When people think of the theory that an album can sync up with a movie while being played at the same time, they think of The Wizard of Oz playing alongside Pink Floyd's 1973 LP The Dark Side of the Moon, also known as The Dark Side of the Rainbow. While the members of Pink Floyd were most likely not thinking about The Wizard of Oz when making their most iconic album, the fan theory that the two can play together has at least spawned some points of interest.
The album cover of a gray light going through a prism and turning into rainbow colors is similar to how the movie is structured from going black-and-white to technicolor. Scenes that parallel certain songs when synced include a woman singing/screaming during "The Great Gig in the Sky" while the movie's tornado appears, the album's use of a heartbeat coinciding with the Tin Man's new heart beating and the Scarecrow Dancing while the lyrics "the lunatic is on the grass" are sung.
While The Dark Side of the Rainbow remains a fun discussion topic for movie and music fans, arguably the second most popular theory of an album and movie syncing up together is that of Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Smashing Pumpkins 1995 essential album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a theory further explored on the YouTube channel Trash Theory. Unlike how The Dark Side of The Rainbow theory was inspired by fans over the past few decades, the Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness theory was coined by the filmmaker and comic book creator themselves.
"Is there an album you think should be played alongside Scott Pilgrim, Dark Side of the Moon style?" Wright asked author Bryan Lee O'Malley during the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World DVD commentary
"Yeah, maybe something by the Smashing Pumpkins," O'Malley replied, which Wright supported in the commentary.
O'Malley also suggested the band's debut record Gish before Wright brought up Mellon Collie and agreed, citing that fact that Mellon Collie is a double album and just as long as the movie itself. In fact the 1995 album has 28 total songs and clocks in at two hours and two minutes long, ten minutes longer than the movie itself.
The way their conversation on commentary goes seems that Wright didn't intend on making the movie to coincide with a Smashing Pumpkins album, but the fan theory that it could holds more weight than The Dark Side of the Rainbow one because the band's image is in the movie. The title character is seen wearing two different Smashing Pumpkin shirts in the movie, and O'Malley titled the third volume of the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness, a direct reference to Mellon Collie.
In a 2010 FluxBlog interview O'Malley explained why the band were frequently referenced, saying, "They were my other band in high school and early college, so, since I was looking at that period of my life, I figured I would listen to that music again. And the Infinite Sadness is just kind of a jokey play on a Harry Potter type of title. Harry Potter and the Infinite Sadness." He also remarked that, "I'm weirded out by people who still list the Pumpkins as their favorite band on MySpace or whatever, though," citing that the fandom for the band is more of a phase for teenagers than for adulthood a la The Beatles.
Despite several blog posts explaining how it could work, actually playing the movie and the album together has both its interesting moments and inconsistencies. When starting the album eight seconds before the movie, the song "Tonight, Tonight" coincides with Pilgrim's band Sex Bob-Omb playing their own song, but that dramatic song continues into a quiet scene at his apartment. Other Smashing Pumpkins classics like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "1979" may match the tone of the scene, but that's because the music of the band and the Scott Pilgrim franchise are beloved by adolescents and young adults worldwide. Besides, the original Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack is too good to be overtaken by the Smashing Pumpkins album as the movie's definitive music.