The nightclub performances by Alex and her co-workers and other set pieces involving training and auditioning provided opportunities to present the songs that would make up the soundtrack album.

[2] When the film became a surprise success, the soundtrack sold out within days, and the record company was left scrambling to fill orders that totaled half a million copies.

Flashdance producer Jerry Bruckheimer had collaborated with Academy Award-winning composer Giorgio Moroder on the 1980 film American Gigolo and sent him the script for the story of welder-turned-dancer Alex Owens as soon as he had received it to give him a sense of the music they were looking for.

[17] Two college students had sent him the song "Manhunt", and he was unaware that his production assistant arranged for the demo to be sung by his soon-to-be-wife, Karen Kamon.

[22] When it came to writing a ballad for Alex's soul-searching moments before her big audition, however, he asked Kim Carnes for a contribution, and she co-wrote and performed "I'll Be Here Where the Heart Is".

Other artists whose recordings are listed in the closing credits but did not make the final track selection include Joan Jett and the Blackhearts ("I Love Rock and Roll"), The Jimmy Castor Bunch ("It's Just Begun"), and The London Symphony Orchestra (Lee Holdridge, conductor) ("Adagio in G Minor" by Remo Giazotto).

A selection from Bizet's Carmen, "Avec la garde montante", was used in the scene in which Alex mimics a traffic cop but was uncredited.

Ramone received a call from Paramount Pictures executive Dawn Steel, who breathlessly exclaimed that audience members at the screening were dancing in the aisles.

[32] Paramount, which distributed Flashdance on April 15, 1983 (1983-04-15),[33] did not think it would do well at the box office[34] after many requests they made of Lyne to shorten the film before the release date from its original length of 140 minutes.

"[36] During the opening weekend, he and his fellow Flashdance producer, Don Simpson, watched a series of young audience members go from the movie theater where it played in Westwood to a nearby record store to purchase the album.

"Polygram took orders for over 500,000 copies of the album in 10 days, making it eligible for gold status after the 60-day certification period required by the Recording Industry Association of America.

[48] The May 7 issue of Cash Box reported on the surprise success of the film and Paramount's plan to have Lyne take parts of scenes from it to create music videos to be shown on the cable channel MTV as well as on television programs and at other venues featuring such clips.

"[75] Robert Christgau was also disappointed in the lack of focus: "Ten different singers collaborate with half a dozen producers to collapse a myriad of pop polarities onto one all-inclusive rock-disco concept soundtrack.

"Concept: the overinsistent beat, which signifies how compulsively they seek a good time that retains shreds of both meaning and ecstatic release.

"[73] Stereo Review critic Phyl Garland was much more appreciative of the effort, especially with regard to the "exceptionally spirited performances" and the "notable crispness and sonic brilliance, with synthesizer effects that are at times positively haunting.

"[76] He also pointed out, "There are some dogs tucked into the corners—Donna Summer's hiccupped 'Romeo' left me cold, and Cycle V is absurd chanting 'Soo-duce me tonight'—but in general I like the crackling energy of this album.

[80] "Flashdance... What a Feeling" and "Maniac" were both nominated in the Academy Award[81] and Golden Globe[82] categories for Best Original Song, the former nominee winning the Moroder-Forsey-Cara songwriting team statuettes at both ceremonies.

[87] When Rolling Stone magazine ranked the 20 Greatest Best Song Oscar Performances in 2016, Cara's appearance at the 1984 Academy Awards was listed at number 20.

[92] In the United States, the album debuted on Billboard magazine's Top LPs & Tape chart in the issue dated April 30, 1983,[93] and spent 78 weeks there.

[106][107] The soundtrack also reached number one on the album charts in Australia,[108] Austria,[109] Germany,[110] Norway,[111] Sweden,[112] and Switzerland,[113] where it also was certified four-times Platinum,[114] denoting shipments of 200,000 units.

Gary LeMel, the senior vice-president of music at Columbia Pictures, described the way the tone of the songs in Flashdance matched the images onscreen as "the beginning of the new consistency" in soundtracks.

The simultaneous successes of the film and soundtrack were a watershed moment in the entertainment industry in that many of its experts suddenly became aware of the added value of the two-year old MTV cable channel as a promotional tool for movies through use of music videos and commercial advertising.

Danny Goldberg, contemporary music consultant to 20th Century-Fox for feature films, said, "It started with Flashdance,"[122] and MTV's vice president of programming, Les Garland, concurred.

"[123] Writing for The Rolling Stone Review: 1985, Marianne Meyer acknowledged the release date of the film as the turning point: "The new age began in April 1983.

"[124] Ticket sales during the opening weekend of a film have been seen by the industry as a strong indicator of the picture's success or failure,[125] and Goldberg opined in an essay in Billboard that if there is no box-office draw for a release, then a music video can stir interest in the potential audience for the movie more than any of the other options available.

[133] "Blame it on Flashdance," averred Time magazine's film critic, Jay Cocks, with regard to the seeming infiltration of the video clip trend into movie packaging.

[60] While Kamon did stick with her "Manhunt" producer and life partner Ramone to helm her 1984 album Heart of You,[136] her soundtrack song was not among the nine included on it, despite having been released as a single earlier in the year.

The film's title song arguably gave Cara the biggest career boost that any of the soundtrack artists would gain from their own contributions.

[138] A Los Angeles County Superior Court awarded her $1.5 million in 1993,[139] but because the defendants declared bankruptcy,[140] her win was "largely a symbolic one.