Examples of Notable Original Music that might be kept for the upcoming new definition of Cult Soundtrack according to this TRS thread
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Examples:
Advertising
- Some of the very best music composed for advertising - as opposed to adapted or "off-the-shelf" - can still send tingles down the spine many years on. John Barry's The Girl With the Sun In Her Hair was used for a shampoo advert, and ran between 1965-75; it can still send a shiver down the spine of people of a certain age, especially those who listened to late-night Radio Luxembourg in the 1970s.
- Arguably one of the most notable animes in regards to music. Scored by Yoko Kanno for The Seatbelts.
Doctor Who
Since the series' return to television in 2005, house composer Murray Gold has struck "gold" with numerous original songs and themes that have become almost as popular in fandom as the Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire theme music:
- "The Doctor's Theme" - also known as "The Bad Wolf Theme".
- "Song for Ten", "Love Don't Roam", "The Stowaway" "Song of Freedom", "Vale Decem" and "Abigail's Song" - Original songs written specifically for the series by Murray Gold. "Love Don't Roam" has now appeared in several trailers.
- "Doomsday" - Featured in the episode of the same name—any fan of the new series will recognize this song instantly.
- "All the Strange, Strange Creatures"- A commonly used background song that all fans will recognize.
- "I Am The Doctor" - fan-dubbed "Every Star, Every Planet", this fist-pumping action theme first appears in full force as the Eleventh Doctor tells the Atraxi to make tracks in "The Eleventh Hour" and has recurred in every action-packed sequence of series five. It, too, will be readily recognizable to fans.
- "I Am The Doctor" even played over the opening credits for the 50th Anniversary. (The Doctor Who theme did play over the 1960s title card and the end credits, however.)
- "This is Gallifrey - Our Childhood, Our Home" - majestic instrumental theme created to underscore a flashback to the Doctor's lost home planet; best known now for underscoring a retrospective of the Doctor's many regenerations in the 2010 BBC Proms Concert.
- Had original theme music for each season by Christopher Franke and the Berlin Philomonic. Seasons 3, 4, & 5 all had iconic themes.
- It dubbed music individually for each 'episode' as well. Including the haunting "Requiem for the Line," the action of "Severed Dreams" and "Shadow Dancing," and the heart-wrenching "Sleeping in Light."
- The "Lux Aeterna" theme from Requiem for a Dream by Clint Mansell is very popular for ads, even for other movies (including The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers). Probably keepable
- The Dragonheart theme by Randy Edelman is also popular for ads (and as general trailer music) due to the music's epic sound and the original film's relative obscurity. The insurance company Pacific Life uses it as their theme music.
- Edelman seems to have a knack for composing themes that become more famous than the works for which he wrote them: The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.. has a cult following, but its theme song is much better known because of its use by NBC Sports.
- Tangentially related to this is Michael Kamen's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves score and one of its cues being used by both Morgan Creek and Disney due to partial obscurity (for the score at least) much like Dragonheart, also used for great epicness.
- For that matter, The Lord of the Rings gave certain cultures and factions their own distinctive, powerful theme that has made the music of the trilogy as much an identifying mark as anything.
- A list of notable original music for films would be incomplete without adding the works of the legend that is Jerry Goldsmith. Patton, Total Recall (1990), Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Omen (1976), Alien & Gremlins. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
- John Williams has conjured up quite a few signature themes: Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Superman: The Movie, Harry Potter, Schindler's List, and Home Alone. Most of these are keepable, but should be separated by film.
- Ennio Morricone's theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (part of the Dollars Trilogy which also included A Fistful of Dollars & For a Few Dollars More, also scored by Morricone). Probably the most recognized song from any Western. He also he made some pretty memorable scores for films such as The Mission, Once Upon a Time in America, The Untouchables, Days of Heaven, Cinema Paradiso & Malèna. Keep. There are probably as many people who know the theme to TGTBaTU as "The Western Theme" as there are people who know the movie
- Elmer Bernstein made some pretty memorable tunes too like for The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven (another well-recognized Western score), The Great Escape & To Kill a Mockingbird. He had a notable second act creating scores for many classic comedies of the late 70's and 80's, including Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters (1984), Stripes, and Airplane!.
- Miklos Rozsa and his impressive works that include Spellbound, Quo Vadis, El Cid, Ben-Hur, and King of Kings.
- Danny Elfman's score for Batman has become closely associated with the character, while John Williams's has become the signature for Superman.
- Enter the realm of fantasy where the score of Alexander Nevsky, composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1938, is at the forefront of this article and noted for its influence on many future composers, such as John Williams.
- And to stay on the topic of Prokofiev: Lt. Kijé was a Soviet comedy for which he wrote the music. Nobody remembers the movie now, but the rearrangement of the music into the Lt. Kijé Suite is one of Prokofiev's greatest hits.
- Nick Cave's soundtrack to The Proposition.
- Iain Ballamy's MirrorMask soundtrack.
- The Wicker Man (1973). All of it.
- The music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, for such films as Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood (for which he won an Oscar), and The Sea Hawk, has formed a model for cinematic composers up to the present day.
- Joe Hisaishi's score to Princess Mononoke is the perfect compliment to the Studio Ghibli Scenery Porn, and also has the unusual quality of being mostly in minor keys.
- This also goes for Spirited Away.
- Hans Zimmer has a few of these.
- The opening theme of Chariots of Fire, the theme to use when depicting athleticism, especially track and field. Keep
- Bernard Herrmann is one of the all time greats among film composers, but the most famous is the theme from Psycho. There's a reason there's a trope for it. Keep. If The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is "The Western Theme", then this is "The Horror Theme".
- Bill Conti with his famous theme for Rocky. Keep
- Henry Mancini for his jazz-idiom theme to The Pink Panther film series, and for the songs "Moon River" from the Blake Edwards film Breakfast at Tiffany's and "Days of Wine and Roses" from the film Days of Wine and Roses. The Pink Panther is better known than the film. I don't know about the others.
- Nino Rota's theme from The Godfather is the quintessential theme for Mafia media.
- Queen:
- The entire soundtrack for the Flash Gordon film. "Flash! AHHH-AHHH! Savior of the universe!" Keep. It's far more popular — at least unironcially — than the movie itself.
- "Princes of the Universe", from Highlander.
- The 2005 movie of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe of The Chronicles of Narnia is known for its various Leitmotifs, but the score "The Battle" is one of the more notable instrumentations, even drawing comparisons to the score of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
- The Pirates of the Caribbean theme music.
- The theme song of the James Bond film series is simply the "James Bond Theme" by Monty Norman. However nearly every Bond film of the last 50 years has included a distinctive, and often extremely popular, unique theme song (with occasional films also blessed with secondary theme songs), a lot of them composed by John Barry. Even as most Hollywood films moved away from opening credits and theme music, the Bond films have, as of 2012, continued to buck the trend and feature theme songs.
- Saw series has "Hello Zepp", aka "Zepp's Theme", which plays through the current film's Twist Ending.
- Basically anything in any famous musical theater or opera production.
- Famously, "Defying Gravity" from Wicked.
- "Ride of the Valkyries" from Wagner's Ring Cycle has become a popular score for action sequences thanks to its use in Apocalypse Now. Keep
- "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from Les Misérables has been used as a rallying cry in real-world rebellions. Keep
- The various iterations of the theme from Battlefield games. Especially 1942 and its remaster from 1943.
- Every Halo game barring Halo Wars. Well, except for Spirit of Fire.
- Final Fantasy. The battle victory theme and the title theme in particular, but most of the music between the games is easily recognized (the same composer did all of the music for the first nine games, and still contributes to this day).
- A couple that ought to be noted are the two songs made for the Dissidia games, "The Messenger," by Your Favorite Enemies, and "God in Fire," by Kidneythieves. Both come with two versions, on being with an orchestral backing, while the other being straight-up hard rock.
- The flute strains from the beginning of the NiGHTS into Dreams… theme.
- Animal Crossing for the Gamecube had some very memorable music.
- Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda themes. The latter's main series theme is quite epic, and if you call yourself a gamer, you have to have heard the classic Ground Theme at least once; it's practically the Signature Song of Nintendo, or even National Anthem of gaming itself.
- Don't forget the Metroid series, which did some impressive things with its music despite limitations.
- The first three Spyro the Dragon games had music by Stewart Copeland, and sounded quite unique.
- Mass Effect's main theme.
- The Mass Effect 3 "Leaving Earth" track is especially powerful. Yes, the Reaper roars are part of the song.
- The Mass Effect 3 "Leaving Earth" track is especially powerful
- The two Portal games end with original songs performed by the game's computer villain, GLaDOS and written by Jonathan Coulton: "Still Alive" (which has become one of the most covered original songs ever composed for a video game), and "Want You Gone".
- Civilization IV features a catchy, somewhat haunting setting of the Lord's Prayer translated into Swahili, "Baba Yetu." The song was even published as an independent piece. It finally won a Grammy, the first piece of video game music to do so. Liturgical choirs cover it.
- The Elder Scrolls soundtracks, composed by Jeremy Soule, are as rich and varied as Tamriel itself. Special mention goes to Morrowind's main theme, variations of which became the main themes for Oblivion and Skyrim.
- Hotline Miami is known for having a 80s styled synthpop soundtrack. Nowadays, just look up synthwave music on Youtube and head to the comments section. There'll always be a comment referring to Hotline Miami.
- Psycho Soldier is known for being the first video game to have a vocal track run in game (the eponymous "Psycho Soldier" theme). A remaster has since made it out into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- To Boldly Flee, the fourth year anniversary film for Channel Awesome, features "the number one 1983 Kryptonian single" titled "Distraction", which genuinely does sound like a number one '80s single.
- The Venture Brothers ends "The Invisible Hand of Fate" with a beautiful guitar number. Seems that was just a local player. It's sad.
- Nathan Furst's score for the first three Direct to Video BIONICLE movies (produced between 2003-2005) elevated what would otherwise have been hour-long toy commercials into full-blown cinematic experiences. He even created a memorable Theme Tune for the franchise. There was such a demand for an actual soundtrack that all three scores finally saw an official, remastered digital release in 2017, long after the movies themselves had fallen into obscurity.
- Inspector Gadget's main theme has been covered and sampled many times, most notably in Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's "The Show."
- Thanks to the considerable talents of composers William Anderson and Daniel Ingram, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has developed a massive musical community among the fanbase dedicated to covering and remixing the original songs and BGM featured in the show.
- The original scores of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, created by The Track Team. There are really too many to list, but two of the most popular are "The Last Agni Kai", a solemn, haunting piece, and "Lost My Heart In Republic City".
- While there isn't a lot of actual singing in the series, the songs which do feature it are very popular in the fandom. Notably the hilarious "Secret Tunnel" and the much, much more emotional "Little Soldier Boy".
- Steven Universe features quite a bit of this, with series creator Rebecca Sugar previously doing most of the songwriting for Adventure Time. It's even justified in-universe, where Steven's dad Greg Universe is a former traveling musician, with Steven inheriting his father's ear and taste for music.
