The use of popular music in Quentin Tarantinos 'Reservoir Dogs '

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, University of Potsdam, language: English, abstract: Qurntin Tarantino´s movies are mostly violent scenarios in the world of American West-Coast gangster bosses and their Hit-Men - Shoot-outs, language as brutal as the action and even cooler quotations. Almost all of his movies have managed to be at least cult among the younger generations. Is the type of music Tarantino uses in most his films responsible for their popularity, since it is mostly popular music? If it is, what exactly is the effect of the music that Tarantino uses? One may certainly say that in his movies film and music represent two different types of media: There are no movie-themes involved which have been composed only for this purpose. As a regisseur, Tarantino prefers 'chewing gum' music as he calls it, which contrasts the scenes taking place on the screen (Havighorst, Michaltsi, Strauß). Tarantino´s songs have has an 'own life' in the real world of the watchers, apart from the movie. The most famous example is probably the 'Pulp Fiction'- soundtrack-album, which in is, in certain circles, mostly of the female gender, even more popular than the movie itself. Anyway, it seems obvious that Tarantino has a specific style of combining the accoustic and the visual media in his works. I want to find out possible results and intentions of this more or less unique combination.