What do we love more than the low-budget, early 2000s cult classics? The songs that were made for them

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The year 2000 to the early 2010s was a renaissance period for low-budget cult classics that birthed some of the best fake songs ever. As an aging millennial, a generation-specific joy I want to pass down to the youth is bopping to made-for-movie songs. 

When I say movies, we mean movies—not big-time blockbusters or super obscure films with names we can hardly pronounce. Plots were usually simple (or stupid) and the production quality was mid to surprisingly good at best. But they were still deeply enjoyable with high rewatchability.

The songs were either sung by a fictional artist or group solely for the movie. These “fake” songs played a real part in advancing the plot of the film—or they were just a really fun opportunity and the team took and ran with it. 

Here are our favorite made-for-movie bangers. Some charted, some didn’t, and some did not age well, but you’ll likely catch yourself vibing to one of these at any given time. 

“Scotty Doesn’t Know” from “Eurotrip”

“PoP Goes My Heart” from “Music and Lyrics”

“Way Back Into Love” also from “Music and Lyrics”

“Forgiveness” from “Just Friends”

“What Dreams Are Made Of” from “The Lizzie McGuire Movie”

“Pretend to be Nice” from “Josie and the Pussycats”

“Backdoor Lover” also from “Josie and the Pussycat Dolls” 

“Teacher’s Pet” from “School of Rock”