Inside Nokia Music

…According to research from Nokia Music into the listening habits of music fans in 15 countries between December 2008 and January 2010.

TOP 10 GLOBALLY DOWNLOADED MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS

1. Twilight (Original motion picture soundtrack: International Version)

2. AVATAR

3. Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds

4. Mamma Mia!

5. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Mexican version)**

6. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

7. Alvin And The Chipmunks 2

8. Slumdog Millionaire

9. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Original motion picture soundtrack)

10. Watchmen

Notice how it occurred 3 times on the list?… but sadly it doesn’t qualify for the “Best Original Score” category according to the rules of the 82nd annual Academy Awards…

Leave a comment telling us your favourite film scores or soundtracks and we’ll give 1 lucky reader 50 tracks from the Nokia Music Store.  Terms and Conditions

From James Horner’s mysterious AVATAR score to the thrilling melodies of Sherlock Holmes or the eclectic mix of Nine, check out Nokia’s movie soundtrack selection

If you’re a fan of the music behind the latest movie releases Nokia Comes With Music is the place to download all the music you’ve ever wanted, for free, and to keep forever.

I watched Third World Cop last night, it’s a low-budget film following the story of  wayward cop Capone who returns to his hometown to crack a gang of arms smugglers - pretty banal stuff really. Also the film lacks a quality finish compared to mainstream flicks, despite this I really enjoyed the story; the difference between this movie and others with a similar story is that it’s set in the ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica.

I found out about the movie while reading about one of my current favourite artists Ninjaman (Desmond Ballentine). Someone had commented that Ninjaman played a character pretty indicative of himself in the film. I’m not sure about that but, he plays a small role as a rude-boy criminal which was really interesting to watch. In fact all of the characters in the film delighted me and I felt it painted a really vivid picture of Jamaican ghetto culture.

So… the film was quite entertaining and interesting but the hugely awesome surprise was it’s soundtrack, arranged by Sly & Robbie it includes songs from Beenie Man, Red Dragon, Buccaneer and Sly & Robbie themselves, it’s totally bumpin’ from start to finish.

If you’re a fan of Ragga, Dancehall or Reggae this film is well worth a watch and remains the number 1 grossing movie to come out of Jamaica to date. Yu waan check it out.

Third World Cop - The Soundtrack

Links:

Wikipedia: Ninjaman

Wikipedia: Sly & Robbie

IMDB for the movie

Sly & Robbie’s official page

Is there any point listening to music when you’re hungover?

Not just one too many shandies……I’m talking about a rockstar hangover that wipes your memory of the previous two months.

What you really need is the tiny mew of a blind kitten, slowly dying in a luke-warm bath of porridge,  rubbed gently against the inside of your skull.

What you hear however,  is a road worker’s growl of infinite length, accelerated by CERN and smashed into that pulpy mass you used to think with.

So where does that leave me?

Silence……

Muse frontman and virtual virtuoso Matt Bellamy was approached to Score the forthcoming epic Clash Of The Titans. Due in March this year already, I’m reluctant to believe there’s actually enough time left for them to do it with The Resistance tour schedule, never mind that I had the foolish notion to believe a Film Score develops during filming for mood and atmosphere instead of the after-though of post production.

It’s fair to say I’m pretty excited about this after Sam Worthington’s show stealing performance in Terminator Salvation, and if Matt and the boys have contributed… then I may just wet myself.

The Resistance and the entire Muse back-catalogue are available to download from The Nokia Music Store and is completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers.

Update!

Since the news only came to light this week I made the fatal faux pas of assuming that the approach happened recently, it would now seem that the band were approached a while back regarding this and that Craig Armstrong has already scored the film. What’s still unclear is whether Muse have contributed…  here’s hoping!

This week Neilsen SoundScan data reveals that Low by Flo Rida (featuring T-Pain) was the most downloaded song of the decade in the US. Wow! Of the decade! That’s really quite an achievement for a song that was the first single off the rapper’s debut album, Mail On Sunday.

I don’t know why our American friends went so nuts about this song, the only real reason I like it is because it reminds me of Tom Cruise as the brilliant Les Grossman, dancing to it during Tropic Thunder. Check it out:

Could its success all be down to that silly little scene? I strongly doubt it, but I’ll need to ask an American in the know for sure. I’m guessing instead it’s just down to the fact that they just like this mainstream hip-hop stuff. A lot.

But it’s given me food for thought on how a song featured in a movie with a silly dance can always stick in your mind. My personal favourites are:

1. Jon Heder in Napolean Dynamite: track Canned Heat by Jamiroquai. This dance routine at the end of the movie is so good I have actually tried to learn it, sober, in my living room, on more than five occasions. You’d think I might be embarrassed to admit that but sadly, I’m not. And now everytime I hear this song, which I previously didn’t think much of at all, all I wanna do is grab some snow boots and act like a complete geeky mong on the dancefloor.

2. John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction: track You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry. Ooo lets go out on a fake date, ooo lets have a groovy dance and look all cool in front of everyone, ooo lets snort some heroin and OD like a skank. Not looking so cool now, are we Uma?

Actually, she really does look cool:

3. Tom Cruise (again! I know!) in Risky Business: track Old Time Rock & Roll by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. Here he is looking all cute, and being all normal dancing around in his socks and shirt. There’s no science to this scene, even L Ron would have to accept that it is truly magical. Simply can not hear this song without picturing this scene. Check it out here.

Bloggy bonus

Now, while trawling the net to make my sure my tiny little brain hadn’t forgot to include anything AMAZING I stumbled upon this extraordinary dance scene from the 80s classic movie Mac & Me. The song isn’t memorable (in fact there’s a prize up for grabs for whoever can name it), but I simply had to share this with you dear reader as it is pure, unadulterated, cheesy, 80s goodness. In my view, any scene where some American football jocks dance in time for no apparent reason is worth a watch. Enjoy.