Soundtrack is a term that's used interchangably to describe both the original film score of music composed specifically for the film and the compilation of non-film music that is heard within the movie to entice listeners into purchasing the sountrack.
The art of film score composition is becoming a lost art in Hollywood because film producers are electing to ignore the film score completely and go the cheap route of purchasing the licensing rights to a dozen current pop songs to make a compilation, rather than commisioning a film score to be written to counterpoint the action in the film.
Depending on your perspective "sountrack" can have two different meanings: 1)The ambient background music composed to accompany the action on the movie screen; or the package of pop music hits that are on the soundtrack and are worked into the film by the director to promote healthy sales of a sountrack package.
The first film producer and director to use a comilation soundtrack successfully was Lawrence Kadsen for his movie The Big Chill which sold 6 million copies and became more lucrative source of income than the movie itself. Since 1984 the Big Chill has sold six million units and recently released "deluxe" edition of the soundtrack that adds 28 more Motown and 60s related music to the original 10 song soundtrack. Over the past 25 years dozens of official "Big Chill" compilations have been released and made millions for for both Kadsen who owns the "Big Chill" tradename and millions for EMI and Barry Gordy who have a 50/50 share of the licensing revenue from the use of the songs.
Ironically none of the original performers who actually made all of the old Motown hits make a penny from their recycled songs because Gordy cut out any royalty claims by performing artists as part of standard Motown artist's contract way back in the 60s.
Here's my two lists of best sountracks. List 1 is film scores and list 2 is soundtrack compilations.
1. Original Film Scores (i.e. Ambient music composed specifically as background music for a movie)
Angelo Badalamenti- The City of Lost Children & the Twin Peaks movie & televison scores.
John Lurie- Stranger than Paradise
Yann Tierson- Amelie & Les Les Retrouvailles
Nino Rota- Fellini's 8½
Lalo Schifrin- Bullit & the Mission Impossible television show score.
Ennio Morricone- The Good, Bad & the Ugly & The Mission
Francis Lei- Un homme et une femme
Gato Barbieri- Last Tango In Paris
Bernard Hermann- Psycho and the score to nearly every other Alfred Hitchc0ck film for several decades.
John Barry- All the musical scores to the early James Bond movies
Ry Cooder- Paris Texas & The Long Riders
Jerry Goldsmith- The Omen and a zillion other films scores. Goldsmith was an omipresent and prolific film score composer and had nearly 200 film score credits from 1957 until 2006.
Best Dylan film score- Pat Garret & Billy the Kid Dylan's score for the film had one original song and nine instrumentals which he collaborated on with Brooker T. Jones, Roger McGuinn and fiddle player Byron Berline. Knockin' on Heaven's Door may have been the biggest hit to come out of a Western since Gene Pitney's hit with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance an oddball soundtrack hit in 1962 composed by a young unknown songwriter named Burt Bacarach.
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2.Film Sountracks (i.e. compilations of various artists packaged to be heard in movie as opposed "an original film score).
Reggae compilations- The Harder They Come & Country Man
Roots music compilations- Oh Brother Where Are You? & The Song Catcher
Compilation of one artist- Aimee Mann on the sountrack of Magnolia
Bollywood music compilation- Slumdog Millionaire
Best Samba & Brazilian compilation- Woman on Top
Outstanding Compilations by a Film Director Quentin Tarritino has a knack for doing great music compilations and Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Ficton, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill and Grindhouse all have awesome soundtrack compilations.
Greatest compilation rock music soundtrack ever- Woodstock
Beatlestuff: There are five Beatles film related music products that all fall within a grey area between a film score and a soundtrack compilation those albums are Hard Days Night, Help, Yellow Submarine, Magical Mystery Tour & Let It Be. With the exception of Let It Be, all of the original releases of these Beatles film related albums had an original film score but since the 80s the original score music was scrubbed and replaced with additional Beatles music that didn't even appear in the film.
The motive is basically greed and a Beatles album without a film score that adds a half dozen more Beatles tunes sells a lot faster than an album with only 5 or 6 Beatles songs and an original film score. Yellow Submarine is the only Beatles film related album that still has the original score (an excellent one written by Beatles producer George Martin). It's ashamed because I thought that George Martin's neo-psychedelic score to Help had a certain eccentric charm of it's own.
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