[MUSIC DISCUSSION] TPOP goes to the movies: 51 years of Oscar-winning songs
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So it's March, and we all know what that means: green for St. Patrick's Day, waking up way too early after Daylight Savings Time flips, and finding out who won and got snubbed at the Oscars. The Best Picture category sucks up a disproportionate amount of cultural oxygen every year, but here at TPOP we thought we'd show a little love for the Best Original Songs. The Academy has bestowed this honor since the 7th Oscars in 1934 (first winner: "The Continental" by Lillian Miles), so there have been 88 winners since then. We're focusing on the last 51 years of winners, starting in 1972 when Isaac Hayes became the award's first Black winner for the legendary "Theme From 'Shaft'."
I’ll update this playlist with this year’s winner after Sunday, March 12.
While the playlist is obviously fixed this time, I want to try something new—I’m starting an extra credit playlist early, and it’s got 22 of my favorite film and TV sequences set to pop music. This one will be participatory, so post YouTube links to up to ten of your favorites in comments and I’ll add them as they come in. The only rule is the song should be “pop” broadly defined, and not just a piece of film score. My goal is to talk mostly about the Oscar winners, so if you have limited time devote it to the official list, but we can have a side convo about the film and TV sequences if folks really get into it.
I tried to schedule this meeting for March but that didn’t work out, so it will be on Saturday, April 1 at 8pm. The Casual Pint has worked well for us so we’ll stay there, and hopefully it will be warm enough to hold the meeting outside.
One last thing: some of you suggested at the last meeting that you might want to host a future meeting. Since more than one person might be interested, here’s how we’ll play it: the first person to post a playlist of between 15 and 25 songs and a 2-3 sentence description of a theme can host the next meeting. You can write the longer email invitation yourself if you like, or I can do it. As host, you can also pick the location, or we can just do the Casual Pint again. If you don’t post first but still want to host, you can do so after whoever posted before you. The deadline is the next meeting date (4/1): if no one has posted by then, I’ll host again.