A soundtrack, also written sound track, can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book,television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized recorded sound. There are different types of soundtracks, such as:
- Musical film soundtracks which concentrate primarily on the songs
(Examples: Happy, Singin' in the Rain) - Film scores which showcase the background music from non-musical movies
(Examples: Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings) - Albums of pop songs heard in whole or part in the background of non-musical movies
(Examples: Good Night Moon in Kill Bill and Silver Linings Playbook) - Video game soundtracks are often released after a game's release, usually consisting of the background music from the game's levels, menus, title screens, promo material (such as entire songs of which only segments were used in the game), cut-screens and occasionally sound-effects used in the game
(Examples: Sonic Heroes, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) - Albums which contain both music and dialogue from the film, such as the 1968 Romeo and Juliet, or the first authentic soundtrack album of The Wizard of Oz