Soundtracks Tap Vedder, Lerche In The Hunt For Iconic Moments

An Associated Press writer discovers they just don't write movie songs like they used to as a preface to interviews with pop musicians who have written songs for films this year, among them Sondre Lerche (pictured at the "Dan in Real Life" premiere) and Jesse Harris, and filmmakers such as John Sayles and Kirsten Sheridan. Overall point, though, is a little cloudy: Are song composers not coming up with radio friendly work? Is it too expensive to license? Or is it mere fact that no matter how you approach it, soundtracks boil down to sheer luck of the draw and "Garden State" and "Titanic" are landmarks because they connected with music buyers and movie-goers in unique ways that could not be predicted? And no matter what anyone does, you probably won't create an iconic scene to match John Cusack and his boombox in "Say Anything."
What none of the parties involved acknowledge is the destruction of the soundtrack business by iTunes. When soundtrack albums were hot commodities, a fan of a film would not think twice about buying a film soundtrack to capture a collection of songs in a particular order, a la "Garden State." Lightning is unlikely to strike twice these days as fans can, for the most part, cherry pick unless there are a collection of compelling new tunes, such as the case with Eddie Vedder's work for "Into the Wild." Record companies are increasingly reducing the number of soundtracks they release that are dominated by catalog tracks, unless, of course, the catalog tracks are already coming from their vaults. 
Serious soundtrack trivia buffs will immediately the interesting, and slightly moot, point about "Easy Rider" and the inclusion of the Band's "The Weight." While the film did indeed include the original, the soundtrack album was forced to use a version by the band Smith. Capitol Records had no interest in licensing tracks to Dunhill back in the day.