Zoe Praises the Purple Rain Soundtrack

Vinyl hijackers known as the Popcorn Snobs are catching up on their theme, ‘The Taking of April A-Z,’ as they run this blog for the next 11 (or so) days.

Hi all its Zoe, returning to pinpoint what a picture-perfect movie soundtrack looks like. Or better yet, what it sounds like...

Purple Rain 

It's an album made for the romantic drama film of the same name and performed by Prince and The Revolution.

You know a movie has a perfect soundtrack when you listen to the entire thing without ever feeling the urge to press the skip button. Purple Rain is that kind of soundtrack, where every single song rocks your socks off!

It also helps that Prince made his acting debut in the movie, about a young musician grappling with an abusive home life, irresistible love interest, rivalry and unsatisfied bandmates on the road to stardom. As the lead character of this film and producer of the soundtrack, Prince was able to make the music blend seamlessly throughout the narrative and become an integral part of the viewing experience. The songs became just as important as the movie plot. 

You’d be hard pressed to find an album comparable to Purple Rain, winner of an Academy Award for Best Music in an Original Song Score and recipient of two Grammy Awards – one each for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Album Of Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Special. Prince also received a Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Original Song – Motion Picture for “When Doves Cry,” one of his biggest hits from Purple Rain. 

Dear PRINCE,

THANK YOU for a great performance on-screen as The Kid and off-screen as the genius behind a movie soundtrack that stands the test of time!

~ Hugs and Kisses from Zoe, Nicole and the Popcorn Snobs

Hey Academy, how about an Oscar for 'Earned It' by The Weeknd?

Dear voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,

Knowing the 88th annual Academy Awards are a few days away, I'm writing to encourage your recognition of one of the most acclaimed musical compositions on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack -- "Earned It," performed by Abel Tesfaye (aka The Weeknd) -- as Best Original Song.

The tune excels at seducing listeners into believing our needs and desires will be met in ways that can only be fully understood through the experience of surrendering to an outside force. It is spellbinding in the same way that Fifty Shades of Grey portrays it's protagonist Anastasia Steele as innocent and unsuspecting prey that gets wrapped up in Christian Grey's web of mind games, control and eroticism. "Earned It" is a force that pulls at us like the ropes that bind actress Dakota Johnson's body in the music video, also helmed by Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson.

Tom Mackay, Executive Vice President of A&R at Republic Records describes working with The Weeknd as an unbelievable experience; in a collaboration with Universal Pictures that resulted in the singer's first Top 5 single of his career, on the Billboard music charts. Written by Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Quenneville and Stephan Moccio, "Earned It" is also the only song that appears in the Fifty Shades of Grey twice. In addition to the singer winning his first Grammy award for this tune, in the category of Best R&B Performance, The Weekend also scored a Best Song Written for Visual Media nomination for "Earned It."

Universial Pictures, music buyers that crowned Fifty Shades of Grey with the highest selling multi-act compilation soundtrack since Get Rich or Die Tryin (2005) and the largest debut for a soundtrack since Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009), and The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences recognize that this is more than a hot tune.

It just works....on all levels, and for the right reasons. Period.

The track's arrangement, led by Abel Tesfaye's performance, lends itself to the hynotizing nature of the film it was made for and is as magical as any Best Original Song can get.

Wouldn't YOU agree that 'Earned It' by The Weeknd deserves an Oscar?

Urbanworld Film Festival Lights up the Red Carpet at AMC

Chef Roblé Ali from BRAVO TV and Project Runway model Shaya Ali attend the 19th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival.In the film business, a red carpet is akin to fashion industry runways, as big names and up-and-coming talent come out and strut their moneymakers. It’s more about substance over style for those appearing in support of movies that have people within the big and small screen arena talking. For audiences at the 19th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival taking place this weekend at AMC Empire 25 on 42nd street, Muhammad Ali: The People's Champ featuring stars such as rapper T.I. and actor Jaleel White stand among them.

On opening night Wednesday, the red carpet was also lit with surprises and fun times spearheaded by personalities who made their presence known.

During his hosting activities as 2015 Festival Ambassador, actor-singer Tyrese Gibson took a moment to plug the premiere of Shame, a short film set in the 1960s. Tyrese plays an abusive husband struggling with addiction in the pursuit of his musical dreams in this narrative drama playing Saturday at 6:30pm. Produced by Oscar winner Denzel Washington, the movie also stars Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Hudson and serves as the lead-in to Urbanworld's highly anticipated closing night documentary A Ballerina’s Tale about ballet dancer Misty Copeland. Latino writer Victor Cruz and Chinese filmmaker Trevor Zhou were also on hand to make sure their screenings get that extra push -- a necessity for the 80 titles competing for audiences, distribution, press reviews and awards at this year's Urbanworld film festival, presented by BET networks with founding sponsor, HBO.

Cruz is the writer behind The Stockroom, a narrative feature about a stockroom supervisor who, upon approaching his  10-year anniversary on the job, must choose between remaining there or pursuing dreams of being a stand-up comic. The Stockroom, which is also Cruz’s directorial debut, plays at 5:00pm today. Zhou’s short film The Waltz is about an immigrant mother who, in the midst of a crumbling marriage and hoarding compulsion, tries to reclaim her life when she stumbles upon dancing lessons. The Waltz plays in the festival’s 12pm noon “Shorts Program 3” lineup on Saturday.

Urbanworld Film Festival founder Stacy Spikes takes selfies with the red carpet crowd on opening night.Contrary to what it may seem, Urbanworld is much more than business, as shown by leaders who had a good time walking the red carpet including hip-hop music artist David Banner and Urbanworld Film Festival founder Stacy Spikes; both captured selfies with an eager crowd of men and women at the front lines of all the lights, cameras and Time Square action.

"19 YEARS!!!," yelled a cheerful Spikes -- one of several well-known figures unleashing a kind of energy in the air that let everyone watching know that a lot of the smiles on this runway are there for real, not for show.

Urbanworld’s long history is an example of what can be done when you make a commitment to providing opportunities for diverse stories about the African-American experience -- and universal tales involving people of color -- to get their time in the spotlight. 19 years of fulfilled dreams. 19 years of careers launched. 19 years of blood, sweat equity and tears to provide a home where creatives have a chance to share their vision with the rest of the world. It took 19 years to build a place that gives women, LGBT, black, yellow and brown communities ample representation in front of the camera just as well as behind the lens. That’s one of the reasons why attending film festivals and supporting the kind of films we want to see in the theater (and on television) helps to prove to the industry and narrow-minded members of society that all lives, stories and experiences do matter…including ours.