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I recently watched Patrick H. Willems’ video on pop culture needle drops. He lists many reasons why directors do this. It could be something as cynical as playing something from the studio’s library. It could be to ground you in a certain era, by playing some of that decade’s hits.
The best reason, I think, is the example he pulled from Drive. Ryan Gosling plays a silent hero who is barely human. He gets a moment, though, where he’s out on a sunny pleasant drive with a young mother and her child. Since Gosling is the silent type, he’s not going to tell them how he feels.
The music does, though. As College & Electric Youth tell us, he feels like a real human being… and a real hero.
The music is non-diagetic, which means “having a source external to the context of the story, and not heard by the characters”. It’s not played on the radio or by a band that’s in the room.
A diagetic needle drop is more directly tied to the characters, giving you insight into their mental state. Like, what kind of music is this character so into that they’ll dance to it in a crowded supermarket?
Non-diagetic needle drops are for the audience. It can show you a moment of liberation. It can show that a guy has his eyes on the most beautiful woman in the room. It can indicate danger. It can temporarily confuse an audience by playing a modern pop hit with characters from the 1700’s.
A needle drop can be as simple as a hero thinking themselves a badass —- Aquaman striding in slow-mo to the sea as “Icky Thump” plays in Justice League like he’s a pro-wrestler walking out to his theme. Or it could be the opposite, such as when the Jim Carroll Band’s “People Who Died” plays as Amanda Waller’s indifferent underlings exchange cash over the dead Suicide Squad members.
And at its best, a non-diagetic needle drop will be linked to a movie scene for all time. When you hear the piano part of “Layla”, what comes immediately to mind? Or Huey Lewis’ “Power of Love”? When you hear “The End” by the Doors, does your mind immediately conjure up a humid room where a ceiling fan slowly rotates like a helicopter’s blades? And while Malignant used The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?”, I think the director quite knowingly placed it there because we associated that song quite famously with another movie.
Bonus prompt: what is the best non-diagetic needle drop?