10 Ridiculously Overused Movie Songs

9. The Clash - London Calling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vHvzybkqfo 1979's London Calling album by The Clash was what truly fired them into the cultural stratosphere and made them household names, in large part due to the titular single and significance it continues to have with listeners and cinematic audiences. There's no denying how brilliant the song is, heralding the civil unrest of the time, spurred on by the counter-cultural revolution, but the problem is that it's basically become the all-catch song that American movies use whenever a character heads to England. Plenty of trailers for British films (London Boulevard, The Bank Job) will use it unimaginatively to try and appeal to a worldwide audience, whereas others will actually use it more shamelessly in the film itself (Billy Elliot, Die Another Day, The Pirates!). Though we might criticise the US for overusing it, we're in fact not much better ourselves.
 
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.