Movie Soundtrack Composers

[Jay]

My favorite has to be without a doubt Hans Zimmer. He's by far the most gifted man in this field I've ever had the pleasure to hear in countless movies.

It's funny... when I watch a new movie... I'll be halfway in and... I'd just know it's his work. I'd go home, rush to computer and check on IMDB and smile.

I can't really say which soundtrack is my favorite... they are just so different and all equally enjoyable. I'm a big movie soundtrack buff, classical music with no or almost no lyrics.

One of his recent work we all know... and deserving of praise is this song.



(Dream is collapsing is equally as impressive but I want to limit to 1 video per post - heck it'll be the song that plays in my Halloween video invite this year)

My woman finds it weird when I drive listening to this instead of whatever flavor of the week plays on the radio but it.... center me....

Anyone out there feel the same? Do you feel like sharing your taste as well? Perhaps even post a video of a song somewhere so that I can perhaps enlarge my library?

 

[Hailey Knight]

Hans Zimmer can swivel between really plain, generic-sounding scores (Gladiator) to really brilliant stuff (Inception, Lion King).

John Williams must always be mentioned, but I tend not to listen to him because his main themes are so iconic (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark), everyone knows them by heart. I think the only ones I listen to in full are Memoirs of a Geisha and Schindler's List.

James Newton Howard does some great fantastical stuff (King Kong 2005, Peter Pan 2003, good music for M. Night's garbage films).

I'll think of more soon.

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

Not to be pedantic, but soundtrack is usually existing songs in a movie (like Pulp Fiction) and score is the music created for a movie (Hans Zimmer).

Also: ban everyone that says John Williams

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Why? His are pretty much the scores that everyone's familiar with.

James Horner's one of mine. The Rocketeer soundtrack is fantastic. And say what you will about Titanic and "that song" (ugh), the score is amazing. Ditto for Avatar. The man doesn't do greatly memorable stuff on the John Williams scale, but he's a damn solid scorist.

 

[Officer_Charon]

Oh yeah, Hans Zimmer, all the way. Probably my favorite work of his was either in The Rock or Backdraft, with Blackhawk Down being a VERY close third.

Ultimately, it depends on what mood I'm in... Zimmer seems to find a way to make it work.







Basil Poledouris is another all-time favorite... not the least of which for his work on Robocop, but also for Starship Troopers.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Ooh, let's not forget about John flipping Carpenter.

 

[klew]

Hans Zimmer's The Rock was his best. James Horner's Braveheart is excellent, as is Randy Edelman's Dragonheart and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, both commonly used in other trailers or award show moments.

 

[Hailey Knight]

James Horner has done some great scores; it's unfortunate he keeps ripping off himself.

 

[checkeredhat]

Hans Zimmer's best work, right here:

 

[PatrThom]

I came here pretty much to say Zimmer and Howard, but it seems we're all already familiar with these guys (even when teamed up with Elton John). So instead I'll add a couple other names, such as Mark Mancina (Training Day, Disney's Tarzan) and Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Hercules).

Let's have a little underrated Menken, shall we?



--Patrick

 

[checkeredhat]

No one's said Ennio Morricone yet.

 

[PatrThom]

Thank you for rectifying my omission, sir. I even got the import version, should've remembered it.

--Patrick

 

[strawman]

No one's said Ennio Morricone yet.

The Mission is hands down one of the best soundtracks ever. It's breathtaking in movie and out of movie.

 

[Espy]

John Murphy. Hands down favorite.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Joe Hisaishi, best known for scoring the works of Hayao Miyazaki.






Even the less good movies (like Goro Miyazaki's) benefit from his beautiful music:

 

[Just Me]

And there's Basil Poledouris.





And of course:


As well as all his other work.

 

[fade]

My favorite relatively recent score was "Brick". It was understated but powerful.

 

[Frank]

John Murphy. Hands down favorite.

Like times a million, I always pick up the scores to movies he works on.
Added at: 02:13

And there's Basil Poledouris.

Also!

 

[Philosopher B.]

Alan S. worked on two of the raddest 80s movies:





Also, one of my personal favorites from J. Wizzle:



Cujo is an example of a good movie made great by its atmospheric score, thanks to C. Bernstein:

 

[ncts_dodge_man]

While not a movie soundtrack per se, Brian Tyler should be commended for the Children of Dune soundtrack - esp. Inama Mushif - it fit very well with the scenes being played (just the music, screen doesn't change).

 

[Philosopher B.]

Also, 80s scores with hella synth totally rule:

 

[Azurephoenix]

Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian is one of my favorite movie scores. I like a lot of his work.

Hans Zimmer is great as well as James Horner.

I also have to add the Terminator 2 score by Brad Fiedel... I think it's a really good movie synth score (and very distinct).

 

[twitchmoss]

no Michael Giacchino? for shame.

 

[Just Me]

Also, 80s scores with hella synth totally rule:

Now please you cannot bring up 80s movies with electronic scores and leave this one out



And as my girlfriend always says: Zimmer geht immer! (hey, we are germans)
Meaning: There's a Zimmer soundtrack for every mood and everything else...

 

[Piotyr]

No love for Danny Elfman? Although a bunch of his are really iconic songs, too, like the Batman theme. He's also apparently attached at the hip to Tim Burton.

 

[Azurephoenix]

No love for Danny Elfman? Although a bunch of his are really iconic songs, too, like the Batman theme. He's also apparently attached at the hip to Tim Burton.

I really like the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack.

 

[Philosopher B.]

Now please you cannot bring up 80s movies with electronic scores and leave this one out



And as my girlfriend always says: Zimmer geht immer! (hey, we are germans)
Meaning: There's a Zimmer soundtrack for every mood and everything else...

Unfortunately, I have not seen that movie. :-o

 

[checkeredhat]

No love for Danny Elfman? Although a bunch of his are really iconic songs, too, like the Batman theme. He's also apparently attached at the hip to Tim Burton.

Other than the Simpsons and the stuff Danny Elfman did with Oingo Boingo, everything he does sounds the same to me.

 

[Espy]

Other than the Simpsons and the stuff Danny Elfman did with Oingo Boingo, everything he does sounds the same to me.

I dunno man, I think he does some super great stuff and then some very generic stuff. He's either ON or he's "meh".

 

[strawman]

He has a particular style, and within that style he's done some great stuff. He can't compose for everything though.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I love how when he was hired for Hulk, Ang Lee told him to write a score that was "not like Danny Elfman".

And the Hulk score was beautiful.

 

[PatrThom]

Now please you cannot bring up 80s movies with electronic scores and leave this one out

Nor can you mention that one without also mentioning this one:


Glad someone else mentioned Elfman and Fidel.

--Patrick

 

[Adam]

Clint Mansell on Requiem for a Dream. Its a bit overplayed now but still so recognizable from its rewrite into the trailer for LOTR: The Two Towers.

Also, Immediate Music which isn't really an individual but a group that put together scores for trailers has done a lot of work that you'd recognize pretty quickly. They wrote parts of the score for the second Spiderman's first trailer: Lacrimosa.

 

[Mathias]

Not to be pedantic, but soundtrack is usually existing songs in a movie (like Pulp Fiction) and score is the music created for a movie (Hans Zimmer).

Also: ban everyone that says John Williams

Is John Williams too mainstream for your tastes?

 

[wana10]

Let's have a little underrated Menken, shall we?

--Patrick

uh hold on there cowboy. i love me some menken (and i mean LOVE me some menken) but the dude has 8 oscars. i don't think there is anyone else living with more oscars than him. i really don't think underrated is the best word to describe him.