrack been written specifically for a book. For the 1996 Star Wars novel Shadows of the Empire (written by author Steve Perry), Lucasfilm chose Joel McNeeley to write a score. This was an eccentric, experimental project, in contrast to all other soundtracks, as the composer was allowed to convey general moods and themes, rather than having to write music to flow for specific scenes.

A project called "Sine Fiction" has made some soundtracks to novels by science-fiction writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke, and have this far released 14 soundtracks to science-fiction novels or short stories. All of which is available for free download.

See also

In alphabetical order:

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