The death of cinematic music?

Someone at work today asked me a really excellent question. It went "Name a film soundtrack that came out WITHIN the past 20 years that you think is so brilliant that you can listen to it over and over".

I had to think really long about this and I came up with nothing. I started off thinking of scifi films since that is my favorite genre. The JJ Abrams Star Trek movies have a pretty good main theme song but the rest of the music is forgettable. Prometheus and Alien Convenant? I don't remember those scores at all and I've seen those movies multiple times. The Disney Star Wars movies? Absolutely nothing memorable except for the recycled music that was used from the original trilogy.


I'll be curious to read the contributions from other members and please stick to FILMS. No tv shows/series.

Maybe not literally cinematic, but I think the GoT soundtrack has many decent themes in it. And it's quite extensive too.

As for movies, it's a thing. I used to collect film soundtracks (I was an odd teenager) but soundtracks now seem to be about ambience rather than thematic. I enjoyed Gravity & Blade Runner 2049 soundtracks, but they're not hummable themes, they're ambience. High quality ambience, but still.

Don't know, how about "Bohemian Raphsody", "Rocketman", "Walk the Line", "Rae", "Mamma Mia!"


You were checking the wrong genre

I think you nailed it right here. What happens is that while you are watching the film you do indeed notice the ambient music but soon after the film is over you usually have a hard time remembering it.

Lol, I was going to mention movies like those, but I guess the point is that they're not original scores.

Eh, I get your meaning but I guess I should have said original music that was specifically written for film.

edit: DM gets it.

I was just browsing back through the history of Oscar winning soundtracks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Original_Score#2010s
and I see that John Williams' The Empire Strikes Back (an excellent soundtrack) lost out to Fame. Dark, dark times

The science fiction genre has very rarely been taken seriously by the Oscars so I'm not surprised. Sure, the main theme for "Fame" is very memorable but that's about it in my opinion.

I can't think of any and I have many CD soundtracks (both single movie and main theme compilations), but I figured this was more of a reflection of my music library timeline (1965 - 1995).

My earliest recognizable movie theme would be Doctor Zhivago (1965), I think... "Somewhere, My Love (Lara's Theme)".

EDIT: Oh Wait..."Dr. No" (1962). Wife shouts, "Gone With The Wind" (1939).

My 2 cents is that it goes with the changing pace of movies. Older films tend to be slower, so there is more time for music to be dominant. Also, with things moving faster now, the music has to be less dominant, more supportive of fast action.

Yes, this fits in perfectly with what DM said concerning the difference between thematic and ambient music.

"The Martian," but this film borrowed from a lot of already popular songs and did not have an original score for the most part.

Also, after lots of thought, I'd say this movie is also the closest in the last decade to a four out of four star movie that we have had. It just feels good to watch. The only thing keeping it from achieving the top score is being able to watch it over and over. That I'm not so sure on.

The second film with a more original score might be "Interstellar." A fantastic but very flawed at times film.


Generally speaking with regards to the thread, I don't like how modern films are so action heavy. I prefer dialogue and slow building up of setting and plot so a brief and intense action sequence has meaning.

Master and Commander, excellent soundtrack that I own and listen to. Half of it was period music that may disqualify it from this list though.
The first Pirates of the Caribbean had a fun soundtrack.
Captain Amerrica: The First Avenger had an ok theme, but they barely used it and the few instances they did it was so quiet that it was easy to miss.

Agreed. It's one of many great scores by Klaus Badelt who is one of the creative disciples of Hans Zimmer so hence why their styles sound so similar.

"How to train your dragom" has good soundtrack.

I can think of one or two movies that the music evokes a visual from the movie upon hearing it, The Blue Max for one.
I can tell you what is happening on the screen just from the score.
Just about any of the Bond Films that John Barry wrote. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and the first Pirates of the Caribbean have memorable scores.
I think these days only the cinematic blockbusters have purpose written scores while many are filled with incidental themes and Popular Music like Beverly Hills Cop's "Axel F"
which is played pretty much every time Eddie's character is on screen but the soundtrack is full of other 80's music and apart from that no orchestral stuff.

Yup, I know exactly what you are talking about. The original SW trilogy, the first three Indiana Jones movies, the original cast Star Trek movies (TMP through 6), Dune, Blade Runner, Alien, Aliens and Predator are the ones that come to my mind.

Tron Legacy.

& if we were allowing soundtracks collected from popular songs Guardians of the Galaxy :P

I don't get into movie soundtracks like I used to, but I think part of it might be my age, as well as sort of a "been there, done that" mentality.

I think the Batman Begins/Dark Knight themes aren't too bad, but I also agree with the sentiment that movies have changed, and the soundtracks are serving a slightly different purpose.

My all time favorite.

Apparently the score to the new Dune movie is pretty good.

We have the Oblivion (M83) and Inception (ZImmer) soundtracks on our car usb. I also insisted we added the Bourne theme, puts my daughter and i stupid mode while we hunt for a carpark at the shops.

I'll find out tomorrow night when I see it in the movie theater. Toto's score for the David Lynch "Dune" will be a very tough act to follow but I'll keep an open mind.

Yeah I listen to Lynch's Dune movie score pretty regularly. It's one of the reasons I still quite like that movie version. That & the visual design.

I think something is missing in scores today that seemed to be more common from cinema of some decades ago and further back. The only not so recent memorable soundtracks that I can think of right now are from The Straight Story with Richard Farnsworth directed by David Lynch scored by Angelo Badalamenti and maybe the Gladiator. There are others I'm sure but I just can recall them right now. That being said it sure does seem like we don't get unique, memorable scores like we used such as The Mission, Chariots of Fire and so on. I recently just watched Dances With Wolves for the first time in a long time and was reminded of how great that score was too.

Nimits reminded me of LOTR. That has some excellent music throughout with the Rohan theme being quite memorable. I also agree with Nimit's sentiment that cinema in general has been lacking in many ways in the past couple of decades.

The Batman theme from the Dark Knight trilogy is quite good, but unlike John Williams (or some older Hans Zimmer stuff) IMO it does not really "stand on its own (i.e. the Imperial March or Raiders of the Lost Ark March are good compositions in their own right even without the movie association).

The last movies I can recall that had sound tracks that were good music in their own right might be Return of the King (Lords of the Ring), the first Pirates of the Caribbean, and Master and Commander (though this last one might not be completely fair, given that most of the music was just various period compositions).

But then again, I would argue it is cinema in general, and not just cinematic music, that is and has been for the last 5-10 years) a dead and lifeless art form. To the extent there is any real creativity going on, I would argue it is found in video/computer games and, maybe to a lesser extent, streaming shows.

Apologies, I couldn't think of anything in the last 20 years but the sound track to The last of the Mohicans gets me every time. https://youtu.be/9tjdswqGGVg

That reminds me, I must watch it again!

I loved the song when I watched the film the first time and even now it brings a tear to my eye when I hear it, but don't tell anyone ;o)

It was just on terrestrial again in the last week or so, I watched it The Gael is a classic.

The soundtrack for “Last of the Mohicans” is brilliant and the film is one of my all time favorites. On a side note, I have a special interest in the military history of the 18th century so films like “Last of the Mohicans” and “Barry Lyndon” are right up my alley.

The Thin Red Line for me... so emotive.

I really tried to like that movie but it just didn’t work for me. Maybe one day I’ll revisit it and see if I get a different impression 23 years after I saw it in the theater.

Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings work pretty well as a backdrop to our family boardgame evenings :-)

I also liked the soundtracks of the Cars movies.

The LOTR trilogy is really the magnum opus of Howard Shore. Nothing else that he's done comes close in my opinion.

I just ran across this video, and thought you might like it and am posting in here in case you haven't seen it (he even talks about the music towards the end):

Thanks Arthonon! I will most definitely check this out.