Feels Like You're So Vain

Feels Like You're So Vain 

When you hear My Heart Will Go On… you think of the Titanic.

When you hear Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious… you think of Mary Poppins. 

When you hear Ghostbusters… you think of Ghostbusters the movie. 

Music plays a crucial role in any movie and for some songs they become iconic because of the movies. The music chosen for a movie sets the general feel and tone for the scene and has a huge effect on the viewers emotions. In one of my favorite romantic comedies, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, the music is used very effectively in my opinion with the main characters even singing the song themselves at one point. The two songs I think are the best examples from this movie are You’re So Vain by Carly Simon and Feels Like Home by Chantel Kreviazuk.  

The first song in the movie I want to talk about is, You're so Vain by Carly Simon. This song is played twice in the movie and there is a reason for that. The first time we hear this song is towards the beginning of the movie, when Andy (played by Kate Hudson) goes to Ben’s (played by Mathew McConaughey) apartment for dinner. When she gets there, she covers the apartment with tons of girly things including her top favorite CDs. In the mix of the CDs is Carly Simon’s album which she immediately plays. The lyrics of this song are very important to the movie. The popular lyrics state “You’re so vain, I bet you think this song is about you.” These lyrics are used to show a central theme of the movie – both characters are so focused on themselves and their own careers they are willing to pursue a relationship with the other purely for the sake of the bet or article.

The next song is Feels Like Home by Chantal Kreviazuk. This song is played when Andy and Ben go to Long Island to see his family. The minute they get there Andy is welcomed with open arms. They give her hugs and include her in the family game of Bullshit. Later in the day they go on a motorcycle ride where we see them laughing and totally falling for each other. Ben tries to be smooth which ends up with them covered in mud. It isn’t until they get home to clean up that this song is played. The lyrics of the song read into the moment perfectly. The song talks about this person, in their eyes and voice that feels like home. It is a feeling that “makes my heart beat fast” a feeling that you want to last. In this moment Andy feels at home with Ben and his family. She has been truly excepted by them and between all the crazy she was being to lose Ben she fell in love with him. 

Once we get to the end of the movie and the ten days is officially up, we find out the truth. Both Ben and Andy are at the diamonds party when they both find out what their reasoning for dating each other in the first place was. In the moment they both learn the truth about the bet and article, You’re so Vain is used to bring the movie full circle. We see Andy take the stage telling the crowd her and Ben will be singing in a duet which ends up with them singing the lyrics at each other and calling each other out for all the things they had done to each other in the last ten days. 

The songs used in this movie, like most movies, are very important to not only the moments but the central theme of the movie. You’re so Vain is used to foreshadow to the end of the movie when they find out the truth. It is an important song because of the repetition of it alone.  Then when we hear Feels Like Home, the instrumental alone shows the audiences that it is about to pull at your heartstrings. I believe the songs chosen for this movie specifically uses pathos to pull in the audience. This is a Rom Com and so the movie alone is going to make you feel for the characters, but the music chosen adds to that affect. The audience watching this film is probably majority female because it is a Rom Com and in that case the songs did their job at pulling in the right audience. Personally, when I hear either of these songs my mind immediately goes to How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and then I go straight home to watch it on Netflix.