Iconic movie score in recent years

[DA_Champion]

I thought that Pacific Rim had a good score, too bad the movie was mediocre.

Gravity had a good score.

 

[DCW]

Yeah, that is a really high bar, but when I was growing up we used to get them all the time.

Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Star Wars
Indiana Jones
Superman
Chariots of Fire
The Terminator
Back to the Future
Batman
Jurassic Park
Die Hard
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
Etc.

Compared to the scores of the 60s, 70s & 80s, modern scores really are lacking. I'm not complaining because we haven't got an iconic score in the last six months. I'm complaining because we've hardly got them in the past decade.

Dang man, seeing that list really depresses me. What happened to music? More and more recently I've found myself only listening to stuff from 20 plus years ago. I'm not only talking about movie scores but other types of music too.

 

[Lord]

The movies listed there spanned some 30 decades, and as for modern music, it depends on what you're looking for, it's not the best time for certain types of music, but great for others.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The movies listed there spanned some 30 decades, and as for modern music, it depends on what you're looking for, it's not the best time for certain types of music, but great for others.

Aside from Jurassic Park, they cover 14 years. Hardly three (I assume you didn't mean 30) decades. I was merely taking a subsection of those three decades where iconic scores came down the pike every year.

If you extend things to the previous 16 years, there are also great scores like Psycho, Magnificent Seven, The Dollars Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Godfather, Cape Fear, Lawrence of Arabia, James Bond, Exodus, etc.

 

[The Endless]

Ahhh yea, Once Upon a Time in the West. My favourite movie score ever.

Although i'd say my favourite theme from Leone's Westerns was For a Few Dollars More.

 

[redhawk23]

I don't think modern scores or bad, just that current styles don't really lend themselves to themes that pass the "ring-tone test" essentially you couldn't produce a recognizable midi file of most of them, or easily whistle them. That doesn't mean that scores don't perfectly serve the films they're in.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Speaking of Once Upon a Time in the West, Hans Zimmer's main Sherlock Holmes theme reminds me a lot of Cheyenne's theme from that film.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I don't think modern scores or bad, just that current styles don't really lend themselves to themes that pass the "ring-tone test" essentially you couldn't produce a recognizable midi file of most of them, or easily whistle them. That doesn't mean that scores don't perfectly serve the films they're in.

There is some truth to that. For example, while watching TDKT, the scores works within the film. But it isn't something that you would listen to as their own separate pieces of music, unlike Danny Elfman's theme.

 

[The Endless]

Speaking of Once Upon a Time in the West, Hans Zimmer's main Sherlock Holmes theme reminds me a lot of Cheyenne's theme from that film.

haha yea it does. With that out of tune piano.

I've always loved Morricone's The Thing score too. So atmospheric.

Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is awesome too.

 

[antonydelfini]

The most well-known and recognzable theme from the last decade might be

Pirates of the Caribbean
Harry Potter

 

[Octoberist]

There hasn't been any good 'hummable' themes in a while. I don't know if the Hobbit coutns since the majority of the score is from Lord of the Rings. Thor 2 had one but it's also not as strong as it should've been. It seems like Michael Giancchio is one of the few who are attempting the 'John Williams' model. otherwise many scores are more atmospheric and cerebal than hummable.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

The misty mountain theme from hobbit was pretty hummable.

 

[The Endless]

Sometimes i find myself randomly humming this

 

[DarkSovereignty]

I loved Bryan Tyler's iron man theme, though I prefer the sixties spy version from the credits, kind of wish the rest of the score was in that vein

 

[The Endless]

Recent-ish?

 

[ray243]

I'm mostly talking about the past 5-10 years, starting from 2007/8 to 2014.

 

[The Endless]

Well i'd definitely say Tron: Legacy. Can't begin to count the amount of times i've heard that main theme used in commercials, segments on tv shows etc. Think Top Gear has used it a few times for example.

 

[Silvermoth]

The misty mountain theme from hobbit was pretty hummable.

Oh yeah, that's another good one

 

[ray243]

There hasn't been any good 'hummable' themes in a while. I don't know if the Hobbit coutns since the majority of the score is from Lord of the Rings. Thor 2 had one but it's also not as strong as it should've been. It seems like Michael Giancchio is one of the few who are attempting the 'John Williams' model. otherwise many scores are more atmospheric and cerebal than hummable.

Still, it's hard to label his music as iconic despite sharing John Williams style.