i've just returned from a night at the movies and, my feelings about the particular film aside (more on that later), there was one thing that stuck in me like a splinter about the experience.
at an appropriately dramatic moment in the film (because it always has to be a dramatic, emotional moment), this mortal coil's "song to the siren" starts wafting out of the massive sound system. i think i kind of liked this song when i was about thirteen. that was before every director and his dog started throwing it in movies, television shows and documentary footage to augment the dramatic, emotional scenes.
i'm all in favour of the use of various forms of music (aside from an original soundtrack) in movies. i firmly believe it's an art form- finding the perfect piece to work in a scene- and nothing convinces me of this more than when i see a film that forces me to warm to a track i would hate taken out of the context in which it is used.
however, i'm also of the belief that, once a song has been used in a movie once, it has made its association and other directors should just move on. apparently, there are a lot of film-makers who disagree with me on this. and therefore, the same songs keep cropping up, usually in the same sorts of scenes, ad nauseum.
therefore, i'd like to suggest that there needs to be a banned song list that movie makers are forced to follow. and "song to the siren" is going to be at the top of mine.