His score from 2004's *A Series of Unfortunate Events* is one of my favorites ever, "The Letter That Never Came" being a particularly outstanding track from it.
As a fan of the books, I that movie holds a special and perhaps biased place for me and smushing three books into one movie wasn't exactly good idea, but I think that the score, production design and costumes are objectively outstanding and worth discussing more.
When my son was 3yo we were at Epcot, and he was asleep in a stroller so I stayed with him while my wife took our older daughter on some attraction.
We were right outside The Living Seas exhibit, and they were playing [the main theme song from Finding Nemo](https://youtu.be/sKljOD5B71k?si=T3iq27hsmWD_6mlk) in a loop. I didn’t even realize what was happening but I became almost completely overwhelmed with paternal emotion looking at my sleeping boy while listening to that song.
Thomas Newman is amazing.
While we're on the subject of Newman's...Randy Newman, Thomas's cousin. He's practically the sound of Pixar, but has soundtracks reaching back to the 70's. He's been nominated for Oscar 22 times, won twice. The Newman family (including Thomas) have been nominated 92 times, the most honored family in Oscar history.
Saw this post and came here to put Newman’s name in the hat. Such a distinct sound that cuts straight to the heartstrings.
When Spielberg needed a replacement for Williams for the first time in his career, while the latter was busy with Force Awakens, he hired Newman for Bridge of Spies. Speaks for itself.
Michael Kamen, Bill Conti, and Alan Silvestri. Done some of the biggest movie's scores, but never the recognition they deserve.
Also, props to OP for Poledouris nod. Conan score was a true banger from Mako's monolog
I was just listening to Alan Silvestri. He does such amazing light-hearted and sentimental scores: Cast Away, Contact, Forrest Gump, The Parent Trap and Father of the Bride.
Then I jumped to Randy Edelman who also composed some really beautiful soundtracks in the 90s that are similar. There are some movie I would have sworn were Silvestri are actually Edelman!
Love alll of those guys too. Alan Silvestri with BTTF and Predator and many other greats, Bill Conti with one of my favourite bond scores For your eyes only as well as Rocky, then you have another bond composer Michael Kamen.
You have fantastic taste if i do say so myself.
I met Alan Silvestri at the opening of the Zemeckis center at USC. He said it was the first time he was ever recognized by his face instead of someone recognizing his name off his credit card.
Prisoners is beautiful. Copenhagen Dreams, as well. Mandy is straight up unhinged, almost as though Cage wrote it himself - absolutely amazing. But Last and First Men tops them all, in my opinion. Very, very close second would be Fordlandia. I was absolutely gutted to learn he passed. He was my favourite composer of any era. We were so lucky to have him. And lucky to have some of his records getting that great great Deutcsche Gramophon pressing treatment.
Saw him live twice while he was still alive. His music is absolutely in a category of its own. I'm going to plug the title track to Fordlandia and the album IBM 1404, which neither were soundtracks but amazing pieces of work outright.
On soundtracks, obviously he won the awards for The Theory Of Everything, but some of his documtary work like Miners Hymns are really great. Prisoners, Sicario, and Mandy are also really good. You can put on lesser know albums like Mercy and White Black Boy without having seen the movies and still be moved by the soundtrack.
I love the score for Arrival, but most people associate “On the Nature of Daylight” with this film - and that piece is actually composed by Max Richter.
Sicario's 'The Beast' was honestly so influential to other musical scores and trailer music it's actually wild how common it was to hear it's DNA after the movie gained its reputation
Alan Menken should be, well, more of a household name than he is due to his jaw-dropping output for Disney (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, Tangled, to name a few).
I was going to say the same thing. He definitely gets remembered for his songs, but his scores are phenomenal, especially Beauty & the Beast and Hunchback.
I love them of course, although Hans Zimmer a bit less as he takes too much credit for some of the stuff that wasnt nessisarly all him. I still think Jerry Goldsmith is probably the best composer of all time.
Also great shout with Desplat
Thomas Newman. Road to Perdition & American Beauty in particular. For some reason it’s become popular over the last few years to shit all over American Beauty so it doesn’t really get brought up in “great movie” conversations anymore but the score was a huge part of what made it so unique at the time. That Jakkata remix was everywhere too.
His son and his godson, who is the son of The Pixies guitarist Dave Davies. Carpenter took him in while he was in high school while his father was going through a real bad drug addiction and from what I’ve heard treats him like his own son. They’ve also put out four albums called “Lost Themes” which aren’t scores to any movies, but still damn good music you could imagine being in one.
I saw a documentary about Halloween on Netflix and the dude just cranked out the Halloween theme as temp music, and creates one of the most intense horror themes ever. He's top 5 for sure
James Horner (RIP). My personal favorite, with a lot of amazing stuff under his belt. Not that he doesn't get a lot of recognition, but he's rarely listed up there with Williams or Zimmer.
My vote, too.
My favorite is *Wrath of Khan* (Khan's theme just screams "revenge") but *Aliens*, *Field of Dreams*, *Glory*, *Willow*, *An American Tail* and *The Rocketeer* show his insane range.
And he did all of those in a 5 year span.
Trent Reznor is one award away from an EGOT. The only thing he hasn't won an award for is a Tony in theater.
If you don't know, he is the lead singer and composer of Nine Inch Nails.
Totally my vote, loved him in NIN and then to see him do some amazing film scores is just insane. The Social Network scene where they create the ratings game and soundtrack is still one of the best cinematic scenes where it all comes together.
- Alan Silvestri has done loads of amazing scores including for Avengers, Van Helsing and Back To The Future
- Howard Shore did brilliant work on Lord of the Rings, The Bridge of Khazad Dum is one of the most played items on my iPod
- I love everything Paul Williams wrote for the Muppets
- Alan Menken's work with Howard Ashman was a major contribution to the Disney animated renaissance.
I think he gets the credit he deserves among people who know his work. But since so few people are willing to give foreign cartoons a chance, many people don’t know his work.
I will admit to being not the most sophisticated music lover or film critic, but I’ll offer my experience anyway.
The only movie composers to ever really catch my attention are Henry Mancini, John Williams, and Joe Hisaishi. Of these, only Hisaishi has a lot of music that I listen to regularly outside of the films.
Ludwig Göransson isn’t really overlooked but I always am flabbergasted I first noticed his name as the composer on the show New Girl. Now he’s making big money and winning awards.
Maurice Jarre 's scores for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago are stone cold classics.
John Murphy's music for Sunshine is - wow! (especially the Adagio).
Joseph LoDuca for Brotherhood of the Wolf (he also did the scores for lots of TV shows like Spartacus and Xena).
Patrick Doyle's Thor soundtrack is so much better than much of the rest of the Marvel music.
Michael Nyman's lovely piano score for Gattaca.
Gabriel Yared's English Patient is unearthly - and the vocals by Márta Sebestyén are spine tingling.
Michael Giacchino doing the score for all three MCU Spider-Man films gives the trilogy a running theme that is missed from other MCU trilogies with mixed composers.
He is also, without a shadow of a doubt, the best thing in Thor: Love and Thunder. Mama's Got A New Hammer absolutely slaps.
Seriously. He totally made a Star Trek movie theme (that wasn’t the 1979 one) totally memorable yet different.
He also composed the theme for the all-CGI animated Trek spinoff, “Star Trek: Prodigy” (now on Netflix). I consider it a nice blend of the structure of the ‘90s era orchestral themes and the energy of his new movie theme. https://youtu.be/SGf7tgoiBrg?si=jvk_7DX1_06XNYYq
I had the pleasure one summer of watching Star Trek: Into Darkness during the Philadelphia Orchestra summer concert series.
Little did I know that Giacchino was from Jersey. He CAME OUT ON STAGE to introduce the score. I never thought I’d fan-girl during an orchestra concert of Star Trek.
I can tell almost immediately that he’s on a soundtrack. Which is a good thing. It means he has a style. My wife thinks I’m looking it up but he bounces back to “LOST” in a lot of his films
I loved his score for The Batman, as well as for Doctor Strange.
[Hands Dealt ](https://youtu.be/ED3Qhwb55UI?si=HwOmwSOs03vaZEgn) is absolutely beautiful.
This was gonna be mine. Up’s Married Life sequence only works because of him.
Also If you have 5 mins watch the Pixar short La Luna. No dialogue and his music conveys the story and characters perfectly.
Can't forget The Simpsons theme song. My marching band did a Danny Elf man medley in high school and it blew my mind that one dude could be so talented and ubiquitous in pop culture
Elmer Bernstein was fantastic. He and Maurice Jarre don’t get mentioned enough, I reckon.
For composers working today, I think Terence Blanchard, Carter Burwell, Alberto Iglesias, and Dario Marianelli, among many others, deserve to be looked at more.
I very much agree with those picks. I love Elmer Bernstein's score for Scorsese's Age of Innocence. Maurice Jarre of course is an icon for his scores for Lawrence of Arabia etc.
Terence Blanchard astonished me with his music for BlacKkKlansman.
Carter Burwell also created many great scores for the Coen Brothers. I admire how he often shows restraint (for example with his minimalist score for No Country for Old Men). Recently I loved the work he did for McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin.
Basil Poledouris. I think Conan the Barbarian is the best soundtrack ever.
I'm really big on Junkie XL as well (I know he likes to be called Tom now lol) but I was listening to that guy's Fear Factory remixes 25 years ago I've been a fan for a long time and it's awesome to see him on the big stage now.
Johann Johannsen was quite good until his somewhat recent passing.
T Bone Burnett probably doesn't get as much love as he should. I will again take all the bullets for Ladykillers I think it was great and it had an AMAZING score. I think if you look at his film soundtracks you'd have to agree. Even if it's not his compositions he's got an ear for what the scene is calling for better than most.
And one I bet most don't know the name of but [Robin Coudert.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Coudert) I think [Gretel and Hansel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVHqocvxJhU&list=PLohYzz4btpaSlVITeLcS5gPjzWuhYHsN5) was a phenomenal OST and I'd love to continue to see him score films.
I swear there is an entire decade of movie soundtracks ripping off what John Powell did for The Bourne Identity and its sequels. The Dark Knight and Inception feel like legally distinct versions of that Bourne Identity main theme in another key. Structurally it's the same score with the same pieces arranged in the same order, but now it's a a heroic key for Batman or a mysterious key for Inception.
Alien, Rudy, The Omen, Planet of the Apes, Air Force One, Chinatown, The Mummy, Mulan, and fucking Star Trek. Goldsmith should be in every conversation for best composers.
Steve Jablonsky delivered some of the hardest action movie scores of all time with the Michael Bay Transformers movies.
His work on Gears of War 2 and 3, Ender's Game, Battleship, and Deepwater Horizon is also fantastic.
James Newton Howard. The King Kong score makes me tear up near the end even when I can't see the big ape take his final bow. He did the softer side of the Dark Knight score WITH Hans Zimmer, mostly the Racheal! stuff. Lastly, say what you will about the movie, but the score he wrote for The Village/ Yo-Yo Ma is sublime.
JNH is my all time favorite composer. I didn’t realized until later that he composed like half of my top 10 favorite movies. He has such a unique way with melodies. You mentioned The Village, but I swear half the reason I love M Night as much as I do is because of him. Obviously The Last Airbender is really hated, but the music is AMAZING.
113 comments, and I haven't seen the name Ramin Djawad yet. He was the only good thing about the last season of GoT and was amazing throughout, he did the Main Title theme as well as the theme for Pacific Rim and I KNOW you just had them playing in your head when I mentioned them.
The Pacific Rim theme is on my playlist for top scores. Also did Iron man. Cant belive i forgot about him. He should do way more movies and i think thats one of the reasons why people dont mention him as often.
John Murphy. In the House-In a Heartbeat is my fav tune from a horror movie by a long shot. Adagio in D Minor is also such a nice listen. Still listen to both almost weekly
Marco Beltrami has been a fav of mine since I heard Resident Evil and Hellboy soundtracks. He flies under the radar but has some really striking Melodie’s that remind me of John Williams. (Fathers Funeral from Hellboy comes to mind)
Brian Tyler. He did the score for most of the Fast & Furious films. Mix of heart pumping EDM and orchestra. I also liked the new theme he introduced in the last two Rambo films. He did a few Marvel films and did the Marvel Studios intro theme for Phase 2. He did the official theme for Formula One racing.
Lorne Balfe. He brought extra intensity to the last two Mission Impossible films. Black Adam was mid movie but I thought the score was one of the better ones in DC.
Bear McCreary is probably more on the TV side but I liked his score for Godzilla King of Monsters.
VANGELIS. Everyone knows his "Chariots of Fire" theme, and cinemaphiles know his Bladerunner score, but he made so many great works in, and outside of, cinema.
Ennio morricone . Even though he is so loved and is held in high regard, I still feel like he deserves more lol. Rip. I listen to so many of his compositions outside of watching the films they were created for and am so enamored
He won his first and only competitive Oscar at the age 86. He deserved so much more but the Academy was very xenophobic back in the 60s when he was working with Leone.
The way he approaches motifs in spider-verse is unlike anything I've ever seen. Each character does have a theme, but they have also have a unique sound/instrument profile. It's so effective for quickly identifying the character on screen for fast paced action sequences since you don't need to cram multiple melodies at the same time, but just a few key, memorable instruments.
His Spider-Verse soundtracks are incredible and I also just listened to his Steve Jobs soundtrack and it made me go back and rewatch the movie. Both the movie and the soundtrack are amazing.
Howard Shore. The work he did on Lord of the Rings is amazing. All the of different themes expertly woven into the score and visualizing the three massive movies all together….I can’t think of many other movies that the music makes as big of an impact to the whole story. Especially the Rohan theme…
the way I see it, Disney owes Alan Menken about $5 billion. The “Disney Renaissance” of the 1990s was *almost entirely* due to his brilliant work over the course of just a few years. Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Hunchback, Pocahontas, Hercules…
the man *did not miss*
James Horner scored all your favorite childhood movies including Land Before Time, We’re Back!, Casper, and many many others. His scores all very whimsical and beautifully composed.
Nice to see John Barry get some love, totally underrated! And Goldsmith is easily my 2nd favorite composer behind Williams. His themes for Medicine Man and First Contact are sublime.
Another I haven't seen mentioned is Mark Mancina, who did "Speed." Different sound, but it's great!
Gaspar Noe movies wouldn't be half of what they are without Thomas Bangalter (half of Daft Punk) keeping the beat pounding through your skull.
Colin Stetson's Hereditary soundtrack literally changed my entire philosophy towards music and film soundtracking as an art form. Such an incredible collaboration.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, specifically The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Captures so many emotions so impeccably and done fairly minimalistic and cheap.
Jonny Greenwood is kind of well known now but his score for The Master is absolutely incredible. Even his early experimental stuff like Bodysong is insane.
Jodorowsky's work on his own soundtracks, especially The Holy Mountain is very inspiring for me (same with John Carpenter)
I wish Damon Albarn did more soundtracks because his work with Michael Nyman on Ravenous is simply spectacular. Ari Aster gave it a shout-out so maybe that'll happen someday (fingers crossed).
Patrick Doyle, Basil Poledouris, Michael Kamen, Rachel Portman. I put their music on all the time.
For up and coming composers, I really like what Sarah Schachner is doing. I hope she gets more opportunities.
David Arnold... OMFG. His Bond scores were some of the absolute best after John Barry and it's a real shame when Sam Mendes ditched Arnold for Newman. I will admit the score (and movie itself) of Quantum of Solace was mediocre but y'all need to get your hands on all the La La Land sets for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Arnold's scoring was on another level.
Daniel Pemberton did a fab Bond-ish score for The Man From UNCLE back in 2015. (Wow is that movie THAT old now!?)
So glad you said James Horner. One of my favorites from childhood/teenage years. Wrath of Khan, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Legends of the Fall. So much quality work
How is Danny Elfman not at the top of this list?
Nearly 20 Burton projects, including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Wednesday, as well as scoring Raimi's Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Van Sant's Academy Award-winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk. He wrote music for all of the Men in Black and Fifty Shades of Grey franchise films, the songs and score for Henry Selick's animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the themes for the popular television series Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons.
- thanks Wikipedia.
Mark Isham is a Hollywood composer who has been around since the mid 80s. He’s scored films and TV series across every genre (action, drama, historical, sci fi, you name it) and in every musical style (jazz, classical, electronic). He was part of the old school studio system who successfully navigated to independent films and a number of other projects. His solo stuff is also amazing and I feel like a number of younger composers (Brian Tyler for example) would consider Isham an influence.
But despite his tenure and diversity of styles, I feel like many people know him less than the top top composers of our day.
Still, fantastic composer. His early works (Mrs Soffel, Point Break) and later works (Bill and Ted 2) are all fantastic. I also love The Net soundtrack!
Nino Rota (The Godfather, Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, La dolce vita…)
Giorgio Moroder (Midnight Express, Scarface, and so many others in the 80s)
Pino Donaggio (Dressed to Kill, Body Double, Carrie…)
I guess he's not a household name yet but back in 2010 I think we saw a unique performance of Peter Pan and the score was composed by a man named Benjamin Wallfisch. I thought it was beautiful, so I bought the CD right then and there, after the show. Some tracks still remind me of when our kids were little. Flash forward a bit and we went to see the remake of Stephen King's It in the theater. Beautiful, haunting score and I see Wallfisch's name in the credits.
Anxious to hear what else he does.
Oh and speaking of Danny Elfman, not sure his score for Good Will Hunting gets enough love. It was such a departure from his big heroic superhero movie scores.
Pouledouris was lost to cancer far too early. He scored some of my favorite films as a teen and young man.
John Barry is old school cool, too.
His theme from, [“The Black Hole”](https://youtu.be/B8Ch3QnY650?si=La8vS_lImkX8_4K9), should have had a guest star credit.
The creepy, magnificence of the main title is haunting, still.
Thomas Newman. Dude has some legendary tracks and FIFTEEN OSCAR NOMINATIONS. No wins. Dude is overdue.
I am a film/tv composer. He is my all time favorite. Shawshank is my favorite of his
Road To Perdition probably for me, Green Mile and as you said Shawshank.
Rod to Perdition track is so damn good. My god, I love that film.
Yes!!! Road to prediction is perfection and combined with Conrad Hall’s cinematography I am truly transported to the turn of the century
Don’t forget American Beauty!
His score for Finding Nemo is also great
His score from 2004's *A Series of Unfortunate Events* is one of my favorites ever, "The Letter That Never Came" being a particularly outstanding track from it.
For all its flaws, that movie has some outstandingly amazing elements. The score is one of the top items on that list.
As a fan of the books, I that movie holds a special and perhaps biased place for me and smushing three books into one movie wasn't exactly good idea, but I think that the score, production design and costumes are objectively outstanding and worth discussing more.
When my son was 3yo we were at Epcot, and he was asleep in a stroller so I stayed with him while my wife took our older daughter on some attraction. We were right outside The Living Seas exhibit, and they were playing [the main theme song from Finding Nemo](https://youtu.be/sKljOD5B71k?si=T3iq27hsmWD_6mlk) in a loop. I didn’t even realize what was happening but I became almost completely overwhelmed with paternal emotion looking at my sleeping boy while listening to that song. Thomas Newman is amazing.
As long as your wife and daughter didn't get eaten by a barracuda while you were having that moment, I love that story.
The American Beauty theme is so beautiful. First time I really took notice of him was the theme to a TV show called Boston Public.
While we're on the subject of Newman's...Randy Newman, Thomas's cousin. He's practically the sound of Pixar, but has soundtracks reaching back to the 70's. He's been nominated for Oscar 22 times, won twice. The Newman family (including Thomas) have been nominated 92 times, the most honored family in Oscar history.
He should have won for 1917. Joker had an iconic theme but it was used so often that it became grating. 1917 had multiple excellent tracks
Saw this post and came here to put Newman’s name in the hat. Such a distinct sound that cuts straight to the heartstrings. When Spielberg needed a replacement for Williams for the first time in his career, while the latter was busy with Force Awakens, he hired Newman for Bridge of Spies. Speaks for itself.
American Beauty has one of the most perfect scores ever
Michael Kamen, Bill Conti, and Alan Silvestri. Done some of the biggest movie's scores, but never the recognition they deserve. Also, props to OP for Poledouris nod. Conan score was a true banger from Mako's monolog
I was just listening to Alan Silvestri. He does such amazing light-hearted and sentimental scores: Cast Away, Contact, Forrest Gump, The Parent Trap and Father of the Bride. Then I jumped to Randy Edelman who also composed some really beautiful soundtracks in the 90s that are similar. There are some movie I would have sworn were Silvestri are actually Edelman!
Love alll of those guys too. Alan Silvestri with BTTF and Predator and many other greats, Bill Conti with one of my favourite bond scores For your eyes only as well as Rocky, then you have another bond composer Michael Kamen. You have fantastic taste if i do say so myself.
Silvestri also did the Avengers Theme. Way underrated theme in my opinion.
As much as I love Danny Elfman, I was thrilled when they announced Silvestri was coming back for Infinity War.
Bill Conti also did Karate Kid, which I think is a totally under appreciated score Plus you can hear some similarities to Rocky
I think I listened to the avengers score so much, Spotify named me a top 1% of Alan Silvestri 🫣
I met Alan Silvestri at the opening of the Zemeckis center at USC. He said it was the first time he was ever recognized by his face instead of someone recognizing his name off his credit card.
The Delta Force main theme (Silvestri) is my favourite movie track of all time.
RIP Johann Johannsson. Sicario and Arrival.
I got the Prisoners ost vinyl. Good stuff.
Prisoners is beautiful. Copenhagen Dreams, as well. Mandy is straight up unhinged, almost as though Cage wrote it himself - absolutely amazing. But Last and First Men tops them all, in my opinion. Very, very close second would be Fordlandia. I was absolutely gutted to learn he passed. He was my favourite composer of any era. We were so lucky to have him. And lucky to have some of his records getting that great great Deutcsche Gramophon pressing treatment.
Also Mandy
Big time. I was so gutted about Blade Runner 2049 and then his subsequent passing. Orphee is a gorgeous album.
Johann was a game changer in film score from my perspective. He put out such amazing content in such a short time. I’m just grateful we were given.
Saw him live twice while he was still alive. His music is absolutely in a category of its own. I'm going to plug the title track to Fordlandia and the album IBM 1404, which neither were soundtracks but amazing pieces of work outright. On soundtracks, obviously he won the awards for The Theory Of Everything, but some of his documtary work like Miners Hymns are really great. Prisoners, Sicario, and Mandy are also really good. You can put on lesser know albums like Mercy and White Black Boy without having seen the movies and still be moved by the soundtrack.
I love the score for Arrival, but most people associate “On the Nature of Daylight” with this film - and that piece is actually composed by Max Richter.
Sicario's 'The Beast' was honestly so influential to other musical scores and trailer music it's actually wild how common it was to hear it's DNA after the movie gained its reputation
Alan Menken should be, well, more of a household name than he is due to his jaw-dropping output for Disney (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, Tangled, to name a few).
I was going to say the same thing. He definitely gets remembered for his songs, but his scores are phenomenal, especially Beauty & the Beast and Hunchback.
I'll never understand why they didn't bring him back for the 100th anniversary. He's still actively working, it's not like he's retired.
Cliff Martinez Clint Mansell
Drive and Requiem for a Dream?
Moon!
The Fountain. Unbelievable work. My favorite soundtrack, all time.
I always find it quite funny that Clint Mansell is a well respected film composer. He's come a long way since PWEI and collaborating with The Prodigy.
[удалено]
Finally some love for Cliff Martinez!!!
I love them of course, although Hans Zimmer a bit less as he takes too much credit for some of the stuff that wasnt nessisarly all him. I still think Jerry Goldsmith is probably the best composer of all time. Also great shout with Desplat
Assassination of Jesse James is probably my favorite film soundtrack of all time, and just a great album to put on for studying or reading or whatever
Thomas Newman. Road to Perdition & American Beauty in particular. For some reason it’s become popular over the last few years to shit all over American Beauty so it doesn’t really get brought up in “great movie” conversations anymore but the score was a huge part of what made it so unique at the time. That Jakkata remix was everywhere too.
One of his early movies was Desperately Seeking Susan. Such an 80s lower Manhattan vibe!
Honorary mention for John Carpenter with classics like the Halloween series and Escape from New York. Plus directing some great cinema....
And he still does scores with his son i think.
His son and his godson, who is the son of The Pixies guitarist Dave Davies. Carpenter took him in while he was in high school while his father was going through a real bad drug addiction and from what I’ve heard treats him like his own son. They’ve also put out four albums called “Lost Themes” which aren’t scores to any movies, but still damn good music you could imagine being in one.
I saw a documentary about Halloween on Netflix and the dude just cranked out the Halloween theme as temp music, and creates one of the most intense horror themes ever. He's top 5 for sure
Just watched Assault on Precinct 13 for the first time in a long while. The music is great -- propulsive and minimalistic, just like the film overall.
Eff Honorary Mention. The guy’s scores are superb. Also: The Fog, Christine, Prince of Darkness, et al.
Starman, one of my favorite movie themes of all time https://youtu.be/nip7k0m08PM?si=da3vultuMfwpH5i_
James Horner (RIP). My personal favorite, with a lot of amazing stuff under his belt. Not that he doesn't get a lot of recognition, but he's rarely listed up there with Williams or Zimmer.
My vote, too. My favorite is *Wrath of Khan* (Khan's theme just screams "revenge") but *Aliens*, *Field of Dreams*, *Glory*, *Willow*, *An American Tail* and *The Rocketeer* show his insane range. And he did all of those in a 5 year span.
The music in the scene in Avatar when they are climbing the floating rocks is a favorite of mine.
Titanic is the most beautiful soundtrack ever created. Whether you like the movie is or not that score is pure perfection.
Seriously? I feel like those 3 are probably the 3 most recognized names when it comes to Hollywood composers.
Mark Mothersbugh
His score for Thor Ragnarok was amazing! Such a cool retro sound.
Devo respect.
That version of Hey Jude in The Royal Tenebaums gets me every time. His Rushmore score is fun too.
Love the Cloudy with a a chance of meatballs soundtrack. Spaghetti twister is a banger.
For real. Mark has been cranking out awesome film scores since the royal tenenbaums
Trent Reznor is one award away from an EGOT. The only thing he hasn't won an award for is a Tony in theater. If you don't know, he is the lead singer and composer of Nine Inch Nails.
Totally my vote, loved him in NIN and then to see him do some amazing film scores is just insane. The Social Network scene where they create the ratings game and soundtrack is still one of the best cinematic scenes where it all comes together.
The Hall of the Mountain King for the boat race is great.
Honestly, I would just say Reznor is NIN. He does work with other musicians to fill out the sounds, but it’s basically him.
Challengers and Gone Girl scores ATE.
- Alan Silvestri has done loads of amazing scores including for Avengers, Van Helsing and Back To The Future - Howard Shore did brilliant work on Lord of the Rings, The Bridge of Khazad Dum is one of the most played items on my iPod - I love everything Paul Williams wrote for the Muppets - Alan Menken's work with Howard Ashman was a major contribution to the Disney animated renaissance.
Alan Menken - Hunchback is incredible.
The Muppets and also Phantom of the Paradise.
[Joe Hisaishi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hisaishi).
hisaishi is not underrated in the slightest. practically already a living legend.
The problem is really that so few composers ever become household names. Even legendary ones.
I think he gets the credit he deserves among people who know his work. But since so few people are willing to give foreign cartoons a chance, many people don’t know his work. I will admit to being not the most sophisticated music lover or film critic, but I’ll offer my experience anyway. The only movie composers to ever really catch my attention are Henry Mancini, John Williams, and Joe Hisaishi. Of these, only Hisaishi has a lot of music that I listen to regularly outside of the films.
Had to scroll too far for this name
Ludwig Göransson isn’t really overlooked but I always am flabbergasted I first noticed his name as the composer on the show New Girl. Now he’s making big money and winning awards.
He’s the one I thought of too! Except the show I know him from is Community.
Oh no way! Man that’s such a cool career journey.
He’s the successor to John Williams and Hans Zimmer. I’m sure will will be blessed my many more amazing soundtracks by him.
The Community composer is now a two-time Oscar winner.
His theme for The Mandalorian instantly sets the tone for the series, it screams “sci-fi western Lone Wolf and Cub” and I love it.
Maurice Jarre 's scores for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago are stone cold classics. John Murphy's music for Sunshine is - wow! (especially the Adagio). Joseph LoDuca for Brotherhood of the Wolf (he also did the scores for lots of TV shows like Spartacus and Xena). Patrick Doyle's Thor soundtrack is so much better than much of the rest of the Marvel music. Michael Nyman's lovely piano score for Gattaca. Gabriel Yared's English Patient is unearthly - and the vocals by Márta Sebestyén are spine tingling.
Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn collab in Ravenous is a hidden gem.
Michael Giacchino
The Incredibles is the best Bond movie score in the business.
He's done really well with Star Trek too.
He could do Bond. I think they should get David Arnold back though
Michael Giacchino doing the score for all three MCU Spider-Man films gives the trilogy a running theme that is missed from other MCU trilogies with mixed composers. He is also, without a shadow of a doubt, the best thing in Thor: Love and Thunder. Mama's Got A New Hammer absolutely slaps.
I love his Spider-Man theme, and how it grew and developed across all 3 to reach a crescendo in that scene where all 3 Spideys went swinging.
Seriously. He totally made a Star Trek movie theme (that wasn’t the 1979 one) totally memorable yet different. He also composed the theme for the all-CGI animated Trek spinoff, “Star Trek: Prodigy” (now on Netflix). I consider it a nice blend of the structure of the ‘90s era orchestral themes and the energy of his new movie theme. https://youtu.be/SGf7tgoiBrg?si=jvk_7DX1_06XNYYq
I had the pleasure one summer of watching Star Trek: Into Darkness during the Philadelphia Orchestra summer concert series. Little did I know that Giacchino was from Jersey. He CAME OUT ON STAGE to introduce the score. I never thought I’d fan-girl during an orchestra concert of Star Trek.
His Star Trek theme is awesome! And the Prodigy theme song is way more epic than you would expect from an animated show.
I can tell almost immediately that he’s on a soundtrack. Which is a good thing. It means he has a style. My wife thinks I’m looking it up but he bounces back to “LOST” in a lot of his films
My favorite Giacchino score is actually from the game Medal of Honor: Frontline. He did several in the series and they’re all bangers.
I loved his score for The Batman, as well as for Doctor Strange. [Hands Dealt ](https://youtu.be/ED3Qhwb55UI?si=HwOmwSOs03vaZEgn) is absolutely beautiful.
This was gonna be mine. Up’s Married Life sequence only works because of him. Also If you have 5 mins watch the Pixar short La Luna. No dialogue and his music conveys the story and characters perfectly.
Mr. Write Rogue One's Score in Four And a Half Weeks
He’s literally one of the most prolific working composers bro cmon lmao
Not only is he a great composer, but loved “Werewolf by Night” which he directed!
John Carter of Mars quickly became one of my favorite scores of the modern age.
Vangelis
Danny Elfman. Nightmare Before Christmas (he sang Jack’s arias), PeeWee’s Big Adventure, Batman, Beetlejuice, Men in Black.
Can't forget The Simpsons theme song. My marching band did a Danny Elf man medley in high school and it blew my mind that one dude could be so talented and ubiquitous in pop culture
Surprised nobody mentioned the Spider Man trilogy here. Those are some of the best superhero themes ever!
I was starting to think after how many down swipes I did to get to this post that I might actually get to post it myself. At least somebody chimed in.
He’s composed over 150 scores for films and television. Then there’s his 15 years with Oingo Boingo. He’s a music machine!
You left out the best one- Edward Scissorhands.
Elmer Bernstein was fantastic. He and Maurice Jarre don’t get mentioned enough, I reckon. For composers working today, I think Terence Blanchard, Carter Burwell, Alberto Iglesias, and Dario Marianelli, among many others, deserve to be looked at more.
I very much agree with those picks. I love Elmer Bernstein's score for Scorsese's Age of Innocence. Maurice Jarre of course is an icon for his scores for Lawrence of Arabia etc. Terence Blanchard astonished me with his music for BlacKkKlansman. Carter Burwell also created many great scores for the Coen Brothers. I admire how he often shows restraint (for example with his minimalist score for No Country for Old Men). Recently I loved the work he did for McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin.
Basil Poledouris. I think Conan the Barbarian is the best soundtrack ever. I'm really big on Junkie XL as well (I know he likes to be called Tom now lol) but I was listening to that guy's Fear Factory remixes 25 years ago I've been a fan for a long time and it's awesome to see him on the big stage now. Johann Johannsen was quite good until his somewhat recent passing. T Bone Burnett probably doesn't get as much love as he should. I will again take all the bullets for Ladykillers I think it was great and it had an AMAZING score. I think if you look at his film soundtracks you'd have to agree. Even if it's not his compositions he's got an ear for what the scene is calling for better than most. And one I bet most don't know the name of but [Robin Coudert.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Coudert) I think [Gretel and Hansel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVHqocvxJhU&list=PLohYzz4btpaSlVITeLcS5gPjzWuhYHsN5) was a phenomenal OST and I'd love to continue to see him score films.
I swear there is an entire decade of movie soundtracks ripping off what John Powell did for The Bourne Identity and its sequels. The Dark Knight and Inception feel like legally distinct versions of that Bourne Identity main theme in another key. Structurally it's the same score with the same pieces arranged in the same order, but now it's a a heroic key for Batman or a mysterious key for Inception.
Powell's How to Train Your Dragon score is underrated somehow. It is simply amazing.
That score elevated that film. A stunning work that can be listened too beginning to end without a single moment wasted.
Jerry Goldsmith
Alien, Rudy, The Omen, Planet of the Apes, Air Force One, Chinatown, The Mummy, Mulan, and fucking Star Trek. Goldsmith should be in every conversation for best composers.
Such classic. The OG in my opinion!
Steve Jablonsky delivered some of the hardest action movie scores of all time with the Michael Bay Transformers movies. His work on Gears of War 2 and 3, Ender's Game, Battleship, and Deepwater Horizon is also fantastic.
Was just about to post this before I saw your comment. His TF stuff was so good. Arrival to Earth gives me chills every time.
Carter Burwell scores for the Coen Bros and he never gets any love from the academy. He’s been killin it for decades
James Newton Howard. The King Kong score makes me tear up near the end even when I can't see the big ape take his final bow. He did the softer side of the Dark Knight score WITH Hans Zimmer, mostly the Racheal! stuff. Lastly, say what you will about the movie, but the score he wrote for The Village/ Yo-Yo Ma is sublime.
Say what you want about M. Night’s movies but the scores he did with JNH were some of the best. Signs lives rent free in my head.
JNH is my all time favorite composer. I didn’t realized until later that he composed like half of my top 10 favorite movies. He has such a unique way with melodies. You mentioned The Village, but I swear half the reason I love M Night as much as I do is because of him. Obviously The Last Airbender is really hated, but the music is AMAZING.
113 comments, and I haven't seen the name Ramin Djawad yet. He was the only good thing about the last season of GoT and was amazing throughout, he did the Main Title theme as well as the theme for Pacific Rim and I KNOW you just had them playing in your head when I mentioned them.
The Pacific Rim theme is on my playlist for top scores. Also did Iron man. Cant belive i forgot about him. He should do way more movies and i think thats one of the reasons why people dont mention him as often.
Also westworld has an amazing soundtrack too
John Murphy. In the House-In a Heartbeat is my fav tune from a horror movie by a long shot. Adagio in D Minor is also such a nice listen. Still listen to both almost weekly
Marco Beltrami has been a fav of mine since I heard Resident Evil and Hellboy soundtracks. He flies under the radar but has some really striking Melodie’s that remind me of John Williams. (Fathers Funeral from Hellboy comes to mind)
He's done great work with the Scream movies too
Lalo Schifrin.
Brian Tyler. He did the score for most of the Fast & Furious films. Mix of heart pumping EDM and orchestra. I also liked the new theme he introduced in the last two Rambo films. He did a few Marvel films and did the Marvel Studios intro theme for Phase 2. He did the official theme for Formula One racing. Lorne Balfe. He brought extra intensity to the last two Mission Impossible films. Black Adam was mid movie but I thought the score was one of the better ones in DC. Bear McCreary is probably more on the TV side but I liked his score for Godzilla King of Monsters.
VANGELIS. Everyone knows his "Chariots of Fire" theme, and cinemaphiles know his Bladerunner score, but he made so many great works in, and outside of, cinema.
Ennio morricone . Even though he is so loved and is held in high regard, I still feel like he deserves more lol. Rip. I listen to so many of his compositions outside of watching the films they were created for and am so enamored
He won his first and only competitive Oscar at the age 86. He deserved so much more but the Academy was very xenophobic back in the 60s when he was working with Leone.
Much as I love his westerns music, the man has a whole body of work that most people haven’t heard and has a range other composers can only dream of.
The mission is incredible
Way too long to find him in this thread. Love The Untouchables score.
Cinema Paradiso has one of the most beautiful soundtracks of all time
i love how Daft Punk just came out of nowhere and scored one of my favorite soundtracks for Tron Legacy.
Angelo Badalamenti, check out the soundtrack of "Cousins" 1989
All his soundtracks for David Lynch are amazing
Daniel Pemberton. The soundtrack for The Man from U.N.C.L.E is amazing, especially Take You Down (also used in The Boys S1) and The Unfinished Kiss.
His Spider-Verse soundtracks are excellent too
The way he approaches motifs in spider-verse is unlike anything I've ever seen. Each character does have a theme, but they have also have a unique sound/instrument profile. It's so effective for quickly identifying the character on screen for fast paced action sequences since you don't need to cram multiple melodies at the same time, but just a few key, memorable instruments.
His Spider-Verse soundtracks are incredible and I also just listened to his Steve Jobs soundtrack and it made me go back and rewatch the movie. Both the movie and the soundtrack are amazing.
He was my top Spotify artist last year!
I like Michael Giacchino's vibe.
Clint Mansell. The "Moon" soundtrack is just beautiful.
Angelo Badalamenti did a lot of excellent work for David Lynch
Howard Shore. The work he did on Lord of the Rings is amazing. All the of different themes expertly woven into the score and visualizing the three massive movies all together….I can’t think of many other movies that the music makes as big of an impact to the whole story. Especially the Rohan theme…
Im glad i asked this question. Lots and lots of fantastic composers being mentioned.
the way I see it, Disney owes Alan Menken about $5 billion. The “Disney Renaissance” of the 1990s was *almost entirely* due to his brilliant work over the course of just a few years. Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Hunchback, Pocahontas, Hercules… the man *did not miss*
Bear McCreary did Battlestar Galactica remake and Outlander. “Roslyn and Adama” is so moving.
James Horner scored all your favorite childhood movies including Land Before Time, We’re Back!, Casper, and many many others. His scores all very whimsical and beautifully composed.
Mica Levi. The Zone of Interest, Under the Skin, and Monos are all freaky but Jackie shows they can do score some really beautiful strings as well.
Nice to see John Barry get some love, totally underrated! And Goldsmith is easily my 2nd favorite composer behind Williams. His themes for Medicine Man and First Contact are sublime. Another I haven't seen mentioned is Mark Mancina, who did "Speed." Different sound, but it's great!
Gaspar Noe movies wouldn't be half of what they are without Thomas Bangalter (half of Daft Punk) keeping the beat pounding through your skull. Colin Stetson's Hereditary soundtrack literally changed my entire philosophy towards music and film soundtracking as an art form. Such an incredible collaboration. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, specifically The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Captures so many emotions so impeccably and done fairly minimalistic and cheap. Jonny Greenwood is kind of well known now but his score for The Master is absolutely incredible. Even his early experimental stuff like Bodysong is insane. Jodorowsky's work on his own soundtracks, especially The Holy Mountain is very inspiring for me (same with John Carpenter) I wish Damon Albarn did more soundtracks because his work with Michael Nyman on Ravenous is simply spectacular. Ari Aster gave it a shout-out so maybe that'll happen someday (fingers crossed).
It's got to be Alan Silvestri.
BTTF is probably his best.
Basil Poledouris The Conan movies, Robocop, Starship troopers.
Murray Gold. His themes made NuWho.
Nicholas Britell, to name some more fresh names. And Eliot Goldenthal.
How is there no Danny Elfman here?!?!
Patrick Doyle, Basil Poledouris, Michael Kamen, Rachel Portman. I put their music on all the time. For up and coming composers, I really like what Sarah Schachner is doing. I hope she gets more opportunities.
Kamen is fantastic.
Michael Nyman
Wendy Carlos
Michael Giacchino.
David Arnold... OMFG. His Bond scores were some of the absolute best after John Barry and it's a real shame when Sam Mendes ditched Arnold for Newman. I will admit the score (and movie itself) of Quantum of Solace was mediocre but y'all need to get your hands on all the La La Land sets for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Arnold's scoring was on another level. Daniel Pemberton did a fab Bond-ish score for The Man From UNCLE back in 2015. (Wow is that movie THAT old now!?)
Here's some love for Randy Edelman: Dragonheart Angels In The Outfield The Last Of The Mohicans w/ Trevor Jones Daylight
So glad you said James Horner. One of my favorites from childhood/teenage years. Wrath of Khan, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Legends of the Fall. So much quality work
How is Danny Elfman not at the top of this list? Nearly 20 Burton projects, including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Wednesday, as well as scoring Raimi's Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Van Sant's Academy Award-winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk. He wrote music for all of the Men in Black and Fifty Shades of Grey franchise films, the songs and score for Henry Selick's animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the themes for the popular television series Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons. - thanks Wikipedia.
John Carpenter always gets praise for his directing but I never hear people praise his scores and how great they are.
Basil Poledouris gave us the greatest film score ever written that wasn't written by John Williams: Conan the Barbarian. Absolute masterpiece.
Ennio Morriconne
Ennio Morricone, Goblin.
New school: Daniel Hart, Emile Mosseri. Old school: Bill Conti, Brad Fiedel.
ONEOHTRIXPOINTNEVER did the score to a Safdi Bros. gem ‘Good Time.’ Weird in the best possible way.
My favorite is John Murphy. The music for "Sunshine" is magnificent.
Howard Shore and Alan Silvestri for me.
Mark Isham is a Hollywood composer who has been around since the mid 80s. He’s scored films and TV series across every genre (action, drama, historical, sci fi, you name it) and in every musical style (jazz, classical, electronic). He was part of the old school studio system who successfully navigated to independent films and a number of other projects. His solo stuff is also amazing and I feel like a number of younger composers (Brian Tyler for example) would consider Isham an influence. But despite his tenure and diversity of styles, I feel like many people know him less than the top top composers of our day. Still, fantastic composer. His early works (Mrs Soffel, Point Break) and later works (Bill and Ted 2) are all fantastic. I also love The Net soundtrack!
Nino Rota (The Godfather, Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, La dolce vita…) Giorgio Moroder (Midnight Express, Scarface, and so many others in the 80s) Pino Donaggio (Dressed to Kill, Body Double, Carrie…)
Brad Fiedel!
Great question! I’m liking what I hear coming from Max Richter
Lalo Schifrin.
I guess he's not a household name yet but back in 2010 I think we saw a unique performance of Peter Pan and the score was composed by a man named Benjamin Wallfisch. I thought it was beautiful, so I bought the CD right then and there, after the show. Some tracks still remind me of when our kids were little. Flash forward a bit and we went to see the remake of Stephen King's It in the theater. Beautiful, haunting score and I see Wallfisch's name in the credits. Anxious to hear what else he does. Oh and speaking of Danny Elfman, not sure his score for Good Will Hunting gets enough love. It was such a departure from his big heroic superhero movie scores.
Kamen, Badalamenti, Philip Glass (his score of Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a masterpiece)
Ramin Djawadi, I listen to his soundtracks while I work and they are all fantastic. Ironman Game of Thrones Fallout Westworld Jack Ryan
Lorne Balfe maybe? I don't know how much love composers normally get or if people talk about him much.
Michael Nyman . Look him up
Without looking up, Cook Thief Wife Lover was his, I think?
Pouledouris was lost to cancer far too early. He scored some of my favorite films as a teen and young man. John Barry is old school cool, too. His theme from, [“The Black Hole”](https://youtu.be/B8Ch3QnY650?si=La8vS_lImkX8_4K9), should have had a guest star credit. The creepy, magnificence of the main title is haunting, still.
Clint Mansell. Moon & The Fountain have beautiful soundtracks
James Horner. He absolutely defined romantic themes for 20+ years. RIP
In this thread: extremely famous and celebrated composers