There are a few titles that, for me personally, come to mind immediately when someone says “chick flick.” Others take a bit more of a reminder– maybe it’s because I didn’t like the movie so much, or because it came out a long time ago. Or it could have featured an actor or an actress who has since “moved on,” to supposedly bigger and better (?) genres.
One of the films that I have recently associated with “chick flick” has been recently featured here on ChixFlix: The Devil Wears Prada. Being a bookworm more than any sort of chick flick aficionado, of course I had read the book before I saw the movie– long before the movie even came out. The movie was very well done though, and I enjoyed it enough to buy the soundtrack only a few days later.
For many movies, they wouldn’t be half as good (or as critically acclaimed) as they are without the soundtrack. So when I went searching for some images to spruce up the existing blog posts, I was astonished to see not just a plethora of soundtracks of chick flicks -even the small “indie” ones that had come out ages ago- but compilations, DVD collections, and more!
Songs have the ability to set the tone and feeling of a scene or even of the whole film, which is why choosing the right song for a particular part of the story or as the overall “theme music” is critical. Many people walk away from a theatre with one or more of the songs playing in their heads -not just because the song may have been playing in the end credits, but also because the music evokes images from the film. If that song is new, that person may hear it again and again on the radio, and again be reminded of scenes from the movie. If they hear that song in a store, they might be tempted to seek out the soundtrack or other related products. Movie theatres are well-aware of this not-so-secret marketing ploy, and make good use of “Movie Tunes,” which play songs from currently-running movies. The artists or bands get publicity, the theatre gets a nice “ambiance” or “atmosphere” and the moviegoers spend more time in the theatre, maybe tapping their feet along to a catchy beat or getting lost in the memory of a really good scene from a movie they just saw.
Plenty of songs get recycled from movie to movie, but depending on the person, one song will always be associated with a particular film. For example, Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” could fit almost any romantic tragedy movie, but ask most people what movie they think of when they hear the song, and they’ll say James Cameron’s 1997 box office record-breaker, “Titanic.”
It’s worth noting that for any songwriter whose specific song was featured in a chick flick to win the coveted Academy Award for Best Original Song, the song had to have been written exclusively for the film, not be made up of resampled or remixed existing music, and not be published prior to the production of the film. This explains why songs like “Unchained Melody” (from Ghost) and “I Will Always Love You” (from The Bodyguard) couldn’t qualify, even though plenty of people will still associate those songs with those particular movies.
Below are some interesting products I found on Amazon.com that are what I’d deem “unexpected chick flick-wares.” Even more surprisingly are the sheer numbers of other items “tagged” as “chick flick” on Amazon, discussed in their forums, and related to actual chick flick movie merchandise, such as DVDs, soundtracks, and posters.
I’m thinking of that Wet Wet Wet song (actually a cover of an old Troggs song) in FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL.
One of the few things from that movie to stick with me, actually, that and the use of Auden in the funeral scene.