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Fans of the great Quentin Tarantino each have their own favourite when it comes to the director’s back catalogue. Some would go for his debut, Reservoir Dogs, whilst others prefer the slick, non-linear fun of Pulp Fiction. Jackie Brown often comes up as a dark horse pick, whilst those with more conventional taste prefer the bloody high-noon drama of Django Unchained. Then there’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino’s most recent venture, but already considered a classic.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a dwindling actor and Brad Pitt as his reliable stuntman, the film explores the wild world of late-1960s Hollywood. It blends reality and fiction, particularly surrounding Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Sharon Tate, the rising star infamously murdered by the Manson family. It’s gritty, it’s ruthless, and it’s well-acted. You can see why so many people love it.
Another stellar component of the film is its soundtrack. Stuffed full of iconic rock tracks from the era, the music of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is deployed perfectly, both non-diegetically and through the radio station KHJ, which plays a key role in the story. The official soundtrack of the movie, which was nominated for a Grammy, is a curated selection of the dozens of pieces of music featured in the finished product. The album also features jingles and adverts, designed to simulate the experience of listening to a full 70 minutes of KHJ programming.
“I’ve heard a few people say that I think that for a soundtrack it should be complete,” Tarantino told an audience at the Grammy Museum (via Variety). “That’s like saying that every scene you ever shoot for your film should be in the film… Especially in today’s world, you can just read the end (credits) of all the music that was in the movie even for a little bit, and you can do a Spotify thing or find most of that stuff on YouTube, if you just want a regurgitation of everything that was used in the movie. But if you want your album to be solid, where the idea is you put it on in the car and you’re not skipping anything… you’ve got to cultivate it.”
Tarantino would have been five or six years old during 1969. He used his vague recollections of the time to help craft the film’s soundtrack, as well as tapes from the actual KHJ station back in the day. “Of course they played the Beatles and of course they played the Rolling Stones,” he said. “But there was an AM radio sound… In making KHJ such a personality in the piece and then allowing that to be so dominant in the story, that was not just me crafting a 6- or 7-year-old memory on it, because I do remember how everybody in Los Angeles listened to KHJ.”
The real KHJ was an incredibly popular station during the late-60s. Their DJs became stars and, at one point, they had an audience share of almost 50% of the LA area’s teenage listeners. They haven’t been a big deal since the late-1970s, but they remain in operation to this day.
Any film about the 1960s has to include the music of the time. Tarantino does a brilliant job in creating a sonic portrait of the era; a level of detail few other directors could achieve.
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