Awesome Music / Batman

"Stop him before he starts singing!"
^note Art from the late Neal Adams

"There are few movie music moments when you know a big gun has entered the room- the sweeping orchestral strains of Williams' Superman among them. Now a "new" hero was arriving with an attitude for a far more jaded generation of fans. And when those menacing strings rose with glistening percussion, before bursting into a galloping, instantly memorable theme, you knew this was one of those holy shit musical moments - the sound of major talent arriving on the scene like a bat out of hell."

— Film Music Magazine's review of the 2010 remaster of Batman (1989)

• Batman: Arkham Series
• Batman Film Series
• Batman: The Animated Series
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold
• The Dark Knight Trilogy
• DC Extended Universe
• Gotham
• Joker (2019)
• The LEGO Batman Movie

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The Animated Movies:

• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker has one of the best musical scores in any film ever heard, including reprises of the series' main theme as the beginning and end title.
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' soundtrack is certainly worth a listen as well.
  • "These Men Are Mine", for instance, captures the setting and atmosphere perfectly.
  • "Mutants... Surrender or Die" is a similarly operatic piece that marries orchestra, percussion, and synthesised music amazingly well.
• Batman: The Killing Joke:
  • "All It Takes Is One Bad Day" has an amazing build up as the music intensifies as it goes on.
  • "End Credits" is a very quiet and subtle piece.
  • "I Go Looney" sung by Mark Hamill himself! It helps get us into the mind of the Joker and how he feels the way he does, and is quite catchy despite the Lyrical Dissonance, given that it's got nice music and is about a man going crazy.

The Animated Series:

• Batman Beyond:
  • Sometimes, all you need is two chords. At the end of the pilot, when Bruce tells Terry, "Welcome to my world," the Elfman motif kicks in, and you shiver as you realise just what Terry's in for.
  • In "Disappearing Inque", when Bruce activates his exo-suit, a seriously awesome rendition of the original intro theme is played. A pretty heart-wrenching scene when you know that doing so causes such strain on Bruce's heart that even Terry acknowledges it.
  • The Gregorian chant played when Terry flashes back to his father's death in "Babel".
• The Batman:
  • The theme song used for the first two seasons is the epitome of Creepy Awesome. The second theme drops this and goes upbeat, but it pays homage to the classic Batman 'da-na-na-na-na', which gets points for nostalgia alone, on top of being catchy as all hell.
  • The Joker and Harley Quinn are settin' the woods on fire!
• Beware the Batman: The show's score, while a lot more subdued than Frederik Wiedmann's brilliant work on that other CGI DC show, is still just as awesome, greatly enhancing the show's decidedly Film Noir tone.

Miscellaneous:

• While it never made it into a Batman movie or TV show, there is the Villain Song from a cancelled Batman musical. If you listen closely, you can hear the Danny Elfman theme mixed in with the awesomeness that is Meat Loaf. It was a cover of this.
• Batman (1966) is campy, but still iconic and awesome. Nanananananananana Batman!
  • The movie version is faster and an even campier remix of the former.
  • All four instrumental remixes of the Batman theme from Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders and Batman vs. Two-Face will make you want to dance along.
• Dark Nights: Metal has been given its own soundtrack, and, as expected with a comic named "Dark Nights: Metal", the soundtrack is made up of amazing heavy metal pieces. "Red Death", a theme for the title Dark Knight, is so awesome it was used for the comic book's trailer!
• The score for The Batman (2022) is by Michael Giacchino, so of course it's amazing.
  • The full 6-minute version of Michael Giacchino's Batman theme is a majestic mixture of dread, loss, and triumph befitting of the Dark Knight's journey. Special mention goes to A Bat in the Rafters, Pt. 2, a booming and downright rageful reprise of Batman's theme that plays during his assault on Riddler's army in the final battle, and The Bat's True Calling, a somber yet hopeful take on the leitmotif as he rescues the citizens of Gotham from the debris of the ravaging flood.
  • The first proper trailer's usage of "Something in the Way" combined with Michael Giacchino's new Batman theme (first glimpsed in a "camera test" teaser) really gives off the dark vibes of the Dark Knight's world.
  • The theme for the Riddler is Franz Schubert's Ave Maria, a deeply unnerving combination of One-Woman Wail and Ominous Music Box Tune.
  • Catwoman's theme is mysterious, sensual, romantic and calm, with a feeling of sadness and tragedy underneath it. Just like Catwoman herself.
  • The overall harsh and dissonant with a dash of a "taps"-feeling score can be considered a listening companion piece to either Jerry Goldsmith's First Blood and Outland scores or Alan Silvestri's Ricochet score.
  • "Sonata in Darkness" is a 12-minute sweeping piano suite combining Batman's and Catwoman's themes into a darkly beautiful solo piano piece that embodies the nigh-Shakespearean tragedies of both characters.

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