Will Sinners do for blues what O Brother did for bluegrass?

It's the middle of award season, and Ryan Coogler's ode to the Black music canon Sinners has emerged as the Oscars frontrunner and the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. The love the movie has for the Delta blues is front and center, and begs the question: will the movie's legacy help bring the blues back into popular culture? There's already been a precedent for films reviving dead genres – think The Sting and its ragtime score, or O Brother Where Art Thou's relationship to bluegrass – and on this episode of Switched On Pop, Reanna and Nate talk with Vulture writer Fran Hoepfner about the times in which movie soundtracks have shifted the musical culture.

Read Fran's piece on movie scoring, The Death of the Classic Film Score, here.

Songs discussed:

Miles Caton – I Lied to You

Bee Gees – Stayin' Alive

Underworld – Born Slippy (Nuxx)

Marvin Hamlisch – The Entertainer

Wu-Tang Clan – Fast Shadow

Bee Gees – More Than A Woman

Whitney Houston – I Have ...

It's the middle of award season, and Ryan Coogler's ode to the Black music canon Sinners has emerged as the Oscars frontrunner and the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. The love the movie has for the Delta blues is front and center, and begs the question: will the movie's legacy help bring the blues back into popular culture? There's already been a precedent for films reviving dead genres – think The Sting and its ragtime score, or O Brother Where Art Thou's relationship to bluegrass – and on this episode of Switched On Pop, Reanna and Nate talk with Vulture writer Fran Hoepfner about the times in which movie soundtracks have shifted the musical culture.

Read Fran's piece on movie scoring, The Death of the Classic Film Score, here.

Songs discussed:

• Miles Caton – I Lied to You
• Bee Gees – Stayin' Alive
• Underworld – Born Slippy (Nuxx)
• Marvin Hamlisch – The Entertainer
• Wu-Tang Clan – Fast Shadow
• Bee Gees – More Than A Woman
• Whitney Houston – I Have Nothing
• Harry McClintock – The Big Rock Candy Mountain
• Alison Krauss – Down To The River To Pray
• The Soggy Bottom Boys – I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
• *NSYNC – Bye Bye Bye
• The Brian Setzer Orchestra – Jump Jive An' Wail
• Cab Calloway – Minnie the Moocher
• Royal Crown Revue – Hey Pachuco!
• Caravan Palace – Lone Digger
• Big Bad Voodoo Daddy – Go Daddy O
• Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hell
• Fergie, Q-Tip, GoonRock – A Little Party Never Killed Nobody
• Lana Del Rey – Young And Beautiful
• Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight
• Kavinsky – Nightcall
• College, Electric Youth – A Real Hero
• M83 – Midnight City
• The Weeknd – Take My Breath

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