The 25 Best Soundtrack Albums of the 1990s
In the 1980s, music and film collided for cross-promotional blockbusters, both transcendent (Purple Rain) and transcendently cheesy (Footloose). In the ‘90s, soundtracks continued to sell in the millions, capturing cultural moments like the Seattle grunge of Singles or the Britpop and electronica of Trainspotting. Auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson reached deep into their record collections to set the mood while movies like Above the Rim and Menace II Society pioneered the concept of soundtracks as hip-hop mixtapes.
A great soundtrack can propel an unsuccessful single, like Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose,” to the top of the charts or revive a decades-old hit, like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It can also push a cult singer-songwriter like Elliott Smith or Aimee Mann to an Oscar performance.
Here are 25 soundtracks from the 1990s that hold up as albums, not just as pieces of movie memorabilia.
25. Good Will Hunting: Music from the Miramax Motion Picture (1997)
Singer-songwriter and former Heatmiser frontman Elliott Smith already had a growing cult fanbase after releasing his third solo album, 1997’s Either/Or. But nobody could have predicted his unlikely rise to mainstream fame within the next year when he stood onstage at the 1998 Oscars, competing with Celine Dion for Best Original Song.
A fellow Portland resident, Gus Van Sant, decided to use a few songs from Either/Or and 1994’s Roman Candle in the biggest film of his career, Good Will Hunting, and commissioned a new Oscar-worthy Smith song, “Miss Misery.”
24. Boyz N The Hood (Music From the Motion Picture) (1991)
In 1986, a young O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson wrote the lyrics to Eazy-E’s debut single “Boyz-n-the-Hood.” Almost exactly five years later, Ice Cube, by then a major rap star, made his acting debut in John Singleton’s film named after the song. The Eazy-E track didn’t appear on the soundtrack, but Cube contributed a new song of his own, “How to Survive in South Central."
The rest of the album showcased a rapidly exploding West Coast rap scene, including Yo-Yo and Compton’s Most Wanted, that gained significant mainstream visibility from the film.
23. Wayne’s World: Music From The Motion Picture (1992)
The late ‘80s hair-metal culture that Mike Myers affectionately satirized on Saturday Night Live was waning by the time his “Wayne’s World” sketches became a feature film in 1992. So bands like Cinderella and BulletBoys had already begun to disappear from the charts when they appeared on the movie’s soundtrack (which, on a sentimental note, was the first CD that I ever bought).
But the album also features some more timeless classic rock that accompanied hilarious moments in the movie, like the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Foxy Lady” and, most famously, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which soared to No. 2 on the Hot 100 — even higher than it reached in 1976. And co-star Tia Carrere’s fictitious band Crucial Taunt really ripped that cover of The Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz.”
22. Batman Forever: Music from the Motion Picture (1995)
The two Batman movies directed by the late Joel Schumacher pale in comparison to the Tim Burton films that preceded them. But the star-filled soundtrack, which accompanied his first movie with Val Kilmer as Batman, made a chart impact that rivaled the Prince-powered 1989 Batman LP. There’s an awkward stylistic gulf between Batman Forever’s unvarnished alt-rock tracks (PJ Harvey, Mazzy Star, Sunny Day Real Estate) and more on-topic choices like Method Man’s wacky villain theme song “The Riddler.”
Despite the odd mix of styles, nearly every song is good or great, including “Kiss From A Rose,” Seal’s minor hit unexpectedly vaulted to the top of the Hot 100 after it appeared in Batman Forever.