In the end, after the weekend of soul-searching, some find new direction, some not. Others pick up where they left off. Though never stated per se, “the big chill” has hit them the reality that their undergraduate dreams and intentions are not being realized. Their lives and careers have not turned out exactly as they envisioned them in college. Turns out, life is more difficult and less inspiring than what they thought it would be. This assorted mix of characters retires from the funeral to the South Carolina home of one of the group, where they each work through their various feelings, concerns and hopes during the weekend. They eat, drink, cavort, reminisce, dance, smoke dope, and bare their souls. They fondly recall their college days and their causes, but also confront their disappointments and the waning of their idealism.
The big chill soundtrack tv#
Included among this group of friends are: a medical doctor an owner of athletic shoe company a TV actor a public-defender-turned-corporate-lawyer an aimless and somewhat traumatized Vietnam veteran a bored-to-tears housewife a People magazine writer and an attractive, somewhat younger woman who was living with the departed Alex at the time of his suicide. They soon become immersed in a “ten-years-later” reality check on what they each have become since their college days. The story opens at the funeral of Alex, as his death is the first unpleasant bit of reality to hit the group. The film’s star-studded cast included Glenn Close, William Hurt, Tom Berenger, and Jeff Goldblum, among others. The Big Chill is an introspective film featuring a weekend of soul searching by the group of college friends who have lost one of their former inner circle to suicide, activist Alex Marshall (Kevin Costner played the corpse). What follows below is some history on Madison Avenue’s use of rock music in advertising but first, a few words on The Big Chill’s storyline and its musical packaging. Songs listed by approximate appearance in the film. Indeed, by the mid-1980s oldies rock ‘n roll had reached vintage nostalgic value among middling Baby Boomers, who were then arriving by the millions in their full, prime-time spending years. And while it wasn’t the only factor, The Big Chill certainly helped persuade Madison Avenue to begin using original-track rock ‘n roll more prominently in their advertising. In fact, a few industry wags would call the practice “Big Chill advertising.”
The big chill soundtrack movie#
“…he movie probably gave far too many ad agencies the notion to buy up the rights to 60s’ songs for use in pushing the nostalgia buttons of key-demographic consumers,” later wrote Ken Tucker in The New York Times. Prior to The Big Chill, for the most part, popular rock musicians sang company jingles, or advertisers used copied versions of their songs, performed by imitators and studio groups. But after The Big Chill, there was a decided turn by Madison Avenue to use original rock ‘n roll songs, or portions of them, in all kinds of advertising. In fact, the movie’s music became something of a key landmark in the history of advertising, as it would help to spur the use of original rock music in a myriad of advertising applications in the years that followed. The Big Chill did reasonably well at the box office and also in its DVD afterlife, and today still has fans online and elsewhere.īut for many who first saw the film in 1983, it was the soundtrack - an evocative collection of original 1960s rock ‘n roll tunes - that was especially memorable and enduring. In September 1983, a movie named The Big Chill was released - a story about eight former 1960s’ college friends who gather for an unscheduled reunion after a friend’s untimely death. The Columbia film was nominated for, but did not win, three academy awards, including Best Picture. Poster for the 1983 film, with subhead above that reads: 'The story of eight old friends searching for something they lost, and finding that all they needed was each other.' For many Baby Boomers who saw this film, the soundtrack was especially memorable, a fact not lost on Madison Avenue.
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