Few celebrities have had the kind of success working in front of, and behind the camera, like Clint Eastwood. The veteran Hollywood actor-turned director made this seamless transition and gained huge popularity as a discerning filmmaker with a unique visual palette and soundscape that made his films stand out.
A feature of Eastwood’s work was the creative use of music in his narratives in iconic films like The Bridges of Madison County. The Oscar winner though, admitted that he was picky when it came to choosing melodies for his scripts. The Million Dollar Baby filmmaker is not a fan of pop music, and always tried to stay away from incorporating this genre into his projects.
Despite The Taylor Swift Phenomenon, Pop Music Isn’t Clint Eastwood’s Cup Of Tea
Pop music has never been more iconic than now, with Taylor Swift creating a whole cultural phenomenon in the genre. Apart from making history and being a case study for America’s booming economy, Swift has influenced a whole generation of fans through her music.
Veteran actor Clint Eastwood though, isn’t someone who is impressed by the pop music scene. Having grown up in the 40s, the Unforgiven filmmaker revealed that he related the most to jazz and blues music, apart from enjoying some work from the rock and roll generation.
Eastwood confessed that pop music was a genre that did not appeal to his sensibilities as a filmmaker. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the veteran elaborated on the obsession of incorporating pop into movie soundtracks, and why he consciously steered clear from this trend in his films.
“Yeah, I’ve tried to stay away from that stuff. There was a period when everyone was doing that. If the movie is so bad you need to spruce it up, sometimes they throw in a hundred pop songs and hope the record will push the whole thing over the top.”
Eastwood went on to add that he believed music in films must work to enhance the narrative and develop it further, and not just be used as a separate entity without a real reason.
Clint Eastwood On Using Jazz and Blues Music For The Bridges Of Madison County
A film’s soundtrack, if done perfectly, is equal to being another character in the narrative. Clint Eastwood has proved that he is a master at incorporating the apt music for his films. The Oscar-winning director who is a self-confessed fan of jazz and blues, used music from this genre seamlessly in his film The Bridges of Madison County, in which he co-starred with Meryl Streep.
Eastwood though, did not go with songs from iconic artists like Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole, but instead chose to use the music of relatively unknown artists in the field like Johnny Hartman and Irene Karl. Speaking to Rolling Stone on the reasons behind this decision, the actor-turned-director said,
“Yeah, that was intentional. I love Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole as much as anyone — they were fabulous singers. But I also enjoy a lot of more fringe people. I just didn’t want to get too mainstream. I also didn’t want to use the same tracks as a lot of other movies”.
Eastwood’s instinct turned out to be spot on, with the music and background score of The Bridges of Madison County becoming one of the most popular film soundtracks of the 90s.