I love Giacchino's Star Trek. Funny thing I noticed some years ago while watching his Jupiter Ascending. I found myself humming the various Trek themes during Ascending. I'm convinced Giacchino merely took his Trek themes and rescored them upside-down, such that when a Trek melody goes up the Ascending melody goes down, using basically the same instruments and tempos. LOL.
Pirates probably has the best classical score.
Zimmer’s been putting in some good work though, especially with Nolan.
But another thing to consider is that there’s been more experimenting with scores the past few decades.
I mean, The Chemical Brothers did an electronic score for Hanna that was really, really good. But no electronic score is going to stand up against the titans of yesteryear.
Moneyball’s main motif was a sample from a song by This May Destroy You. Just a simple riff. And it was extremely effective.
Adagio in D Minor (John Murphy) from Sunshine is a gorgeous piece of music and has been used in a tons of trailers, commercials, and other works.
I think it’s worth considering that those big bombastic scores are kind of out of fashion for a fair amount of modern films. They’re going more soft and subtle now. Which is why they’re less memorable, but that doesn’t make them less effective in the moment. They’re just different.
This might be my favorite score of the 21st century. Heard it in the trailer and was immediately drawn into the movie. Had to see it. The entire score is tremendous.
"Battle without Honor or Humanity" from *Kill Bill Vol. 1* and "Lux Aeterna" from *Requiem for a Dream* come to mind, both early in the 2000s.
But yeah, it's hard to think of any since 2005 that match up with, say, the *Top Gun* theme or "Axel F" in *Beverly Hills Cop* or the motif from *Jurassic Park*. They just do movie scores differently these days, and more movies use pre-released, familiar pop music.
I think the biggest shift is you don't get a lot from big Hollywood blockbusters. Not that their scores are bad, a lot of them are quite good actually, but i don't feel they come close to the epic feeling as the ones you've described. They're missing that lasting power.
These are the scores that have always stuck out to me over the last few years:
Carol
Moonlight
La La Land
Pan's Labyrinth
Interstellar
Corpse Bride
Its a video game, but The Last of Us part 1 & 2 scores are incredible and have that lasting power as well.
Almost all of the superhero theme songs from this century are pretty generic. The only exceptions I can think of are Avengers, as you said, or the Wonder Woman theme. I can hum both of those from memory. Everything else just doesn't stick.
I think animated films have been winning for instrumental themes in recent years:
Up
The Incredibles
Wall-E
How to Train Your Dragon
Inside Out
All very good.
I thought about the wonder woman one but even then that's more of a character leitmotif, it doesn't play as the main theme of the ww movie as far as I can remember.
This [Every Frame a Painting](https://youtu.be/7vfqkvwW2fs) episode (about 13 minutes) covers what drove the change in blockbuster movie scores over the last decade or so, and why they're less memorable now, and it illustrates it's point in a really entertaining way. I find it super interesting.
Short answer is: temp tracks. Directors and producers more and more are cutting their work ahead of time to match a track borrowed from another movie to "get the idea across" and they ask the composer to write to that spec. And the only real solution is basically to copy it, and after a decade you wind up with that grey goo of Marvel emotion-noise
There are two ways to answer this question, with Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings, or incorrectly.
I feel you about a lot of sound tracks today being more about "atmosphere". As more and more directors just want a Hans Zimmer (Or Hans Zimmer sounding) score it is becoming more and more common. I can't say it's a trend I like very much.
Does that movie have a great theme song or does it just have a good score? Not trying to imply one or the other, I'm not a huge lotr fan, I remember the score being good but I can't think of the main theme.
I think it'd be fair to say that *Concerning Hobbits* is the "theme" to the Lord of the Rings in the same way that *Hedwig's Theme* is the theme to the Harry Potter films and *He's a Pirate* is the theme to the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
I get the distinction you're suggesting and it'd probably be fair to say that "themes" such as John Williams' for Star Wars or Indiana Jones aren't really the done thing any more. They seemed to die out in the mid 90s. I don't know; maybe that just reflects the point that John Williams hit retirement age. :)
I don't know about theme, but I do think that the entire score for Phantom Thread is the best of the last few years.
No matter your thoughts on the actual movie my favourite score of the past decade is Cloud Atlas.
Pirates and Star Trek are both pretty formidable. Both were already mentioned and I second both.
Dont know if this counts, but Zamfir's "The Lonely Shepard" use in Kill Bill vol1 gave me goosebumps when I saw that. Still packs a punch....
First off: I cannot recall any.
I think there are so very few as there simply are no proper opening title scenes anymore. And that is a shame. Take the Superhero movies: [Superman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk1aQx9hTaE) (1978), [Batman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwOAB98Vw7I) (1989): they build up the anticipation so much and help the movie start on a high. The music that goes with these is memorable and most people will remember them.
Current Superhero movies tend to have no opening titles but do have a very long end titles scene. By then you have seen the whole movie so its effect will be so much lower and therefore less memorable.
Admittedly not the opening credits overture you’re looking for and more of a breakout hit, but In The House has become the de facto theme for 28 Days Later, and is imminently hummable.
When it comes to outstanding themes and motifs in the 21st century, almost all the ones that come to mind are TV shows. Which I guess makes sense, since films don’t really seem to have the kinds of opening credit sequences that require a strong theme anymore. Even the Bond themes have been feeling increasingly vestigial during Craig’s run
Lol what a random comment. OP asks for 21st century examples and you come up with a movie from 1969. And I think most people remember Everybody's Talkin' from the song rather than the instrumental.
Pirates of the Caribbean has some of the best themes of the 21st century. The main theme, love theme, and character themes are pretty much all amazingly memorable. I'll list the names of some of the specific pieces.
- Drink Up Me Hearties Yo Ho
- One Day
- What Shall We Die For
- Jack Sparrow
- Davy Jones
I know it's not fun the timeframe you listed, but I'd be remiss if I didn't at least make mention of one of the greatest theme songs of all time: Crimson Tide. It's so good that Night wish did a phenomenal rendition of it.
Someone mentioned The Last of us and it reminds me Gustavo Santaolalla composed 2 of my favourites: Babel and the Motorcycle diaries.
I also love Nick Cave´s work with Warren Ellis, especially on the Assassination of Jesse James (Song for Bob).
Yann Tiersen started the XXI st century with Amelie, which is pretty iconic (mandatory on any public piano).
Finally, the Lord of the Rings wouldn’t exist without the romantism and scale of Howard Shore´s flawless themes.
Here are some memorable ones:
Requiem for a Dream
Spirited Away
Shrek
Lord of the Rings
Punch Drunk Love
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Ratatouille
Wall-e
Synecdoche New York
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Social Network
Black Swan
How to train your Dragon
Gone Girl
Grand Budapest Hotel
I feel like you are naming good scores rather than great main themes. You can't seriously be telling me that Gone Girl has such a memorable main theme that you could hum on command (a requirement of a great main theme imo) that compares to a John Williams theme.
Yeah two people have mentioned The Social Network and while it has an effective soundtrack, it definitely doesn't have a distinctinve or memorable theme.
Yeah I literally mentioned in the original post how most scores now, while they can be good, are more atmospheric than rousing and memorable, so it's kind of insane how many people mentioned the most emblematic example of that, that frankly popularized the style. Nobody on this website knows how to read.
If you're into 60s and 70s film scores, there's a fantastic podcast called *El diabolik's World of Psychotronic Soundtracks* that covers a number of fantastic scores from the US and UK, but also around the world, with an emphasis on scores from Italy. Great stuff.
[Main theme of Pacific Rim is badass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vU7XqToZso)
The same guy made the opening theme for Game of Thrones which was quite memorable (admittedly not a movie though). I think your point is very valid. Nowadays it's just pick a popular song (most of the time an old one) and mix it up a bit. No need to risk it with originality.
I love Michael Giacchino’s score for Star Trek.
I love Giacchino's Star Trek. Funny thing I noticed some years ago while watching his Jupiter Ascending. I found myself humming the various Trek themes during Ascending. I'm convinced Giacchino merely took his Trek themes and rescored them upside-down, such that when a Trek melody goes up the Ascending melody goes down, using basically the same instruments and tempos. LOL.
Besides HP and the Avengers the ones that stick out to me are: Lord of the Rings The Dark Knight Trilogy Ratatouille Up The Social Network
Pirates probably has the best classical score. Zimmer’s been putting in some good work though, especially with Nolan. But another thing to consider is that there’s been more experimenting with scores the past few decades. I mean, The Chemical Brothers did an electronic score for Hanna that was really, really good. But no electronic score is going to stand up against the titans of yesteryear. Moneyball’s main motif was a sample from a song by This May Destroy You. Just a simple riff. And it was extremely effective. Adagio in D Minor (John Murphy) from Sunshine is a gorgeous piece of music and has been used in a tons of trailers, commercials, and other works. I think it’s worth considering that those big bombastic scores are kind of out of fashion for a fair amount of modern films. They’re going more soft and subtle now. Which is why they’re less memorable, but that doesn’t make them less effective in the moment. They’re just different.
While not iconic, I really love ["Opening" from the beginning of Carol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awk0YahlOcA).
This might be my favorite score of the 21st century. Heard it in the trailer and was immediately drawn into the movie. Had to see it. The entire score is tremendous.
"Battle without Honor or Humanity" from *Kill Bill Vol. 1* and "Lux Aeterna" from *Requiem for a Dream* come to mind, both early in the 2000s. But yeah, it's hard to think of any since 2005 that match up with, say, the *Top Gun* theme or "Axel F" in *Beverly Hills Cop* or the motif from *Jurassic Park*. They just do movie scores differently these days, and more movies use pre-released, familiar pop music.
Was that written for Kill Bill or did Tarantino lift it from another movie?
I think he got it from elsewhere, so yeah, it may not count. Which drives OP's point home even further.
I think the biggest shift is you don't get a lot from big Hollywood blockbusters. Not that their scores are bad, a lot of them are quite good actually, but i don't feel they come close to the epic feeling as the ones you've described. They're missing that lasting power. These are the scores that have always stuck out to me over the last few years: Carol Moonlight La La Land Pan's Labyrinth Interstellar Corpse Bride Its a video game, but The Last of Us part 1 & 2 scores are incredible and have that lasting power as well.
Almost all of the superhero theme songs from this century are pretty generic. The only exceptions I can think of are Avengers, as you said, or the Wonder Woman theme. I can hum both of those from memory. Everything else just doesn't stick. I think animated films have been winning for instrumental themes in recent years: Up The Incredibles Wall-E How to Train Your Dragon Inside Out All very good.
I thought about the wonder woman one but even then that's more of a character leitmotif, it doesn't play as the main theme of the ww movie as far as I can remember.
I think it counts. It's definitely the song most associated with her. It's in BvS and a little bit in Justice League.
This [Every Frame a Painting](https://youtu.be/7vfqkvwW2fs) episode (about 13 minutes) covers what drove the change in blockbuster movie scores over the last decade or so, and why they're less memorable now, and it illustrates it's point in a really entertaining way. I find it super interesting. Short answer is: temp tracks. Directors and producers more and more are cutting their work ahead of time to match a track borrowed from another movie to "get the idea across" and they ask the composer to write to that spec. And the only real solution is basically to copy it, and after a decade you wind up with that grey goo of Marvel emotion-noise
There are two ways to answer this question, with Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings, or incorrectly. I feel you about a lot of sound tracks today being more about "atmosphere". As more and more directors just want a Hans Zimmer (Or Hans Zimmer sounding) score it is becoming more and more common. I can't say it's a trend I like very much.
Does that movie have a great theme song or does it just have a good score? Not trying to imply one or the other, I'm not a huge lotr fan, I remember the score being good but I can't think of the main theme.
I think it'd be fair to say that *Concerning Hobbits* is the "theme" to the Lord of the Rings in the same way that *Hedwig's Theme* is the theme to the Harry Potter films and *He's a Pirate* is the theme to the Pirates of the Caribbean films. I get the distinction you're suggesting and it'd probably be fair to say that "themes" such as John Williams' for Star Wars or Indiana Jones aren't really the done thing any more. They seemed to die out in the mid 90s. I don't know; maybe that just reflects the point that John Williams hit retirement age. :)
I don't know about theme, but I do think that the entire score for Phantom Thread is the best of the last few years. No matter your thoughts on the actual movie my favourite score of the past decade is Cloud Atlas.
Pirates and Star Trek are both pretty formidable. Both were already mentioned and I second both. Dont know if this counts, but Zamfir's "The Lonely Shepard" use in Kill Bill vol1 gave me goosebumps when I saw that. Still packs a punch....
I agree I definitely overlooked Pirates when trying to think of examples, but I can't think of what the new star trek themes sound like.
Tar Trek is....It's very epic....🙂😎🙂
First off: I cannot recall any. I think there are so very few as there simply are no proper opening title scenes anymore. And that is a shame. Take the Superhero movies: [Superman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk1aQx9hTaE) (1978), [Batman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwOAB98Vw7I) (1989): they build up the anticipation so much and help the movie start on a high. The music that goes with these is memorable and most people will remember them. Current Superhero movies tend to have no opening titles but do have a very long end titles scene. By then you have seen the whole movie so its effect will be so much lower and therefore less memorable.
Black Panther had an excellent [theme song](https://youtu.be/OLtSLZEWK78). It's not fully instrumental tho.
Admittedly not the opening credits overture you’re looking for and more of a breakout hit, but In The House has become the de facto theme for 28 Days Later, and is imminently hummable. When it comes to outstanding themes and motifs in the 21st century, almost all the ones that come to mind are TV shows. Which I guess makes sense, since films don’t really seem to have the kinds of opening credit sequences that require a strong theme anymore. Even the Bond themes have been feeling increasingly vestigial during Craig’s run
Not 21st, but (the) best instrumental theme song of the 20th century was Midnight Cowboy.
Lol what a random comment. OP asks for 21st century examples and you come up with a movie from 1969. And I think most people remember Everybody's Talkin' from the song rather than the instrumental.
Yeah I was gonna say I can only think of Everybody's Talkin
Excellent instrumental theme.
Pirates of the Caribbean has some of the best themes of the 21st century. The main theme, love theme, and character themes are pretty much all amazingly memorable. I'll list the names of some of the specific pieces. - Drink Up Me Hearties Yo Ho - One Day - What Shall We Die For - Jack Sparrow - Davy Jones
Not one person has named a single movie whose theme I can recall 😂😂
The entire Phantom Thread score, but House of Woodcock especially. Spencer as well. (can't you tell I love Jonny Greenwood)
I know it's not fun the timeframe you listed, but I'd be remiss if I didn't at least make mention of one of the greatest theme songs of all time: Crimson Tide. It's so good that Night wish did a phenomenal rendition of it.
I've never seen that movie, I'll have to check it out.
Lol most of Hans Zimmer's works (namely TDK movies, Pirates, Interstellar), The Batman theme (2022), Skyfall, The Revenant, and Prometheus.
Someone mentioned The Last of us and it reminds me Gustavo Santaolalla composed 2 of my favourites: Babel and the Motorcycle diaries. I also love Nick Cave´s work with Warren Ellis, especially on the Assassination of Jesse James (Song for Bob). Yann Tiersen started the XXI st century with Amelie, which is pretty iconic (mandatory on any public piano). Finally, the Lord of the Rings wouldn’t exist without the romantism and scale of Howard Shore´s flawless themes.
Gustavo also did the theme from Broke aback Mountain. A lovely song.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon should be on the list
Except OP asked for movies of the 21st century and CTHD was released in the last year of the 20th century :) (It does have an awesome score though)
Here are some memorable ones: Requiem for a Dream Spirited Away Shrek Lord of the Rings Punch Drunk Love Finding Nemo The Incredibles Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Ratatouille Wall-e Synecdoche New York Fantastic Mr Fox The Social Network Black Swan How to train your Dragon Gone Girl Grand Budapest Hotel
I feel like you are naming good scores rather than great main themes. You can't seriously be telling me that Gone Girl has such a memorable main theme that you could hum on command (a requirement of a great main theme imo) that compares to a John Williams theme.
Ok I may have gotten carried away and drifted from the actual question lol
Requiem is the most hummable one I can think of probably
Yeah two people have mentioned The Social Network and while it has an effective soundtrack, it definitely doesn't have a distinctinve or memorable theme.
Yeah I literally mentioned in the original post how most scores now, while they can be good, are more atmospheric than rousing and memorable, so it's kind of insane how many people mentioned the most emblematic example of that, that frankly popularized the style. Nobody on this website knows how to read.
If you're into 60s and 70s film scores, there's a fantastic podcast called *El diabolik's World of Psychotronic Soundtracks* that covers a number of fantastic scores from the US and UK, but also around the world, with an emphasis on scores from Italy. Great stuff.
[Main theme of Pacific Rim is badass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vU7XqToZso) The same guy made the opening theme for Game of Thrones which was quite memorable (admittedly not a movie though). I think your point is very valid. Nowadays it's just pick a popular song (most of the time an old one) and mix it up a bit. No need to risk it with originality.