Oscar sings a sour note

Some of you may remember that one of my fervent hopes in life was to see the theme song to Snakes on a Plane("Come on,Bring It" by Cobra Starship)be nominated for Best Song at the 2007 Academy Awards. Well,so far 56 songs have been deemed consideration worthy and Snakes on a Plane is not one of them! Shocking,isn't it? I mean,really-the theme from the new Rocky movie-which isn't even out in theaters yet!-is on the list and not SOAP? What gives?

If you click the title link above,you'll see the full list of possible song nominees. The only one that looks like it would be great to see on Oscar night is Borat's "O Kazahkstan"(very nice,waawaweewa!). Otherwise,it's Treacleville. The guidelines for being eligible for Best Song are"a song must consist of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the film. A clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody must be used in the body of the film or as the first music cue in the end credits." How does the SOAP song not qualify,with rules like that in place?

Granted that I haven't seen the movie but I'm sure they must've played that song over the end credits. It certainly meets the other requirements;just take a listen here to refresh your memory:



Perhaps this overlooking is due to genre bias-many people would say"Well,it is from a horror movie,you know." While you can debate over whether SOAP is an action or a horror film(it did recieve alot of PR from the horror industry,including the televised horror/sci-fi awards shows that were on TV a couple of months ago),let's assume that SOAP is considered a horror movie.

Horror movies are better known for theme music(Halloween,Friday the 13th,etc)rather than for theme songs. A look at such offerings in the past may shed some light on why SOAP is being shunned here.

The Nightmare on Elm Street series always tried it's hardest to keep in tune with the musicial tastes of it's core audience. Nightmare on Elm Street 3:The Dream Warriors pumped out this ditty by Dokken and with the help of future Medium Patricia Arquette(who played a key role in the movie),attempted to set a heavy metal mood. It's hard to tell who Patricia's more scared of,Dokken or Freddy:



Metal wasn't the only type of popular music that the New Line Films folk tapped into. For Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master,Freddy himself busted a rhyme or two with the Fat Boys:



Other non-series fright films joined the rock n' roll bandwagon. The Stephen King cinematic adaptation of Pet Semetary was able to snag the Ramones to sing the title song(warning,pet lovers may not want to look at some of the clips here):



A recent example of mainstream music assaulting cineplexes is Scream 3(which is such a lousy movie that it makes the parody version,Scary Movie 3,look like a prime candidate for an AFI Best of list)with Creed and David Arquette,following in his sister's sinister video footsteps:



Is it fair to judge "Come on,Bring it" by these former musicial follies,I ask you? Just take a gander at David Bowie's theme for the remake of Cat People(which won a Golden Globe award). It's still a favorite tune amongst Bowie fans and even tho he didn't make an official tie-in music video for it,this one has a very theatrical vibe,almost Broadway like:




Perhaps the Academy will come to it's senses in time. The nominees will be announced on January 23 of next year so if anyone cares to send in some write-in votes(which may be totally ignored),you might want to send them to this address,publicity@oscars.org. No chance of a guaranteed Oscar miracle but if the SOAP song does get played at the Kodak Theatre come this February,please let Samuel L. Jackson introduce it with that line we all know and love.