Interpretative Soundtracks

In a couple of posts on this blog, one old one and another more recent one, I mentioned the term "interpretative soundtrack". This term refers to particular assortments of music that have some relationship to the Pokémon feature films in their old English dub. These are fascinating things that are as much linked to Pokémon as anything else, and they deserve a bit of explanation and discussion.

The "interpretative soundtrack" contains a collection of songs (mostly of the pop genre) that may have already been created prior to the film and are evocative of certain themes found in the film. This is something that I consider distinct from the "actual" soundtrack to the feature films themselves, which includes incidental music that play in the scenes and any songs that may be based on these and/or specifically made to relate with the film, as is common for other movies and on the Japanese side of the soundtracks. Even so, the two may coexist as one soundtrack.

The first two Pokémon feature films with their old dubs famously have their "interpretative soundtracks", which are previewed over the course of the credits sequence with bits and pieces of the songs concerned. After that, the practice waned, perhaps due to the decreased mainstream popularity of the films; it may not have been justifiable to license a number of pop songs to be compiled as a soundtrack to something that could be considered as "cult". Regardless, there are some gems found among the soundtracks, including the songs I've discussed above.

Anyone with a thorough knowledge of (popular) music and attachment to Pokémon could still conceivably make custom "interpretative soundtracks" for all the other films. It's something that a friend of mine had done for something outside of Pokémon, so it could be practiced for Pokémon as well. The soundtracks could be made contemporary to the time of the release of the film (not using anything made post facto) or free to use any music; it may perhaps use songs beyond English and Japanese. Whatever happens, the soundtrack has to be able to touch on themes that are addressed in the film, which is the key point of these soundtracks: to illustrate and evoke the films by music that may not be directly related.

These "interpretative soundtracks" are remarkable in that they encapsulate sentiments in the movie through a collection of music that aren't necessarily linked to Pokémon. While their official existence is rather short, those who are dedicated can always contrive one informally. What's important is that they can and do convey those sentiments, which makes them truly "interpretative". At that point, I consider their relationship to Pokémon worthy.

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