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I am not sure if this has been adressed in any other thread on this forum, but here goes nothing... Why does a soundtrack rarely or never follow the chronology of the movie the soundtrack is written for. I have always wondered about this but never bothered to find an answer, so hopefully there is someone on this forum who knows the score (pun intended)...

For the most part I think soundtracks are sequenced so that the order of the music works as a listening experience. Often that will mean having them out of sequence with their use in the film itself. Occasionally (and particularly when enthusiasts/fans are involved) you get a more "purist" approach which attempts track sequencing in film-order - a good example being Waxwork's upcoming extended score to Day of the Dead. As far as I can tell, that ones' in spot-on film order!

I guess the other thing to remember is that (especially with big studios) the artists' (both directors and composers) might well not have a lot of say in such matters themselves. Which accounts for those great scores which are relegated to one or two tracks on an otherwise "source" music complilation OST. Classic examples off top of my head are Fright Night and The Warriors (although in both those cases smaller labels eventually put out the full incidental scores on CD.)