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I was going to do a poll, but I don't know enough about the subject. But three that really stick out to me are: (In no order)

Danny Elfman (A given)
Clint Mansell
Hans Zimmer

John Williams.
Anything involving Classical music (Beehoven, Bach, Wagner etc')
Danny Elfman
Hans Zimmer
Queen

Bernard Hermann
Franz Waxman
Lalo Schifferin
John Williams
James Horner (even though he does tend to self-plagarise)
Basil Poledorus
Leonard Rosenmann

Ennio Morricone.

I've always liked John Williams and John Barry since they both do such a variety of different types of scores. You can factor out the most famous scores and you still get great music like Williams' score for Presumed Innocent or Amistad or Memoirs of a Geisha.

Or Barry's scores for Mary, Queen of Scots, or Robin and Marian or Zulu:



John Barry's score for Legend of the Lone Ranger was beautiful and made that wretched film almost watchable, which for my money is what makes a film composer special.

Howard Shore - His additions to Nine Inch Nail's song "Closer" in the opening credits of Se7en is great. And of course, his score for Fellowship of the Ring is amazing.

Hans Zimmer - His work on The Dark Knight made me appreciate him more. Rumors are floating about that he composed Inception's score without seeing any footage, so I will be paying close attention to it next weekend.

Nicholas Hooper - He did a great job with the Half-Blood Prince. He brought a sense of gloom to the Potter series in terms of music, which a lack of has always been a problem with the series, in my opinion.

James Horner. I absolutely adore the music during the stealing of the Enterprise in ST III.

Danny Elfman and John Williams are too obvious, so I'll throw out Eric Serra. He did the soundtracks for the Fifth Element and Goldeneye among others. I'll also throw out Alan Silvestri. He's done the music for a whole bunch of stuff from Predator to the Back to the Future trilogy to Ferngully.

Just off the top of my head:

Alan Silvestri
Basil Poledorus
Bernard Hermann
Danny Elfman
Ennio Morricone
Hans Zimmer
Howard Shore
James Horner
Jerry Goldsmith
John Williams

Probably some I'm forgetting.

Most of my favorites are mentioned, but I'll throw in Michael Kamen. And Steve Jablonsky for Transformers, and Brad Fiedel for Terminator.

Oh, hey, the topic says Hollywood composers, not film composers. In that case, Bear McCreary.

In addition to ones already mentioned.

Ron Goodwin, a bit of an older one here for his scores for Battle of Britain and Where Eagles Dare.

Klaus Badelt. Perhaps better known for Pirates of the Caribbean, but I like his score for K-19:The Widowmaker.

Hans Zimmer. His music can be so varied, especially when he works with Lisa Gerrard as he did on Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.

James Horner does start to sound self plagiariasing, but an early good score of his was Krull.

Basil Pouledouris for Red October, Conan the Barbarian, Starship Troopers and Robocop.

Anguirus wrote:
Oh, hey, the topic says Hollywood composers, not film composers. In that case, Bear McCreary.

. . .it's usually understood that Hollywood = film.

Wojciech Kilar for Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's wonderfully moody, brooding and ominous stuff.

I like Barry's various Bond films' scores, as well as the music for The Black Hole.

FSTargetDrone wrote:Wojciech Kilar for Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's wonderfully moody, brooding and ominous stuff.

I like Barry's various Bond films' scores, as well as the music for The Black Hole.

The Black Hole is a very nice score, though if you listen to the Space Battle and Flight into Space segments of Moonraker they are very similar to elements of the Black Hole.

This is more suited to AMP.

General Zod wrote:

Anguirus wrote:
Oh, hey, the topic says Hollywood composers, not film composers. In that case, Bear McCreary.

. . .it's usually understood that Hollywood = film.

It's not like it matters. They're the same bunch of people who do both.

Aside from the usual suspects like Zimmer, Gregson-Williams, Williams, Powell, Morricone etc., I just reminded myself of the haunting themes of David Julyan as Nolan tends to use him for his non-action oriented films.

Here is probably one of the best pieces he's done. Julyan's score easily makes this, as with Morricone's for The Thing, a true classic. It works so well, and atmosphere in horror is paramount. I can't think of a better soundtrack to it, and I wish he was more widely used (need to see Eden Lake too, for that matter). I also recommend The Prestige's score, his last project with the Nolans.

Oh, and this guy Ridley Scott uses now instead of Hans Zimmer or Harry Gregson-Williams and Trevor Rabin, is pretty good. Marc Streitenfeld, another German and from the Zimmer school of music it seems, he now scores big time. He, along with Ilan Eshkeri and John Murphy working with Marius Vries and Henry Jackman, makes for interesting new talent being brought up by pros.

I guess if we're also talking Bear McCreary, then we can mention Murray Gold for TV too, or Sean Callery.

The list of names I'd pick have already been taken, honestly, though allow me to add Mark Mancina. He's done various flick scores, including the animated Tarzan one, but I have him on my list for one in particular: Twister.

Yeah, you heard me. Twister. The movie starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt about tornado-chasers. Mancina's score for it is simply superb and is one of my favorite movie scores of all time.

I'm going with John Murphy and that British band Underworld. The soundtracks of 28 Days Later and Sunshine were very magnificent.

Listening to Inception, it is very John Barry and David Arnold, but then it is a very Bond-esque film in many ways, so fits perfectly.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Listening to Inception, it is very John Barry and David Arnold, but then it is a very Bond-esque film in many ways, so fits perfectly.

Ugh. This doesn't sound too good to me as David Arnold is mediocre as hell in my eyes. The last two Bond scores aren't very good at all.

Are you kidding? David Arnold does amazing work, even if the last two Bonds didn't have a full 60-90 minutes of music I really liked (they really aren't his best with only a select few tracks worth hearing outside the context of the film). His best works were more like StarGate, ID4 and TND, or the main theme to Wind Commander

One can always find something crappy for a composer. I cringe when I hear Diamonds Are Forever, and that was Barry, or James Horner and his 3 pieces of music he's recycled since 1986. Anyway, it's a great score for the film. Don't let the analogy put you off, it's still Zimmer, just with a more Bond kind of aura given the film's plot.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Don't let the analogy put you off, it's still Zimmer, just with a more Bond kind of aura given the film's plot.

I actually bought it yesterday without having seen the film.

I tend to do that sometimes too, though am wary of the track names. The Sixth Sense kind've ruined the one big thing about that film, heh.

JLTucker wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Listening to Inception, it is very John Barry and David Arnold, but then it is a very Bond-esque film in many ways, so fits perfectly.

Ugh. This doesn't sound too good to me as David Arnold is mediocre as hell in my eyes. The last two Bond scores aren't very good at all.

Yeah. I don't like Incetion's score. Nothing stands out to me even after listening to it twice. It didn't even stand out when I saw the film. Zimmer has let me down for the first time.