[Malte Müller]

I think depends largely on the target audience what is considered a “classic” by whom. Geeks of a specific genre consider other things “classic”.Of course if knowledge to the “general crowd” is the guide it probably largely remembers and considers the catchy melodies. But also if the movies itself are classics. It also does not always have anything to do with quality.

If Williams wouldn’t have been so lucky to score Spielberg films and most of these huge successes, he might not be known as well as he his. Even if we wrote exactly the same music for lesser films.

Take Goldsmith who quality wise is more than up to Williams but has surely less of these “classics”. His Star Trek theme might be his top classic everyone knows and that probably owes a lot to Star Trek being famous and also being re-used for the TNG series.