Karyn Brachtman

Queen Of The Soundtrack

Tarantino’s music advisor changed music and movies.

“Everybody be cool this is a robbery!”

“Any of you f***ing pricks move, and I’ll execute every mother f***ing last one of you!”

Pulp Fiction’s classic opening scene set a whole new tone, one that would alter the movie soundtrack landscape forever. In 1994, as popcorn toting, soon-to-be-Tarantino-worshipping young movie fans settled into their seats, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones’ pounding surf-stomp, ‘Misirlou’, kicked in, its stuttering guitars and unforgettable Mariachi trumpet pinning the audience down. The soundtrack was an absolute must-have. 

Karyn Rachtman, music supervisor for Tarantino on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, transformed the way we listen to movies. She put the music out there, up front, on centre stage, competing with the characters for our attention. Dusty Springfield’s sultry ‘Son of a Preacherman’ accompanies Vincent Vega’s arrival at the Wallace household in Pulp Fiction, and it couldn’t possibly be any other way. ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ by Stealers Wheel establishes the rhythm for Mr Blonde’s psychotic earectomy attack on the captive cop in Reservoir Dogs. The cinematography and the music are completely interdependent.

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Categories Music Film Tags Music Film Tarantino

By on 9/10/08

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