Jay-Z's American Gangster - despite sharing the title and cover art with the titular Ridley Scott feature - came about after he was shown an early cut of the film. That is to say: none of the songs appear in the movie, but the material resonated enough that he recorded the entire album in only a few weeks. Of course, this isn't the first time film has been a muse for music. We offer three other concept albums:
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Whoever stumbled upon the near-perfect synchronization of Pink Floyd's legendary work and Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz (after a late-night smoke session no doubt) created the most well known unoffical soundtrack. All band members explain the similarity as sheer coincidence, but with bootlegs of the film already embedded with the album as its backdrop, the combination will be remembered forever.
Air, The Virgin
Suicides (2000)
The Sofia Coppola film, based on the novel dealing with a town's innocence lost by the suicide of five high-school girls, inspired a companion album from the French act Air. The blissful ambiance fits perfectly with the tranquil suburban setting of the movie. While The Virgin Suicides only featured snippits from the duo, the album, released shortly after, captures its themes over 13 tracks.
David Bowie, Low (1977)
Most of Low - David Bowie's seminal experimental album - was intended as the soundtrack to 1976 sci-fi film, The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which Bowie himself stars as an alien who comes to Earth in search of water for his scorched home planet. The director apparently thought it didn't match the subject matter, but listen to the brooding "Warszawa" with its space-laser synth, and you'll start to wonder.
