8 Tracks: Music for movies of the mind
8 Tracks is your antidote to the algorithm. Each week, NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich, with the help of his colleagues, makes connections between sounds across time.
Did I watch the Oscars? No. But did I watch Ryan Gosling's outrageous, "We Are the World"-worthy performance of "I'm Just Ken" on YouTube the day after? Of course! I'm not made of plastic. Like my colleague Ann Powers, I often think about "how songs can shape conversations, actions and memories" in movies, as she wrote in the NPR Music newsletter.
Music can shift, uplift or even subvert a scene, challenging or changing our perception of the movie, the music, I can see a car chase down hill-y, sidewinding streets, intercut with scenes from the driver's past... and just when Washington's screaming saxophone hits its apex, the vehicle careens across the screen in vivid slow-mo.
