Use of Music

"I didn’t know you liked The Delfonics": How does the way Quentin Tarantino’s characters talk about and react to music relate to the manner in which that music is heard in his films? "... pop music can serve as a film’s memory, instantaneously linking it with its audience, tapping into a nostalgic past or fixing the film firmly in the present."i The use of pop music in the cinema has been prevalent since the mid 1950’s and, as the above quote illustrates, is often seen as an integral part of the way in which an audience can read a film. What makes pop music so interesting in relation to the cinema is that, unlike a film score, it will often not be composed especially for a film. Instead it pre-exists (i.e. not be written specifically for the film) and will often be chosen by a director to accompany a scene. Some may claim that the use of pop songs in films is simply commercial: what better way to advertise a film, and earn more money, than have a song that is associated with the film on a best-selling soundtrack or single? Whilst I agree that this is often the case, it still seems that pop songs are, at points, integrally bound up to the narratives of some films. Immediately this raises a number of interesting questions. Could we say that pop music works in a different way from traditionally composed score and, if so, why? Does the fact that a piece of pop music will often ‘pre exist’ have an effect upon this. What is it that informs the choice of a specific piece of pop music within a film? I will attempt to analyse these questions by looking at how Quentin Tarantino uses pop music throughout his films. I believe that Tarantino is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, all of Tarantino’s films are scored by pop music. Secondly, and something that I think is especially interesting, is the fact that part of Tarantino’s work is typified by the way in which his characters actually discuss pop music. It is this cultural element expressed in his films is something that I shall examine first. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, Miramax, USA, 1991) begins with a black screen and the following line: "‘Like a Virgin’ is all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The whole song is a metaphor for big dicks" Suddenly, a man, later revealed to be Mr Brown (Quentin Tarantino), is revealed to us as the one making this statement and we find ourselves at a diner where a group of men are having a debate about the songs of Madonna. Here we can see how we have been introduced to the characters in the film by the fact that they are discussing music. This discussion has begun to define their relationships before we even know who these people are. The fact that they banter about the true meaning of ‘Like a Virgin’ or express shock at somebody who doesn’t know the song ‘True Blue’ implies that they have a close friendship. When we discover later on in the film that these people hardly know one another then we can tell that this discussion about music has in fact brought the characters together. We can also see something similar occurring in Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, Miramax, USA, 1997). At one point Jackie (Pam Grier) mentions her love of The Delfonics to Max (Robert Forster). Later on we see Max in a record shop buying a Delfonics album and then listening to it in his car. It is as if, vicariously through the music, Max is attempting to get closer to Jackie. But it is not only the characters in the films whose relationship is being defined by this discourse around pop music. It is also our relationship to the characters. We could find ourselves agreeing with Mr Brown’s rather interesting interpretation of ‘Like a Virgin’ or liking Jackie because of her taste in music. We are partly relating to the characters because of their taste in music. Simon Frith claims that pop music is often an integral part of how we define ourselves and our tastes. As he points out: "‘We all hear the music we like as something special, as something that defies the mundane, takes us ‘out of ourselves’, puts us somewhere else. ‘Our music’ is, from this perspective, special not just with reference to other music but, more importantly, to the rest of life ... Music constructs our sense of identity through the experiences it offers of the body, time and sociability"ii If discourse around popular music is something that is a part of defining identity then this discourse must also be shared in culture. This is because part of this definition must come from how we compare ourselves to other people. In simple terms it could be described as: "I like this piece of pop music whereas this other person doesn’t". This shared discourse then creates the way in which we think about pop music as something that is, in the words of Frith, "... a jumble of references and assumptions, (a fusion) of musical, cultural, historical and cinematic allusions"iii . Pop music then is loaded with meaning, it has a cultural specificity. A song could have a meaning outside of its lyrics and tune, conjuring up connections with a time, place or event that it does not necessarily refer to. This is just not limited to specific songs. A style of song, or perhaps even the artist of a song, could also carry these culturally specific codes. I think that this idea of the importance of the discourse around pop music is crucial to examine for two reasons. Firstly, I think that the way in which the characters talk about music in Tarantino’s films reveal partly how the discourse around pop music works within a culture. Mark Kermode mentions how dialogue from Tarantino’s films is included on his soundtracks and notes: "...in the case of Pulp Fiction it seems likely that a large proportion of Tarantino fans would have known whole speeches before they even saw the film thanks to the high profile release of MCA’s soundtrack album"iv We can see how both the film’s music and its narrative seem linked even outside the film itself. Secondly, and most importantly, this idea of the cultural specificity of pop music has a huge impact on the way that pop music works within a film. I have already mentioned how much pop music will exist before a film is made and simply inserted into the soundtrack and this is true of the music in Tarantino’s films. However what we can also see that there is much more than a commercial imperative at work here. He chooses some songs for a specific reason. For example the playing of "Girl you’ll be a woman soon" over Mia’s (Uma Thurman) dancing in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, Miramax, USA, 1994) is actually specified in the script. Tarantino himself has said: "...if I start to seriously consider the idea of doing a movie, I immediately try to find out what would be the right song to be the opening credit sequence even before I write the movie"v So, why does Tarantino choose a particular song? What is it about a piece of pop music that could possibly make us examine a scene in a different way and how exactly does this work? Thus we can say that there is a chance that pop songs, as they have a cultural specificity before a film is even made, can bring a new level of meaning into the narrative of a film. For example look at the extensive use that Jackie Brown makes of soul and funk. Soul and funk are often associated with the blaxploitation films of the 70’s and the film is often seen as a homage to those films. Therefore we can see how a type of pop music, not necessarily a specific song, is being used to evoke associations with a particular type of genre and a specific time in history. However this evocation of the 70’s also come from the fact that the main character is played by Pam Grier, famous for her roles in blaxploitation films, or the fact that it is based on a book by Elmore Leonard , an author famous for his crime novels of the 70’s. Therefore we can see that the pop music is not necessarily the factor that is ultimately responsible for evoking a certain mood but, as it is part of the complex set of cultural relationships that I mentioned earlier, it is an integral part. But what I would say is that Tarantino uses the cultural specificity of pop songs in a very precise manner. He very rarely chooses songs and artists that are generally regarded as being extremely well known as opposed to a film such as True Romance (Tony Scott, Miramax, USA 1993)vi , which was based on a script by Tarantino. We could argue that the songs that Tarantino chooses are extremely well known to himself and that’s why they are chosen. However, could the argument be made that Tarantino is attempting to avoid songs which could perhaps bring too much ‘outside influence’ onto a film? Look at the scene in Pulp Fiction set in Zed’s shop. Maria McKee’s "If Love is a Red Dress" is a given a minor status compared to the rest of the songs in the film by being relegated to being barely audible on a portable radio.

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