A double album soundtrack of punk rock and new wave music. The soundtrack comprises pre-existing songs as well as original songs commissioned for the film, and features a wide range of artists, including The Ramones, The Cure, XTC, Lou Reed, Gary Numan, Talking Heads, Garland Jeffreys, Joe Jackson, Suzi Quatro, Roxy Music, Patti Smith and The Pretenders.

The Suzi Quatro track "Rock Hard" is identified in the film as being Nicky and Pamela's favorite record. The song "Help Me!", which plays over the film's closing scene, is a duet between Robin Gibb (of The Bee Gees) and Marcy Levy. The song "Down in the Park" is credited as being performed by Gary Numan, but technically it was recorded when Numan was using the band name Tubeway Army. The version of "Down in the Park" included on the Times Square soundtrack is not the album/single version from Replicas (1979), but an earlier version of the song later released on Numan's Replicas Redux (2008).

The soundtrack features original songs sung by the film's actors: "Damn Dog" by Johnson, "Your Daughter Is One" by Johnson and Alvarado, and "Flowers of the City" by Johnson and David Johansen. The song "Dangerous Type" by The Cars features in the film, but was not included on the soundtrack.

As a compilation of some of the more important New Wave and punk music from the era, the soundtrack achieved far more notoriety than the film did on its release. It became a collectors' item among fans of XTC because it included the specially written XTC track "Take This Town", which was released as a single with its B-side track "Babylon's Burning" by The Ruts and for many years was only available on this soundtrack.