'Popular' rock songs in films and why they don't always work

Rock and pop songs began appearing in films in the 1960s, mixing with the visuals in an attempt to promote the story. It’s surprisingly common for films to butcher the placement of these popular songs. Good timing and placement help, but hearing “Highway to Hell” in a “Percy Jackson” scene just doesn’t sound right.

Rock music definitely features better names than “dad music,” but that’s beside the point. Where the problem lies is with the constant use of “popular” songs in movies that just don’t need them.

As a Reddit user argues:

"First of all, idk why people call it dad music. I know tons of people who listen to classic rock and are teenagers, or young adults (including me). So calling it dad music is just stupid. 

Now, as for why they use classic rock songs so much, it should be obvious. 80% of these songs perfectly convey a sense of epicness. When you hear these songs play with action scenes, which are what marvel movies basically are, it gets your heart pumping. Because that's what the original song writers were trying to do with rock music. They wanted to get peoples blood pumping, get them just as hyped to be at their show as they were to be playing the music they love. And it worked very well. I'm sorry, but if you really think you can find a better background song than Immigrant Song for the end of Thor Ragnarok, you're wrong. Because once that started playing and Thor went full God mode, I was just basically screaming, 'YEAAAAAH, MESS HER UP!'"

The concern with popular songs is that they are, as suggested, popular. This means that people have heard the songs tens of hundreds of times, so hearing them again in a piece of media that could be much more creative is a letdown.

There exists a few scenes and a few movies in which already existent songs are well placed. For example, in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the use of old 1960s and 1970s music serves to further the plot and accentuate how “human” the main character, Peter Quill, is.

Hearing something like AC/DC in the middle of a “Smurfs” movie is just downright lame and the more it happens, the more lame it gets. If a scene of a magical fantasy battle takes place, playing a song from real life kills the mood. Most of the time, the perfect song for a scene is created just for it.

A good musical example takes place in "Game of Thrones." When dragons swoop from the sky, heavy drums ignite a fighting spirit without taking anyone out of the fictional world. Dramatic, emotional vocals and violins perfectly align with the destructive fire that burns everything in its sight. A similar rhythm often gets played in the background of every one of the draconic scenes, far more memorable than even some rock songs.

We get it Marvel and “JealousDequan,” there’s some desire to place random rock songs in the films, but wouldn’t some of those films be better without them?