5 ways musicians Sample movies

What does Adam Sandler have in common with Kid Cudi?... Need a clue? It's the same thing  Quentin Tarantino has in common with Scooby Snacks. Both of these two Hollywood stars have been sampled in songs by musicians, and they're not alone!

Many artists are well known for taking snippets of powerful dialogue or sampling soundtracks. I've been investigating this over the past year and noticed that artists tend to use samples in one of the following ways:

1.Sampling the dialogue to help them tell their story:

Kid Cudi's track Immortal tells his story of overcoming depression and being underestimated by sampling Adam Sandler in Billy Madison and Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son.

2. Sampling the soundtrack as part of their own beat, borrowing the sense of atmosphere to create their own world:

Pharoahe Monch sampled the Godzilla soundtrack to create a sense of grandeur and dominance.

3. Telling a story that could exist in the world of the film like lyrical fanfiction:

An excellent example of this is how Fun Lovin' Criminals sampled Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs to create their own bank job in Scooby Snacks.

4. Building their whole onstage persona around what they've seen on screen:

Wu-Tang Clan created their entire image as the ultimate lyrical assassins by sampling monologue from old martial arts films.

5. Tracks specifically made for a film:

RZA created the song Fatal for the release of Blade Trinity.

It fascinates me when musicians take samples from films and TV shows. What are they trying to achieve? Why pick that movie? Did they sample it because of the way it made them feel or because it portrays a certain aspect of culture?

Not all samples hold a thought provoking meaning but there are lots that do. A well placed sample can provide an extra level of depth in an artist's music. Ultimately both film and music are subjective. A directors intended message might  become lost in translation when sampled by a musician but in the best cases it adds to the lore of the franchise. To hear a selection of the best monologue and soundtrack samples, check out the following playlist on Spotify.

Movie Monologues in Music:

A selection of tracks sampling movie monologue.

Tracks Sampling Cinema:

A playlist full of cinema soundtrack samples.