How to Track Down Songs From Movies

Songs have the annoying tendency to get stuck in our heads on "replay" for days at a time. Even worse are tracks from movies. You know you've seen that chick flick recently, but you can't quite put your finger on which one it was. Thanks to the Internet and our society's obsession with Hollywood, tracking down a movie song is pretty easy these days. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Search the Internet. The best way to track down a movie song is to hop online. Sites like tunefind.org or the popular Internet Movie Database at imdb.org are very useful.
2. Inquire at the American Film Institute. AFI is the leading source for all things film. Contact them to help you pinpoint specific movie songs, or check out their website at afi.com.
3. Ask a friend. If you can carry a tune, this is the fastest way to solve the mystery. Friends have common interests, so there's a good chance a buddy saw the same movie you did. In fact, they probably saw it with you.
4. Head to the soundtrack section of your local music store. Most movies, even low-budget and indie flicks, produce a soundtrack. Browse through the CDs for recent films you have seen, and you'll probably notice quite a few songs that you didn't realize you were looking for.
5. Watch the credits. This is one of the easiest ways to find movie songs, but most people are too impatient to wait until the credits roll. Save yourself a lot of time and energy by jotting down the names of the songs and their performers. If a song is played in a movie, it will be credited at the end.
6. Match up the facts. Usually, you are just missing one or the other--the name of the song or the movie in which it was played. Narrow down the possibilities by figuring out time period and genre. For example, if you know it was a song from the 1980s, figure out the movies you've seen from this era or that had a setting from this era. This won't always help, but in certain circumstances, it works like a charm.

Tips & Warnings

• A subscription to "Music From The Movies" magazine can be very helpful when hunting down movie songs.
• Songs can have drastically different versions. The version cut for the movie may be a limited edition, recorded by a cover band or unavailable on places like iTunes. You may purchase a movie song and find it isn't exactly what you were looking for.