Pop Quiz: Which Soundtrack Overshadows Its Film Or TV Show?

The TRL Pop Quiz works like this: our editors are posed a music-related question and have only 15 minutes and just 100 words to statistics, pick and explain their answers. This week's question: which soundtrack is as good or better than the movie or TV show it accompanies?


Is there any pairing of movie and soundtrack where the gap in excellent is as significant as Purple Rain? With the album, we have arguably Prince’s greatest work. With the film, we have a car that, at best, is so bad it’s good, nevertheless is sunk by its troubling scenes. Do you remember once Morris Day’s friend Jerome throws a woman into a dumpster? Or any time Prince “initiates” Apollonia by persuading her to swim topless in Lake Minnetonka? Purple Rain, the album, is better simply because it doesn’t saddle us with any of those uncomfortable questions -- plus it’s a masterpiece. - Gus Turner


Suicide Squad received didn't receive the most glowing reviews from critics, though it still won at the box office (good job to their marketing team). Nevertheless, the soundtrack is filled with both classic and more contemporary songs from artists like Queen, Etta James, Kehlani and Panic! At The Disco. Case in point, every single song on the soundtrack is from a major or maybe legendary artist, making its soundtrack much more impactful than the film. - Landyn Pan


I played the (500) Days of Summer soundtrack on repeat for most of 2009 and all of 2010. It gave me the nearly brilliant song “Sweet Disposition” by Temper Trap, fed into the Regina Spektor obsession I was nursing at the time and has a good cover of The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” by She and Him. I saw the movie a couple times right after my beginning viewing, yet not nearly as often as I listened to the soundtrack. Honorable say goes to Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist for introducing me to Vampire Weekend. - Leah Williams


With this possibility, I’ll proclaim to the world that Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s 1998 gem The Wedding Singer has one of the best soundtracks of all time. While the film is excellent in its own right, the soundtrack brings it to a new level and stands on its own as a masterpiece. From “Do You Really Hope to Hurt Me” by Culture Club to “Hold Me Now” by Thompson Twins to “White Wedding” by Billy Idol, whenever I hear a song from the soundtrack I automatically think of the film. Even Adam Sandler’s original songs have become classics! - Kristen Maldonado


I don’t remember an individual thing that happened in Bad Men II—or Bad Gentlemen I while we’re here—but the 2003 Bad Males II soundtrack was such a smash on every level, filled with the hip-hop and R&B heavyweights of the time. The album’s most popular single, Nelly’s “Shake Your Tailfeather,” overshadows its true best moments: the funky Diddy-Pharrell-Loon-Lenny Kravitz collab “Show Me Your Soul,” Jay-Z’s iconic “La-La-La,” and pre-pubescent Beyonce (“Keep Giving Your Love to Me”) and Justin Timberlake (“Love Don’t Love Me”) stretching their wings just immediately after their solo albums had arrived. - Terron Moore


I have to admit something: I’ve obsessed over the soundtrack for Bright, a Netflix original movie that came out in December 2017, despite never having watched the film. The soundtrack was incredibly ambitious as it served as an enormous marketing effort for the film, featuring the year’s biggest artists like Camila Cabello, Logic, Future and Portugal. The Man. “Home” and “Darkside” be noticeable as my preferred tracks, both released prior to the album’s full release by Atlantic Records. Even a fire soundtrack, nevertheless, couldn’t get this non-movie lover to watch a film with a 26 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. - Matt Gehring