A Needle Drop – How Movies Borrow Songs for Storytelling Purposes

MZed Education

by Mascha DeikovaToday

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I don’t know about you, but for me, music often works like a form of teleportation. A specific song or melody can instantly transport me (or, in this case, the audience) into a particular decade, a significant event, or a beloved memory, evoking different feelings along the way. Movies have a similar tool: the so-called “needle drop.” A needle drop is any moment a film reaches for an existing song instead of writing a new score for the scene. Let’s trace how that shortcut has been used in some very different ways!

“Needle drop” is a legitimate industry term, and it has several meanings. For example, some music libraries and advertising agencies charge per “needle drop.” Under this pricing model, clients pay for each use of a piece of music rather than for a broader license. Repeated uses may require additional licensing. However, that’s not what we’re going to talk about in this article. In the examples below, filmmakers chose their songs not for budgetary reasons, but as deliberate storytelling decisions.

Where the term comes from

The term “needle drop” comes straight from vinyl, referring to the literal needle that a DJ would lower onto a record to start the music. Simply put, in filmmaking, it refers to the use of a pre-existing song rather than music composed specifically for the film. Often, the song comes from a popular genre and is already familiar to audiences.

There is no defined “inventor” of this technique, but lots of historians point to “Blackboard Jungle” (1955) as the needle drop that started it all. Richard Brooks’s drama opens cold on Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock,” a then-new rock & roll single playing loudly over the credits. Here it is:

I particularly love the comment under this video that their mother attended the theatrical release of “Blackboard Jungle,” and as soon as the song started playing, “all the teens got up out of their seats and started dancing, even in the aisles.” It reportedly required a theatre manager to calm the viewers down. Well, what can we say? For audiences at the time, hearing a studio film open like that was something entirely new.

The needle drop in film: different ways to come to it

As the technique became more widespread in cinema (“Easy Rider” and “The Graduate” are two major examples that come to mind), filmmakers found all sorts of reasons to use it. We’ll explore those in a moment. But first, I’m interested in how filmmakers decide which songs to use as needle drops. As it turns out, their approaches vary considerably.

Sometimes, it’s just pure accident. Francis Ford Coppola decided to open “Apocalypse Now” with The Doors’ “The End” partly as a joke, after spotting a stack of their records while visiting his editor. So no, it wasn’t a choice he had written into the script. He and Doors singer Jim Morrison had actually attended the same film school (UCLA) years earlier. Coppola reportedly said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we took a song called ‘The End’ and put it at the beginning of the movie?” What began as a joke became one of cinema’s most memorable opening sequences. The song’s opening words, “This is the end,” accompany images of a jungle engulfed in flames, setting an unsettling tone for everything that follows. In my opinion, it remains one of the most powerful examples of how a well-chosen needle drop can transform a scene.

Needle drop that communicates a character’s thoughts

At other times, it’s the song’s lyrics that grab the attention of a director and find their way into a film. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty“, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” plays as Walter leaps onto a departing helicopter instead of staying safely on the ground, chasing his daydream into real life. Director and lead actor Ben Stiller describes this moment as “where the fantasy and reality come together for Walter.” The song definitely sets the right emotional mood, but it also narrates what’s happening in Walter’s head. Ground Control to Major Tom!

In this scene, the needle drop begins diegetically (meaning the characters can hear the music, performed in a bar) before transitioning into the original, non-diegetic version. (If you want to understand the difference between the two, head over here.) Another great example of a diegetic introduction to a famous song is Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” in “Project Hail Mary.” Sandra Hüller’s character, Eva Stratt, performs it at a karaoke gathering with astronauts and scientists, offering a rare glimpse of vulnerability beneath her otherwise reserved exterior. The behind-the-scenes story is equally interesting. Hüller chose the song herself after Ryan Gosling, who had reportedly overheard her singing on set, suggested including her in the karaoke scene. According to director Christopher Miller, the sequence came together in just 36 hours.

Turning a cheerful song into the scariest thing in the room

Naturally, some directors know what needle drop they need from the very beginning. For instance, in “Reservoir Dogs,” Quentin Tarantino used Stealers Wheel’s bouncy “Stuck in the Middle with You” for a scene where a captive police officer gets tortured. The song has nothing to do with violence at all, which is precisely, in my opinion, why the scene is so hard to watch. (So, please, rewatch it only if you are okay with the on-screen violence.)

Tarantino explained in various interviews that this choice was deliberate. He even informed the auditioning actors upfront which song he intended to use and challenged them to come up with an alternative if they wished. “Almost everyone came in with ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’… they tried to come up with something else, but that’s the one.” In other words, a powerful needle drop isn’t always the song that matches the mood on screen. Sometimes it’s the one that refuses to.

Dropping the needle as a character study

When talking about films that use classic hits as part of their soundtracks, we can’t overlook “Guardians of the Galaxy.” The film (or rather, the film series) makes its needle drops not only personal to the main character but also part of the story itself. The songs in the first film come from a mixtape called “Awesome Mix Vol. 1,” a gift from protagonist Peter Quill’s dying mother. She gave it to him when he was a child, and he still carries it with him decades later.

It’s an interesting musical choice because each track “belongs” to the character and helps us understand him better. For example, in the opening sequence above, Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” isn’t just setting a fun “dancing” tone. It’s literally what Peter Quill listens to, and the film makes you wait to understand why. The needle drop carries his desire for freedom and control, masks his loneliness and deep nostalgia, and represents a tangible link to his mother and his childhood on Earth.

A film still from “Guardians of the Galaxy” by James Gunn, 2014

Giving a half-forgotten pop song a whole new life

Some films use popular needle drops primarily for marketing purposes. But sometimes, it works the other way around. A film can send an older song back up the charts, and “Saltburn” is a perfect example.

Oliver’s naked, triumphant dance through the empty mansion, scored to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 hit “Murder on the Dancefloor,” became one of the most talked-about scenes of that awards season.

The director Emerald Fennell was explicit about the tone she needed from the song: “It had to be an act of desecration, an act of territory taking… I like the audience to be complicit.” Without that specific song’s bright, almost tacky euphoria, she’s said the ending wouldn’t land as the “depressing victory” she was going for. It just wouldn’t have the same level of “evil glee.”

I must admit I didn’t like the last part of the film; all the flashbacks and explanations ruined the plot for me. Yet this scene in particular indeed has style.

Conclusion

So, a needle drop is not only a reference to a specific culture or a marketing trick to bring audiences into the cinema. It can also be a huge part of the story, setting a specific tone, emphasizing a horrific moment, contributing to the character study, or teleporting us back in time. As long as you, as a filmmaker, know exactly what it should carry and why.

Which needle drop has stuck with you the longest? Has an unexpected song ever pulled you out of a film instead of into it? And is there an older track you can no longer hear without picturing a specific movie moment? Let us know in the comments below!

Feature image: a film still from “Saltburn” by Emerald Fennell, 2023.

Full disclosure: MZed is owned by CineD.