What type of song are these?

The "soundtrack" is the recording of all the music in a film or show.

The film's theme song would be part of the soundtrack as would any other song in the film.

Example:

"Zap City", performed by The Cult, was a song from the soundtrack of the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Thank you!

AnonymousWhat type of song are these?

I can't think of any "type" adjective used to describe "a song from a movie." Sometimes they're written by the person who did the score, and sometimes they're written by someone else, but specifically for that film. Sometimes they've been composed long before the movie was conceived, but are made famous by the fil

The body of music for a film is called a score. But that is not one individual song, it is the entire composition. The soundtrack may or may not contain the entire score. Usually it is only the collection of the more important songs that can conveniently fit on a CD.

We used to call background music "elevator music." I don't know where the term originated, but the music may have he

This from a site selling CD's:

Please note that songs listed here (and in the movie credits) cannot always be found on CD soundtracks. Please check CD track details for confirmation.

We need to distinguish between "the movie soundtrack" and "a CD soundtrack." (I'm gonna buy the soundtrack.)

Technology marches onward.

Hi Anonymous and Alpha -

You might consider “Muzak” as a synonym for "background music".

My guess is that "elevator music" also refers to Muzak.

Muzak is the name of an American corporation that continues to sell scientifically engineered sound which they call functional music.[1] It affects those who hear it but does not require a conscious listening effort. The Muzak c

AnonymousCould you let me know, please, what you call a song in a film which is not the theme, just one of the many that can be heard in it?
And my other question, is there a synonym for "background music"?

I took the second question in the context of film/movie music.
Showing my age, there was a time when the "mood music" accompanying th

Thank you very much, JohnParis, Avangi and AlpheccaStars! Your posts contain very interesting details!

Avangi

AnonymousI thought "background music" is an umbrella term for every piece of music you can hear in a film which isn't performed as the main attraction of the scene, and which isn't the theme of the movie, either. I thought it irrelevant in this respect whether the piece is a song or an instrumental composition.

Definitions can vary.
Clearly, if it has no t

And then some people use the word "song" to refer (wrongly, I think) to any musical composition, even if nobody is singing!