Fallout cemented it in the younger generations, but movie producers always loved old times stuff because nine times out of ten, the artist smoked themselves to death and the rights are owned by the studio

there’s some fine lines between hamfisted theme-ing via musical choices, intentional irony, and just some shit a film freak likes listening to

for example: Hudson Hawk is a movie about criminals, but the inclusion of ‘Swinging on a Star’ amongst other ‘oldie’ standbys isn’t connected to a statement about that music, though it is next to crime shit and beatdown shit. it’s because Bruce Willis is a boomer and liked that song, and created a diagetic excuse to include it. which brings up the next thing, filmmakers are 10+ years older than the subjects they ‘speak to’ as artists. their musical choices and tastes are necessarily older than the era they come to represent. Tarantino is the 90s movie guy, his musical sensibilities lie in the 70s and 80s.

Counterpoint: the “I don’t want to set the world on fire” song is very catchy and singable

I haven’t liked an instance of this since the opening sequence of the first Deadpool movie, which was itself lampooning the style. I believe Rick and Morty did it recently as well and it just felt stale.

I think it started when the music was still contemporary with Dr Strangelove then Fallout and imitators used the same shorthand.

This is as old as the hills. Super Smash Bros did it for a commercial.

Like American Psycho?

I don’t like it either. It feels kind of insulting to the music, like the editors are implying that the song is stupid and lame.