Tarantino is certainly not the first nor the last director to pair brutal images with frothy music for ironic effect: Stanley Kubrick pioneered the practice in A Clockwork Orange (1971), where “Singin’ in the Rain” accompanied a graphic murder. In fact, it has become so commonplace to accompany violence with lighthearted music that the New York Times titled its 1994 commentary on the practice “It’s Got a Nice Beat, You Can Torture to It.” The pairing of brutality with bubbly music in Reservoir Dogs remains amazingly effective, nonetheless.
