Ironically, most songs written specifically for movies are downright awful. I don't know what it is, but most 'original songs' are contrived and terrible, and Oscar has continually chosen to honor a curious supply of the worst of the worst. Whether it's taken from the soundtracks of 'Con Air' or 'Beethoven's 2nd,' wannabe Top 40 pop/country/crap has a tendency to show up on the ballot every year.
There have been plenty of notable counterexamples''Moon River' from 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' 'Over the Rainbow' from 'Wizard of Oz,' 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head' from 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'Take My Breath Away' from 'Top Gun,' the list of actual classics goes on'but for the most part, it's a lot of safe, prepackaged mediocrity that few take seriously. Barbra Streisand used to show up a lot, Randy Newman is a standby nominee these days and 'American Idol' songwriter Diane Warren used to get nominated every other year or so. It's only a matter of time before Clay Aiken, Scott Stapp and Patrick Stump get together for a soaring ballad and take home an award Mick Jagger hasn't even been nominated for yet.
This makes sense because after all, the Best Original Song category isn't one of the more, shall we say, vital categories. That's not to put down the indisputable honor of winning an Academy Award, which I have to admit is one of my own foremost aspirations, but being named the Best Director or Best Actor/Actress of the year carries far more career-related weight than being recognized for singing the best (or most bearable) song that was written to be in a movie. The list of snubs is more astounding than any other category: did you know that Babs edged out both Paul McCartney in 1973 and the original 'Rocky' theme in 1976, and 'Eye of the Tiger' lost to 'Up Where We Belong' in 1983? Usually, if Disney doesn't have a dynamite song, it's either the likes of Bryan Adams or Phil Collins taking home a little golden guy'or a cringe-worthy, overplayed pop relic like 'My Heart Will Go On' or '(I've Had) The Time of My Life' (yep, that won an Oscar too). What about truly iconic songs like Simon and Garfunkel's 'Mrs. Robinson' or Ray Charles' 'In the Heat of the Night'? They didn't even get nominated. Apparently 'Talk to the Animals' from 'Dr. Doolittle' was the better song from 1967.
But in the past seven years, the Academy has begun making markedly better choices for the Best Original Song, like Eminem's win in 2002 (when he didn't even bother to show up to receive the Oscar) and 'Al Otro Lado Del Rio' from 'The Motorcycle Diaries' in 2004. Is the Best Original Song category and its increasingly quirky nominations a symbol of progressing tastes in the Academy? If this is a genuine indication, we can keep expecting undiluted, untainted nominations for Best Original Song, and that could be a harbinger of improvement in larger categories as well. Maybe soundtracks will start getting more attention and, as a result of the additional emphasis, original songs for films will gain prominence again.
Although they seem minor, these nominations may signal a general shift away from the stereotypical stodginess and elitism of the Oscars. This is a year in which two political movies with genuine chutzpah were nominated for Best Picture ('Munich' and 'Good Night and Good Luck') and a movie about gay cowboys is about to sweep the whole shebang, so I might be onto something. You never know though, Nickelback or John Mayer could get nominated next year and quell the winds of change. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
