While this list certainly celebrates the pre-Napster 1990s, when the recording industry was flush with cash and setting money aside for music licensing became an essential part of the filmmaking budgeting process, we also aimed to include a wide variety of genres, directors, and eras, including the playlist-obsessed present, and we considered how the overall album holds together, not just whether it includes a monster hit song.

After all, movie soundtracks are personal. All of these operating guidelines, especially that third rule, may explain why that one soundtrack you rushed out to buy at Tower Records back in the day isn't on this list. We followed - and, yes, occasionally bent - a handful of self-created rules about what qualifies as a soundtrack: no orchestral movie scores (sorry, Hans Zimmer) no traditional movie musicals (apologies, Grease fans) and only one movie per director (Cameron Crowe was particularly difficult).

For the purposes of this list, we consider the movie soundtrack to be a unique art form, one with distinct and complicated ties to the history of popular music.

Jay z blueprint 1 production credit