soundtrack

plural soundtracks

1. A narrow strip running down a movie film that carries the recorded sound in synchronization with the pictures.
2. The sound (especially the music) component of a movie, video game, etc.
3. A recording or compilation of recordings of such music for sale.
4. A background sound that is part of a larger event.

   There was a startling lack of creativity and if Van Gaal had listened closely he would have made out the mocking chants from the away end, as the visiting fans embarked on the repertoire of songs that formed the soundtrack to David Moyes’s time in the job.

   2014 August 16, Daniel Taylor, “Swansea upstage Manchester United in Louis van Gaal’s Premier League bow”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 31 Aug 2025

5. Popular music associated with a particular historical era or time of one's life, especially nostalgically.

   the soundtrack of our relationship

   3 more examples

   CDs, iPods, and other forms of digital downloading, large numbers of specialty music channels or digitalized television services, satellite radio, and related media, all mean that anyone interested in the soundtrack of the sixties can access any song at any time in almost any place — a dream unbelievable to a sixties teen carrying his or her transistor radio.

   2012 April 5, Victor Brooks, Last Season of Innocence: The Teen Experience in the 1960s, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, →ISBN, page 194

   But in my young mind, nothing was haphazard, and certain songs that came over the car radio became fundamental parts of the resonating soundtrack of my youth.

   2026 March 7, Daphne A. Brooks, Blackstar Rising and the Purple Reign: The Sonic Afterlives of David Bowie and Prince, Duke University Press, →ISBN

   [See title]

   2025 August 21, Darren Richman, “OPINION: Tom Lehrer – the musical comedy soundtrack of my childhood”, in Jewish News, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2025

present singular third person soundtracks · participle present soundtracking · participle past soundtracked · past soundtracked · alternative sound-track

1. transitiveTo provide, or to act as, the sound or music component of a film.

   The world, in turn, watched, clicked, cried, danced, sang along, swooned, caravanned to stadiums and movie theaters, let her work soundtrack their lives.

   2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2023