10 Things I Hate About You

Year: 1999
Film: 10 Things I Hate About You
Album: 10 Things I Hate About You
Artist: Various, including Letters to Cleo and Sister Hazel

Released in 1999, the end of the 90s, 10 Things I Hate About You is an updated version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. With strong characters and sharp dialogue, it had a snappy soundtrack too. Here are 10 things I love about the soundtrack.



(I thought about doing a list of 90, to go with the theme for this week, but decided there wasn't enough space.)

1. 'Can't take my eyes off of you' by Heath Ledger.
Perfectly staged, perfectly choreographed, perfectly performed and perfectly hilarious.




2. Gratuitous concert scenes where dancers bop out of sync with the rhythm.
I know it's because they had to dub in the music later otherwise the dialogue couldn't be, but can't someone off screen tap a beat for them?

3. Character defining music.
A car with four teen girls inside waits at a pedestrian crossing. They groove happily to their car radio. Another car pulls up beside them, a single teen girl with an unfriendly expression. She glances at the four girls. They face the front in unison. As soon as the pedestrians pass the front of the unfriendly girl's car, she takes off, leaving the four girls behind. Scene change to the front of an American high school, crowded with students. The same unfriendly girl strides through them. She notices a poster for the upcoming prom and tears it down to the protests of the girl who stuck it there. The unfriendly girl enters the school. End scene.

If this isn't enough characterisation for you, then let's add a rock track singing 'I don't give a damn about my bad reputation' over it. Music, like dialogue or action, is a tool that can help quickly define a character. It sounds good too.

4. Soundtrack described as 'hip' on back of DVD
Did anyone seriously say 'hip' back then? I can't remember.

5. Grunge genre
Grunge is the time, is the place, is the motion. Grunge is the way we are feeling.

As I said in number 3, music is a tool that can define a character. It can also define a generation. The disillusionment, the hedonism, and the rawness are reflected in the grunge music of the soundtrack. It is very appropriate that it is Kate's music of choice.

6. Captioned music.
For those who like reading while they watch, it always helps to be able to understand the lyrics. This is rare in DVD releases.

7. Passionate performance
One of the things I most enjoy about music is the artists enjoying their music. The music wouldn't be half as strong if the performers didn't put their feelings into it. You can see it too in the concert scenes. The music is in them in the strut of the singer and the sway of the guitarists. Due to the restraints of practicality mentioned in point 2, they are forced to mime, but their performance is so gutsy this is not a disadvantage. Lip-synching done right.

8. Popular band cleverly disguised as an Indie band.
Letters to Cleo, Kate's favourite band that played at the prom, rose to fame in 1993 with their album Aurora Gory Alice. They disbanded in 2000, then reunited for a small tour in 2008. Thank you, Wikipedia.

This is a greatly ironic phenomenon. While I didn't know the band in this situation, I have seen another example. In the anime BECK, which follows a high school boy join an indie band and their journey in the general direction of the top, the last episode has band in the background playing this song:



Which would be familiar to anyone who's watched FLCL. Recognising it is at the same time funny (yeah, like I'd hear anything like that at an underground club) and humbling, as it is a reminder that every band has been in this situation before.

9. Rock and Shakespeare.
Everybody knows if Shakespeare were around today, he'd write rock lyrics.

Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all:
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?

[Power chords]

No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more.

[Killer riff]

10. Nostalgia
Sometimes the best part of looking back an old favourite is thinking back to the time it came out. Remembering the time you heard the music on the radio. Trying to recall the lyrics you sung with friends. Wishing you were more attentive back then. This movie is like a time capsule, and the songs are letters to your youth.