[Mark Burgess]

This piece in the Guardian today.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/apr/06/10-soundtracks-that-changed-the-way-we-listen-to-movies-star-wars-space-odyssey

Not sure I would have selected this bunch of movie soundtracks as my top 10, but certainly things like:

Citizen Kane
Forbidden Planet
Psycho
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
2001
Star Wars
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The Omen
Blade Runner
etc etc

What do others think. (Now someone is going to tell me there is already a thread about this–but you can attack the Guardian for starting!)

[Thor Joachim Haga]

There are threads on top 10 favourite composers and top 10 favourite soundtracks here, if memory serves, but not really one on the most influential (which is essentially what that Guardian piece is, isn’t it?). It is, however, a topic that has been brought up many times, in other forums, over the years. And it’s always a tricky one to attack, because there will always be subjective evaluations involved – and some objective assessment of industrial context.

I have my own list of influential scores throughout history that only marginally touches on the some of the same as in that piece. I do disagree with some of the choices — for example, the needledrop approach of AMERICAN GRAFFITI was just a response to things that had already happened in the 60s, like EASY RIDER and THE GRADUATE. Might jot down a few thoughts on this at a later time, maybe this Friday over some red wine! 🙂

[FalkirkBairn01]

I think that the article highlight a few “forks in the road” that indicate where film music changed or where change was signposted. And people will have their own examples to illustrate those milestone moments.

[Mark Burgess]

Apart from the Star Wars moment, it’s hard to find much consistency in what turns us on. Perhaps red wine 🙂

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Not sure I would have selected this bunch of movie soundtracks as my top 10, but certainly things like:

Citizen Kane
Forbidden Planet
Psycho
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
2001
Star Wars
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The Omen
Blade Runner

These are all great, worthy scores, and yes, I’d call all of them “seminal” soundtracks. I would not call 2001 – A Space Odyssey a groundbreaking film score though (not that I’m saying anyone here did), it’s obviously not a film score at all, it was a movie that just used classical pieces of music. Obviously, to great effect and iconic use, a milestone “soundtrack”, no doubt, but nevertheless not an original score.

[Mark Burgess]

This is actually a very interesting point. Is 2001 a film score? There was, of course, the awful period score written by Alex North that was not used (thankfully). The classical/modern music used by Stanley Kubrick was DJed onto the film, rather than written for it, but in my view it was one of the most inspired bits of spotting of all time. The use of music is perfect and brilliant. He even distorted Ligeti for special effect (much to Ligeti’s disgust) so it was adapted for the film I think that this use of music is so iconic, so inspired that it has never really been replicated since. But then we come to Aliens and other copies of the music. Was that really a score? When a director says “write me something that’s exactly like this”, then it is a score but is it an original score? James Horner complained about this a lot, and his own writing was packed with references to classical music: Strauss, Shostakovich etc.

[Malte Müller]

There was, of course, the awful period score written by Alex North that was not used (thankfully).

Don’t agree that North’s score is awful. But certainly now that we are all totally used to the “compilation score” (that is what it is, silent movie like compilation) it has a hard time against that. North could only fail writing his own Zarathustra…

The usage is great especially if you don’t alraedy know the works from elsewhere. I mean the waltz is fitting on the space station scenes but it is near a parody, too.

Visually the movie is great and I love the iconic HAL 9000 part. But in generally it drags quite a little about over its running time…

When a director says “write me something that’s exactly like this”, then it is a score but is it an original score?

This is a general question for anything someone creates for someone else in comission when it is part of a bigger work that is not your own. You always follow the vision of someone else. “Write somethig like this” sound not useful but if the person cannot articulate otherwise example always help to find something fitting without endlessy trying (costly) around. But what is “original” actually? This question is actually what makes some circles still value so called “absolute music” more.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

The article deserves a few comments before I possibly post my own suggestions:

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
The great German expressionist film-maker FW Murnau made this Oscar-winning film in Hollywood at the invitation of producer William Fox. Though it is considered a late entry in the silent film era, thanks largely to its use of intertitles in place of dialogue, it was treated to a synchronised effects and music track courtesy of Fox’s trailblazing Movietone system. For the very first time, a film’s sound elements were optically printed directly on to the film. Audiences would have heard recorded music by the likes of Chopin and Gounod.

One could argue that DON JUAN (1926) predates this, with its use of the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. Traditionally, however, THE JAZZ SINGER (1927) gets credit as the first sound film, with its short bits of dialogue and sound effects and music attached to the film strip. But this appears to be a technical point they’re making. If the point was, instead, to highlight great scores from the silent era, there are other, far more interesting candidates than SUNRISE. Like Huppertz’ METROPOLIS, which came out the same year.

King Kong (1933)
Though he had cut his teeth on a string of films before this, most of them without credit, Austrian-born Max Steiner refined just exactly how a film score could function with this classic for RKO. His meticulous application of the orchestra to attend to matters of musical narrative, structure, scene setting and emotional nuance was a huge part of the film’s impact and success. Indeed, King Kong was the foundation and framework on which all symphonic Hollywood film music that followed was built, and in some respects still is.

This has always been an overrated point with KING KONG. Silent film scores had fulfilled those narrative purposes for decades. But it was one of the earliest sound films to make an impact, thus becoming influential through its sheer popularity.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Orson Welles’ feature film directorial debut was composer Bernard Herrmann’s first film score. Both had worked in radio drama in New York; in Hollywood, Herrmann’s was a singular voice, surrounded as he was (save for the likes of Alfred Newman) by European composers. For Kane, Herrmann set out his stall, eschewing the syrupy “Hollywood” symphonic palette of his peers and, with a keen sense of the dramatic, created a bespoke sound-world for the film, emphasising mood and atmosphere.

Hardly influential as a score, and the “emphasis on mood and atmosphere” was not a new thing at all; it’s really a reference point due to the launch of Bernard Herrmann and his particular “cell-structure” approach to film music.

Blackboard Jungle (1955)
There were a few nails in the coffin for traditional symphonic film music, and Blackboard Jungle was the first. MGM licensed Rock Around the Clock, recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets, as the film’s main musical thread. It soundtracked a story about unruly teens at an inner-city school, and its popularity caused much anxiety for parents who feared it (and the song’s) influence. The song became a global hit, and studios realised how music could help promote their movies. Jazz scores soon followed.

Yes. Although not the first film to use rock songs in film, its popularity turned it into an influential score in that respect. However, had I been The Guardian, I would instead have emphasized the rise of jazz and blues as dramatic underscore as an influential reference point in the 50s, specifically Alex North’s A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and Elmer Bernstein’s THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. Maybe also Mancini’s TOUCH OF EVIL at the tailend of the decade.

Forbidden Planet (1956)
Years before the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was founded, pioneering couple Louis and Bebe Barron were creating otherworldly sounds for magnetic tape. Hollywood had flirted with electronic sounds, most notably the theremin – as used by the likes of Dimitri Tiomkin in The Thing from Another World and Herrmann in The Day the Earth Stood Still (both 1951). For Forbidden Planet, however, the Barrons crafted the first ever completely electronic film score. Its blurring of effects and music surprised and delighted audiences and inspired a new generation of composers.

Influential, or a cornerstone within electronic film music? Absolutely. But never had the widespread influence of the 70s and 80s practioners of the technology.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Pop music and jazz had well and truly infiltrated movie soundtracks by the 1960s, and one of its greatest proponents was composer Henry Mancini. With Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Mancini pleased producers no end by crafting not only a hit song (Moon River), but also a score that was totally of its time. Mancini had a flair for “symphonic pop”, combining the melodic traditions of old with the upbeat sounds of the new. The likes of Mancini’s Hatari! (1962), Charade (1963) and The Pink Panther (1963) all benefited from this musical melting pot.

A classic score, for sure, and the quintessential reference point for loungey film scores (or “symphonic pop”, as they call it). But composers had written film scores with a pronounced hit song ever since the days of Tiomkin’s HIGH NOON (and “Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling”), maybe even earlier, so it didn’t really break new ground in that respect.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

It was something of a twist of fate that gave us one of the most brilliant, and impactful, film soundtracks of all time. Composer Alex North wrote an original score for Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece, but it was ultimately scrapped. The director had seemingly grown too fond of the classical pieces he had been using in the meantime. You have to feel for North, but it is hard to imagine Kubrick’s brilliant headscratcher of a film without its powerful mix of Ligeti, Richard Strauss, Khachaturian and Johann Strauss II.

Sure, I agree. It’s a classic example of using existing classical music in films, but it didn’t usher in a new wave of classical music in films. It didn’t really change the way we listen to movies as such. But most certainly iconic, to the extent that people can’t listen to some of these pieces now, without thinking of 2001.

American Graffiti (1973)
Before he gave us Star Wars, writer/director George Lucas had another hit in the shape of American Graffiti. It captures a night in the lives of a group of California teenagers as they listen to rock’n’roll, race cars and muse on life and love. The film features more than 40 songs from the era, each carefully positioned within the narrative of the film, and heard coming out of car radios or in diners. The popularity of the film, not to mention its chart-topping soundtrack album, would inspire a new wave of song-led soundtracks.

See comment above. Films like THE GRADUATE and EASY RIDER predate AMERICAN GRAFITTI when it comes to this particular “trend” in film music.

Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
As much as Lucas’s American Graffiti was one in the eye for symphonic film music, his 1977 sci-fi smash Star Wars was a shot in its arm. On Steven Spielberg’s recommendation, Lucas approached composer John Williams to write the music for what was meant to be a loving pastiche of a bygone age. Williams promptly put his tongue in his cheek and created an old-fashioned symphonic score with knowing nods to Holst, Walton and Korngold. Ultimately Williams made Hollywood, and audiences, fall in love with the symphony orchestra all over again.

At least they didn’t claim the score reawakened the “dead” symphonic film score, which is a recurring mis-apprehension. Symphonic scores were being produced immediately before STAR WARS, it never went away. So “fall in love with the symphony orchestra all over again” is an unnuanced statement. But yes, it did re-popularize a certain type of romantic tonal language.

Crimson Tide (1995)

Hans Zimmer turned Hollywood film music on its head and Crimson Tide is the apex of that moment. It was an early showcase for the kind of huge, almost unyielding sound we’ve come to know from the German-born composer. Electronic music was always at the heart of what Zimmer was about as an artist, but its fusion with the real-world emotional heft of orchestral players and choir (as here) is something he truly made his own. And with it the sound of modern Hollywood film music was born.

Again, not quite nuanced enough. Zimmer’s “power anthem” style for contemporary action films, which is what this is about, got its first proper formulation in BLACK RAIN. Then he developed it throughout the early 90s until it reached its zenith with CRIMSON TIDE and THE ROCK, the latter being a supremely popular crossover soundtrack, far moreso than CRIMSON TIDE. Then it kinda died out with the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films in the early/mid 2000s, when Powell had set a new benchmark with his ostinato-driven JASON BOURNE films.

In short — they deserve credit for the article, but some historical inaccuracies that take some of the credence away. Then again, it’s The Guardian. It’s “normies”. Not hardcore buffs like us.

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