music Favorite Active Film Composers?

Mark Pope

Mark Pope

I have heard the John Williams vs Hans Zimmer debate a million times played out over the interweb by casual fans. I'm curios to find that of actual musicians, composers and film makers, which composers are your favorite? Since I mentioned Zimmer, I'm going to jump to his immediate defense here and say that I think while he may not be the symphonic mastermind that John Williams or Howard Shore are, he is a fantastic FILM composer, and I do think his music usually does an incredible job in bringing out the emotional backbone of a movie.

That having been said, my favorite is probably Howard Shore. I also love Alexandre Desplat, John Powell and the late James Horner (I know he's not an active composer, but given how recent his tragic death I think it fare to include him).

What do you think?!
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Michael Giaccino, good stuff. I didn't know his name before today, but I like all of those scores (the ones I've seen/heard anyway). Ditto that for Dean Valentine. Scoopic, the music you linked of his almost sounds like a what would happen if Elfman and Zimmer collaborated.

As far as Williams is concerned, it is my opinion that he's still at the top of his game. I don't agree that there's been any drop-off in quality or innovation. His score is damn-near the only reason to watch any of the Star Wars prequels, and I think the music was just as good in Force Awakens. And frankly, I'm stunned that anyone would suggest his quality of worked dropped off after Jedi. I mean, Jurassic Park!!!

I'm also eager to see what comes of Junkie XL. I think his collaboration with Zimmer on Supe.v.Bat was fantastic, and I LOVED what he did for Fury Road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xllG3fSUAOw
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+1 on Junkie XL, the man is a genius!

His YouTube channel is a hive of film composing tutorials and vintage synth porn, what's not to love?!

https://www.youtube.com/user/junkiexlofficial
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Michael Giaccino, good stuff. I didn't know his name before today, but I like all of those scores (the ones I've seen/heard anyway). Ditto that for Dean Valentine. Scoopic, the music you linked of his almost sounds like a what would happen if Elfman and Zimmer collaborated.

As far as Williams is concerned, it is my opinion that he's still at the top of his game. I don't agree that there's been any drop-off in quality or innovation. His score is damn-near the only reason to watch any of the Star Wars prequels, and I think the music was just as good in Force Awakens. And frankly, I'm stunned that anyone would suggest his quality of worked dropped off after Jedi. I mean, Jurassic Park!!!

I'm also eager to see what comes of Junkie XL. I think his collaboration with Zimmer on Supe.v.Bat was fantastic, and I LOVED what he did for Fury Road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xllG3fSUAOw
Click to expand...

I see we have the same taste.
 
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John Williams is by far the best living film composer. Even if he's not at his best, he's still better than all other composers. He is the only one left who holds a candle to the great composers of the golden age of cinema, who were completely influenced by classical music and that style should be considered the definitive way of scoring movies. The greatest film scores can stand alone as a great piece of music worthy of listening to on its own.
 
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Apart from Hans Zimmer (loved The Dark Knight music!), I like work from Ryuichi Sakamoto (actually didn't know he did film scores until I watched The Revenant), Brian Reitzell (he did the music on Hannibal TV series, and Jon Ehrlich and Jason Derlatka (both did the sounds for House MD) and yes, I know the last two are TV shows but the sounds are incredible. Also worth mentioning is Kubrick's The Shining, the main theme of The Night Manager and the intro music in True Detective Season 1. Also, UneducatedFan, how much did you enjoy the Dune TV series? The last two episodes were better because Greg Yaitanes directed them but overall they were enjoyable.
Can't wait for Villeneuve's Dune, was positively shocked that he was chosen.
 
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That is interesting. It looks like he disagreed with the way QT used his music when he said that in 2013. But then he worked with him again in 2015's Hateful 8 & got an Oscar for it.
 
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whats the best way to listen to movie scores?
I used grooveshark back in the day before it got shut down for not paying any artists (oops) are there any services I can type in whatever movie or composer I want and listen to sound tracks ?
 
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sfoster said:
whats the best way to listen to movie scores?
I used grooveshark back in the day before it got shut down for not paying any artists (oops) are there any services I can type in whatever movie or composer I want and listen to sound tracks ?
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I'm not sure what service would provide those scores, maybe Amazon Music. Even there, I think you have to purchase some to add to your library, though some is included with Prime.

Film music is what I primarily listen to, like most people would with rock, pop, country, etc., so I just purchase it. I listen to a lot of scores on Youtube, before buying them. What I'll do is type in a google search of "horror and sci-fi movies 2018," or whatever year, then I'll search the titles and scores on Youtube. Been listening to SKULL ISLAND, UPGRADE, and a few things like that.
 
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Scoopicman said:
I'm not sure what service would provide those scores, maybe Amazon Music. Even there, I think you have to purchase some to add to your library, though some is included with Prime.

Film music is what I primarily listen to, like most people would with rock, pop, country, etc., so I just purchase it. I listen to a lot of scores on Youtube, before buying them. What I'll do is type in a google search of "horror and sci-fi movies 2018," or whatever year, then I'll search the titles and scores on Youtube. Been listening to SKULL ISLAND, UPGRADE, and a few things like that.
Click to expand...

yeah youtube sadly seems to be the best :(
rip grooveshark, you didnt even need an account to look anything up and there were never any ads.

it was funny because i would tell people about it and nobody ever wanted to use it. yet it was literally too good to be true.
 
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