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The 24 Greatest Movie Music Moments Of 2015

Backstreet was the only legitimate boy band that ever came out of Florida, period.

24. The Cure-accompanied briefcase battle In Ant-Man.

23. The band busts out some Lady Gaga in Ricki and the Flash.

22. The Turandot fight in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

21. That goddamn Wiz Khalifa song plays in Furious 7.

20. Peter is welcomed to Neverland with a Nirvana song in Pan.

19. "Modern Love" makes Lainey party in Sleeping With Other People.

18. Jamie gets Josh pumped up with "Eye of the Tiger" in While We're Young.

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Noah Baumbach's comedy never delineates its Brooklyn generation gap more neatly than when twentysomething hipster Jamie (Adam Driver) tries to psych up fortysomething filmmaker Josh (Ben Stiller) for an investor meeting by making him listen to Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" on his headphones. "I remember when this song was just considered bad," Josh says. "But it's working!"

17. Daft Punk puts on "Da Funk" in Eden.

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Paul Vallée (Félix de Givry), the main character in Eden, never manages to become a world-renowned DJ. Instead, over his decade-plus rise and fall, the closest he comes is being locally famous, right on the cusp of something bigger while never crossing over. But two of his friends on the scene go from just being Thomas (Vincent Lacoste) and Guy-Man (Arnaud Azoulay) to becoming Daft Punk, and the handful of times in which their paths cross with Paul's are all terrific, especially at the house party scene in which they break out their new track. The attendees boo when the pair turns down the music, and then nervously start up "Da Funk." "Not bad," one of the characters observes, listening to the song that would become the group's first big hit, a historic moment in their career. "I prefer when it was more techno," another shrugs.

16. Jess and Milly dance to "Losing My Religion" in Miss You Already.

15. David Bowie's "Starman" is used in an actual space context in The Martian.

14. Cole and Sophie's Vegas interlude in We Are Your Friends.

13. Ayiva's daughter dances to "We Found Love" over Skype in Mediterranea.

12. "Uptown Girl" turns up in the Trainwreck dance sequence.

11. Amy Winehouse sings "Back to Black" in Amy.

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Like any music documentary worth its salt, Amy features plenty of its subject's songs alongside its portrayal of the singer's downward spiral. But the scene in which Amy Winehouse sings "Back to Black" in the recording studio in 2006 is noteworthy for the blast of Winehouse's unadorned vocals it offers, a reminder of just how much incredible talent she had. That voice is so big and so imbued with pain and a sense of having lived — and then the track kicks in. Instant goosebumps.

10. The existence of the Doof Warrior in Mad Max: Fury Road.

9. Lisa sings Cyndi Lauper in Anomalisa.

8. Brian Wilson hears the music in his head in Love & Mercy.

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With much respect to John Cusack and Elizabeth Banks, the best parts of the dual timeline in Love & Mercy all take place in the '60s, when a younger Brian Wilson, played by Paul Dano, creates some of the greatest pop songs of all time and has a mental breakdown. The sequences Wilson spends in the studio, coaxing soon-to-be familiar sounds from a group of session musicians, are blissfully centered on the actual assembling of visionary music. "How does that work — two basslines in two different keys?" one of the musicians asks Wilson. "It works in my head," he replies. It works in ours, too, since when they start playing, it turns out to be the intro to "Wouldn't It Be Nice."

7. Alexandra takes on "Toyland" in Tangerine.

6. The anniversary-party dance in 45 Years.

5. The targets of "No Vaseline" hear it for the first time in Straight Outta Compton.

4. The Rihanna lip sync in Girlhood.

3. Nelly sings "Speak Low" in Phoenix.

2. Richie makes the cashier smile in Magic Mike XXL.

In the first Magic Mike, male stripping was portrayed as this irresistible dead-end gig for its characters, an addictive, never-ending fest of female adoration. Magic Mike XXL reunites the Kings of Tampa in order to turn its attention to the services they provide, with the understanding that it's not sex that their customer base is after — which is why Richie (Joe Manganiello) gets sent into a minimart, tasked to make the bored girl behind the counter smile. The way he does it, with an impromptu routine to "I Want It That Way" (a callback to an earlier conversation that ended with the insistence that "Backstreet was the only legitimate boy band that ever came out of Florida, period"), is a masterpiece of rippling muscles and comic timing, topped off with the rest of the guys cheering Richie on from outside the window.

1. The theme from Rocky finally plays in Creed.