Fusion Jazz, But Not As Smart

What begins with Cotton Bureau notifications, AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail,” Jimmy Stewart impressions, and the Mandela Effect eventually becomes an exploration of the movie soundtracks and scores that permanently lodged themselves in Dan and Adrian’s brains.The pair dig into why people so confidently misremember pop-culture history, from “Luke, I am your father” to Sinbad’s nonexistent genie movie, before finally remembering that they intended to discuss soundtracks. From there, the conversation moves through the glory days when movies came bundled with original songs, genre-spanning compilation albums, and music videos that were nearly as important as the films themselves.Dan and Adrian revisit Prince’s Batman album, Weird Al’s UHF soundtrack, The Crow, Singles, Judgment Night, Spawn, Batman Forever, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I Am Sam, The Fifth Element, and plenty more. Along the way, they discuss Vanilla Ice’s suspiciously convenient Ninja Rap, Aerosmith’s revival through Run-DMC, the cultural power of “Kiss from a Rose,” and the lost art of giving heroes instantly recognizable musical themes.The conversation closes with an important statistical discovery: nearly every episode of The Con Men Show contains a Star Trek reference. The three that do not must either be repaired—or buried beneath enough future episodes to become statistically insignificant.It’s memory, music, movies, and nostalgia, played like fusion jazz—but not as smart.