Movie Music Today

The 21st-century movie soundtrack must be all things to all popcorn-crunchers: the score has to hold everything together along an unbroken thread, and the individual songs — those scene-defining musical accents — have to stick with us long after the widescreen curtains have been drawn. Randy Newman demonstrates the fine art of the perfect feel-good movie tune with "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3, the Prodigy prove to be the Kick-Ass music supervisor's dream with their Manfred Mann-sampling "Stand Up" from Invaders Must Die, and Danny Elfman gives Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland the thematic magnificence it demands.

The dark knights of the film score fraternity go about their work, in Next Steps.

If you want an instant master class in the craft of modern film-score composition, you could do far worse than bury yourself in James Newton Howard's back catalogue — following early pop work with Elton John, his collaborations with M. Night Shyamalan helped perfect a suspenseful signature, and here he brings a distinctive blend of emotional heft and classical elegance to The Last Airbender, while cranking up the tension in Salt. An occasional collaborator with Newton Howard, and co-Oscar recipient for The Dark Knight, is Hans Zimmer, who gave Inception its unique soundscape — spin that totem.

From hair metal to alt balladry — if the scene demands it, the music supervisor supplies it, in Deep Cuts.

When it comes to music supervision, some movies surprise with a leftfield approach to song selection, but others simply cry out for specific tracks — case in point, Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home" which belongs in Hot Tub Time Machine like Tommy Lee belongs in a corner booth at the Sunset Strip's Rainbow Bar and Grill. Or Regina Spektor's gorgeously quirky "Us," an ideal choice for romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer . . . and the same goes for James Murphy's "People" which slots neatly into Noah Baumbach's meditation on misanthropy, Greenberg. Back with scores, a special mention has to go to Clinton Shorter's atmospheric work on District 9.

Whether you're a film-score purist who adores the variation-on-a-theme approach to movie soundtracks, or if you prefer to wait for that perfect film song moment when the emotional impact of a scene is ramped up exponentially thanks to great work by a music supervisor, you're going to love our Movies Today Essentials. Side by side in this cinematic selection you'll find the cream of the current soundtrack composition community — James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, Clint Mansell, Danny Elfman — and the best of those artists whose work has been lifted out of its original context only to resurface with all-new resonance and power: check out Muse's contribution to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, or Cee Lo Green's audio cameo in The Other Guys. Turn your cell phones off, please — the titles are rolling.