exit music (for a film)

Film soundtracks are funny things... In the context of a movie they can mean everything. Removed from the film, however they can mean nothing at all. Admittedly, music taste plays a big role as well. For someone more or less well versed in modern music's history, like me, i tend to be drawn to soundtracks featuring pop songs like those found in Quentin Tarantino's and Wes Anderson's. John Williams, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to click for me. The themes to, say, Jurassic Park or Star Wars, are powerful pieces of music. But their link to the films they're found in is just too strong. They're just too connected with each other. It's a bit like brainwash I suppose. Those specific melodies and it's variations are placed strategically so that everytime you hear it you're immediately transported back to your movie theater seat, replaying those specific scenes over and over and over again. Ennio Morricone is also one to use the effect of a recurring theme to great effect. In the few last years though, I've been admiring Wes Anderson's use of pop music to catch a certain mood. The scene in The Darjeeling Limited where the Whitmans run to catch their train and in the process drop their baggage, mental and physical, to the absolutely powerful opening chords to The Kinks' Powerman just blew me. It's an unquestionably good song, and though the lyrics has absolutely nothing to do with the scene, it will be burned in my mind thanks to the intensity of the scene.