People who create music. More specifically, people who put extremely careful craftsmanship into their music. These aren't just artists that "jam out" their songs. These are artists who usually use sheet music, or at the very least computer software to plan out their music.
Baroque (1600–1760)
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- P.D.Q. Bach
- George Frederic Handel
- Claudio Monteverdi
- Georg Philipp Telemann
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Hector Berlioz
- Georges Bizet: Wrote the opera Carmen.
- Johannes Brahms
- Anton Bruckner
- Fryderyk Chopin
- Antonín Dvořák: Wrote Symphony No. 9 in E minor (From the New World). Its finale has been played a lot.
- Edward Elgar
- Franz Liszt: One of the greatest pianists ever. He invented the recital so people could listen to nothing but himself.
- Gustav Mahler: the leading Austro-German composer after Brahms and Bruckner. Wrote symphonies for ridiculously large ensembles. Also incorporated songs into symphonies. His conducting was... entertaining.
- Felix Mendelssohn
- Modest Mussorgsky: Wrote Pictures at an Exhibition.
- Jacques Offenbach
- Sergei Rachmaninoff
- Gioachino Rossini
- Franz Schubert
- Robert Schumann
- John Philip Sousa
- Louis Spohr
- Johann Strauss II: wrote Die Fledermaus Overture and The Blue Danube Waltz.
- Sir Arthur Sullivan
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- Giuseppe Verdi
- Richard Wagner: An inspiration and influence for many film composers to this day.
Impressionist (1880s–1920s)
Verismo (1880s–1920s)
Atonal and Avant-Garde
- Milton Babbitt: took serialism to the next level with total serialism. Also one of the earliest electronic music composers.
- Béla Bartók: focused on folk music instead of traditional tonality.
- Alban Berg: successfully combined Romanticism with the twelve-tone technique, most notably in his Violin Concerto.
- John Cage: Everything Is an Instrument meets True Art Is Incomprehensible in a good way. Also known for chance music and indeterminacy.
- Philip Glass, composer of the score for The Thin Blue Line, Koyaanisqatsi, and the Stephen Hawking biopic A Brief History of Time (not related to the book of the same name), and an accomplished composer in his own right, besides, Glass is also notable for collaborating with Mickey Hart (drummer from The Grateful Dead) on the intro music for the Opening Ceremony at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, a work named "Call to the Nations". Also known for minimalism.
- Charles Ives: Wrote experimental music using vernacular music and also did a lot of Church music. He was a fan of polytonality and manly dissonance.
- Steve Reich: one of the biggest names in minimalism. He is an influence for all sorts of things, even the music to Gradius.
- Arnold Schoenberg: invented twelve-tone serialism. One of the first people in the atonal genre and the springboard for the later total serialism.
Neotonality and Neoclassicism
- Samuel Barber: wrote "Adagio for Strings".
- Aaron Copland: Mentioned in a few spots on the Wiki. "Fanfare for the Common Man" is Awesome Music in distilled form, but he's probably most famous for Rodeo which you've almost certainty heard, either in a western or in the background while someone told you what Beef is for, and while he didn't compose the melody, he did immortalize the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" in his ballet Appalachian Spring.
- Gustav Holst: Born in England to Swedish parents, his suite "The Planets" has been an inspiration to composers for generations. If you've ever watched a movie, you've heard his influence.
- Scott Joplin: Ragtime pianist known for "The Entertainer", "Maple Leaf Rag" and "Searchlight Rag".
- Olivier Messiaen: "The most important French composer of born in the twentieth century." Wrote a lot of church music.
- Sergei Prokofiev: Wrote Peter and the Wolf. Also known for his piano works, motor rhythms, and dissonance.
- Dmitri Shostakovich: One of the composers who struggled under the Soviet Union. He was criticized, even censured, but was still able to express what was "inexpressible" through his music.
- Richard Strauss: Wrote 2 symphonies, operas (the most famous being Salome and Der Rosenkavalier), and the tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra.
- Igor Stravinsky: Wrote The Rite of Spring in 1913. Known as the composer who wouldn't die (lived 1882 to 1971). Also wrote Firebird and Petrushka.
- Irving Berlin: Wrote many songs including "God Bless America," "White Christmas," and "Alexander's Ragtime Band."
- Jerry Brock: Known for the musical Fiddler on the Roof and the Pulitzer winning Fiorello.
- George Gershwin: "Rhapsody in Blue" is his most famous work. Also did Porgy and Bess and An American in Paris. He wrote the music; his brother Ira wrote the lyrics.
- Oscar Hammerstein II: Wrote many songs for musicals, including Showboat, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, and The King and I.
- Lorenz Hart: Wrote most of the lyrics to music by Richard Rodgers.
- Joe Iconis: Wrote the music Be More Chill and Love In Hate Nation.
- Jerome Kern: Wrote the musical Showboat. Also did Hollywood musicals later on.
- Sylvester Levay: Frequent collaborator with writer Michael Kunze on Austrian musicals such as Elisabeth and Mozart!''
- Andrew Lloyd Webber: British composer of worldwide hit musicals including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.
- Dave Malloy
- Lin-Manuel Miranda: Wrote In the Heights and Hamilton.
- Anthony Newley: Stop The World, I Want To Get Off! and The Roar Of The Greasepaint, The Smell Of The Crowd. Also a singer-songwriter and actor.
- Pasek And Paul: Songwriting/composing duo, have written for theater (Dogfight, James and the Giant Peach, Dear Evan Hansen) as well as TV and film (La La Land, The Greatest Showman)
- Tim Rice: Wrote lyrics to many musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Also worked on many animated musicals, such as Aladdin and The Lion King (1994).
- Richard Rodgers: Worked closely with Lorenz Hart, then much more famously with Oscar Hammerstein II. Won every music award available (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony, and even the Pulitzer).
- Stephen Sondheim: A prolific composer of Broadway musicals, such as West Side Story.
- Erik Van Der Wurff: Dutch composer who written and composed songs for the Dutch musical Alfred Jodocus Kwak with Herman Van Veen. Eric Van Der Wurff also worked on the soundtrack for the 1989 animated series of the same name.
Film and Television Score Composers
- John Barry: James Bond's music man.
- Elmer Bernstein: Wearing a cowboy hat and riding a horse never sounded so "magnificent
".
- Sean Callery: best known for his work on 24, he makes music to fight terrorism to. Emmy winner.
- John Carpenter: Not only did he write/direct/produce films such as Halloween (1978), The Thing (1982) and Big Trouble in Little China, he composed them as well.
- Charlie Clouser: Known for his work on TV shows and movies like Saw, NUMB3RS, and Wayward Pines. He previously worked with Nine Inch Nails.
- Vladimir Cosma: The most prolific composer in the history of French cinema. He scored countless comedies such as The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe and The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob.
- Don Davis, famous for composing the scores for The Matrix trilogy.
- Alexandre Desplat
- Ramin Djawadi: If it involves epic action scenes, especially with high technology, call this man; best known for Iron Man, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and Person of Interest.
- Klaus Doldinger: Composer for the early films of Wolfgang Petersen, as well as a Jazz saxophonist.
- Patrick Doyle
- Danny Elfman: a very prolific film score composer. From animation to live action he's covered just about everything.
- Jerry Goldsmith: He has boldly gone where no other composer has ever gone before.
- Harry Gregson Williams
- Hildur Guđnadóttir: Composed haunting scores for Chernobyl and Joker, among others.
- Bernard Herrmann: generally considered the father of the modern film score, he was most famous for composing many of the scores for the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
- Joe Hisaishi composed the scores for Hayao Miyazaki's films. The John Williams of Japan.
- Natalie Holt
- James Horner: Star Trek II and III. Searching for Bobby Fischer. Apollo 13. Braveheart. Titanic (1997). Glory. Avatar. Are you beginning to realize the awesomeness?
- James Newton Howard: Composer of many recognizable films such as The Sixth Sense, Dinosaur, The Hunger Games, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and many more.
- Akira Ifukube: The official composer for Godzilla. He created Godzilla's roar by himself.
- Maurice Jarre: Famous for his collaborations with directors David Lean and Peter Weir.
- Jóhann Jóhannsson did the score for films like Prisoners, The Theory of Everything or Arrival.
- Michel Legrand
- Dario Marianelli: Best known for his Oscar-winning work on Atonement, among many other films.
- Ennio Morricone: Made pop music popular for use in films starting with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. He's also done traditional classical music and film scores a such as The Untouchables and The Mission.
- Alfred Newman: Composed the 20th Century Fox fanfare.
- David Newman
- Emil Newman
- Joey Newman
- Lionel Newman
- Maria Newman
- Randy Newman
- Thomas Newman
- John Ottman: Composer of three films of the X-Men Film Series and Superman Returns. He also does editing.
- Gordon Parks
- Steven Price
- Trevor Rabin
- Nino Rota: A giant of Italian film scoring, most associated with Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini and, of course, The Godfather.
- Lalo Schifrin: Scored dozens of action movies and shows, but probably best known for composing the Mission: Impossible theme and for being Clint Eastwood's Associated Composer.
- Éric Serra: Known for being Luc Besson's Associated Composer.
- The Sherman Brothers: Sibling Team responsible for many classic Disney song scores but arguably their biggest, most successful hit was Mary Poppins.
- Howard Shore: Composed for The Lord of the Rings films and also some other stuff.
- Alan Silvestri: Back to the Future is one of his more famous film scores.
- Brendon Small: Mostly known for doing the music of his own shows (Home Movies and Metalocalypse) as well as occasionally contributing to other animated series such as Motorcity and Perfect Hair Forever.
- Max Steiner
- Richard Stone
- Franz Waxman: Golden Age composer best known for his Academy Award-winning scores for Sunset Boulevard and A Place in the Sun, done in back to back years.
- John Williams: If you've ever seen Star Wars, you've heard his music, but that's only one of many, many, many, many films for which he has composed. Usually the regular composer for Steven Spielberg. Besides films, he also composed the official theme for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles (a work which has since officially become the Olympic Fanfare), a broadcast theme for coverage US coverage of the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, the official theme for the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, and the official theme for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. You've also heard his piece "The Mission" if you've watched NBC Nightly News, as it's that news-cast's official theme-song. One of three composers to win more than one Oscar for best film score.
- Hans Zimmer: Did the scores for Gladiator, The Lion King (1994), The Dark Knight Trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean, and many more.
Contemporary
- Erik Aho: An American composer who has contributed to the soundtrack of Family Guy, American Dad! and The Amazing Race. He has also composed soundtracks for No One Lives Forever, Drakan and The Suffering.
- Laurie Anderson
- Maya Angelou
- Takanori Arisawa
- David Arnold: a British composer who, in a moment of Irony, composed the score to Independence Day. He also composed the theme to the 2012 London Olympics and several films in the James Bond series.
- Eduard Artemyev: Pioneer of electronica since the 1960s, and film composer for Andrei Tarkovsky, Nikita Mikhalkov, and Andrei Konchalovsky.
- Burt Bacharach
- Lorne Balfe: One of Hans Zimmer's many proteges.
- Christophe Beck
- Leonard Bernstein
- Leslie Bricusse
- Carter Burwell
- Wendy Carlos
- Bill Conti
- cosMo
- John Debney
- DECO*27
- Pino Donaggio
- Bob Dylan
- Randy Edelman
- Ilan Eshkeri
- Brad Fiedel
- Toby Fox: Composed music for Homestuck, various video games (most famously Undertale and Deltarune, plus various external projects), and professional musicians.
- Michael Giacchino
- Philip Glass
- Murray Gold
- Joel Goldsmith: Son of the legendary Jerry Goldsmith, and composer of several Stargate TV spin-offs.
- Ludwig Göransson
- GYARI
- Marvin Hamlisch
- Yoshiki Hayashi. X Japan and related projects. Yoshiki has also has done film pieces for Saw IV (title track "IV" is his work), Catacombs, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Goemon, an Akira Kurosawa memorial project, and for the Golden Globes awards ceremony for 2012 and 2013.
- Susumu Hirasawa
- HoneyWorks
- Masumi Itou (alias Hikaru Nanase)
- Steve Jablonsky
- David Julyan
- Marc Jungermann
- Junkie XL
- Yuki Kajiura
- Michael Kamen
- Yoko Kanno
- Aram Khachaturian
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold
- Yevgeny Krylatov
- Leiber and Stoller
- Robert Lopez
- Machigerita: Composes for TV-shows, video games, himself, and his band, NILADMIRARI.
- John Mackey
- Kevin Mac Leod: Composes loads of royalty-free music, used most often in YouTube videos.
- Henry Mancini: The Pink Panther, the Peter Gunn theme (used in the video game Spy Hunter), the Baby Elephant Walk.
- Clint Mansell: Formerly of Pop Will Eat Itself, now specializes in minimalistic, emotional, frequently creepy scores for films such as Requiem for a Dream and Moon.
- Toshiro Mayuzumi
- Bear McCreary: Composer of some memorable scores to Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead (2010), Foundation (2021), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
- Alan Menken
- Kate Miller Heidke
- Mark Mothersbaugh: Of Devo and a billion TV and movie ventures.
- mothy
- Michael Nyman
- Riz Ortolani
- Kow Otani
- Daniel Pemberton
- Basil Poledouris
- Cole Porter
- John Powell
- Graeme Revell
- Lionel Richie
- Miklos Rozsa
- Alexei Rybnikov
- Ryuichi Sakamoto
- sasakure.UK
- Hiroyuki Sawano
- Stephen Schwartz
- Verka Serduchka: Under her real name, Andriy Danylko.
- Paul Shapera: Rock composers, known for making a series of Punk rock operas.
- S. P. Somtow (may fit in several categories, as a composer of symphonies, opera, musicals, and more, as well as being an author of fiction.)
- Lindsey Stirling
- Rebecca Sugar
- Tamiya Terashima provided the music for Tweeny Witches and Tales from Earthsea.
- J.G. Thirlwell
- Yann Tiersen
- Viktor Tsoi: Composed and sang for his band, Kino.
- Brian Tyler
- Vangelis
- Edgard Varčse
- Scott Walker
- Ron Wasserman: Best known for providing the music for the early seasons of Power Rangers.
- Jeff Wayne, creator of the rock operas War of the Worlds and Spartacus.
- Kurt Weill
- Alissa White-Gluz: Canadian singer/songwriter most notable for her work in The Agonist, and the current lead singer for Arch-Enemy.
- Frank Zappa
- John Zorn: Highly eclectical and impossible to pigeonhole artist, mostly active in jazz, though his gigantic catalogue has tried out various genres and styles throughout the years.
- Louie Zong
Video Games
- Hirokazu Ando: Composed most Kirby games, as well as Super Smash Bros. 64 and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
- Basiscape: Music studio founded by Hitoshi Sakimoto and his colleagues after he left Square Enix. Primarily known for their collaborations with Vanillaware and their games.
- Alexander Brandon: Best-known for his work on Deus Ex.
- Olivier Deriviere: A French creator who is most commonly known either for the Ominous Latin Chanting of ObsCure and Alone in the Dark (2008) games or the digital, glitchy soundtrack of Remember Me.
- Chikayo Fukuda: The main music composer at CyberConnect2, and composed the music for the .hack series, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Series and Asura's Wrath. Started out by composing the music for Tails' Skypatrol.
- Mick Gordon: Australian composer best known for composing DOOM (2016) and the first two seasons of the 2013 Killer Instinct.
- Masashi Hamauzu: Composed for the SaGa series and the Final Fantasy series. Was a late-comer to both franchises, but helped redefine their music.
- Miki Higashino: Composed for the Gradius series, the Suikoden series and two of Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games.
- Kota Hoshino: chief composer for the Armored Core series.
- Shinji Hosoe: One of the "Sampling Masters" behind the music for Ridge Racer.
- Go Ichinose: Composed for the vast majority of main series Pokémon titles.
- Daisuke Ishiwatari: Better known as the man who created Guilty Gear and its godly soundtrack. He also did the soundtracks for BlazBlue and Hard Corps: Uprising. If you get into a discussion regarding fighting game music, chances are he or his works will immediately pop up.
- Kenji Ito: Composed for the SaGa series and the World of Mana series.
- Noriyuki Iwadare: Composed for the Lunar series, the Grandia series, the Langrisser series, and various installments in the Ace Attorney series.
- Masaharu Iwata: Most-often working in collaboration with Hitoshi Sakimoto.
- Shota Kageyama: Composed for several Pokémon games.
- Akari Kaida: Composed for several Mega Man games, and notably for Breath of Fire III, Resident Evil, Ōkami and the Luminous Arc series.
- Dan Kehler: Made music for several mid-to-late Sierra adventure games.
- Hiroki Kikuta: Composed Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana and Koudelka, and also founded the company that developed the Shadow Hearts games.
- Koji Kondo: Main composer for the Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda series.
- Yuzo Koshiro: Main composer for The Revenge of Shinobi, the Streets of Rage and Etrian Odyssey series, and president of development studio Ancient.
- Jesper Kyd: Hitman and Assassin's Creed amongst others, started out in the Amiga scene.
- Julian LeFay: Better known as one of the creators of The Elder Scrolls series. Mainly a programmer, but also did the soundtrack for quite a few games on the Amiga scene, including Sword of Sodan.
- Michael Mc Cann: Best known for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Borderlands 3.
- Shoji Meguro: Composed the music for a lot of Shin Megami Tensei games, most notably the Persona subseries.
- Yasunori Mitsuda: Composed for the Chrono series, Xenogears, Xenosaga Episode 1, and various other games.
- MONACA: Studio most widely known for their work on NieR.
- Kenta Nagata: Composed most Mario Kart games, 1080° Snowboarding, and some The Legend of Zelda games, among others.
- Manabu Namiki: Frequent collaborator with 8ing/Raizing and Cave
- Michiko Naruke: Composed the Tenshi No Uta and Wild ARMs series.
- Niels Bye Nielson: Lead composer on the Hitman World of Assassination Trilogy and "additional composer" for Ratchet & Clank. Has also worked on other games.
- Yoshihiro Sakaguchi: Composer for Capcom, under the pseudonym Yuukichan's Papa. Created the "sound" of Mega Man and contributed to the Street Fighter series.
- Hitoshi Sakimoto: Uematsu's more or less 'successor' to the Final Fantasy series.
- Motoi Sakuraba: Composer for most of the Tales Series, Baten Kaitos, Star Ocean, and Golden Sun, among others.
- Ichiro Shimakura: Composer for Mario Party 3, Mario Party 4, Mario Party Advance, Pokémon Trading Card Game, some Bomberman games, and Star Soldier Vanishing Earth, among others.
- Yoko Shimomura: Composer for Gargoyle's Quest, Street Fighter II, Breath of Fire, Live A Live, Front Mission, Super Mario RPG, Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, the Kingdom Hearts series, the Mario & Luigi series, among others. Long list.
- Masayoshi Soken: Composer for Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Final Fantasy XIV, and Final Fantasy XVI, among others.
- Jeremy Soule: Known for his work on The Elder Scrolls series, primarily airy atmospheric tracks.
- Koichi Sugiyama: Aside from his work on several famous Japanese TV series, he is also the man behind the music of Dragon Quest. Nobuo Uematsu considers him an influence. He also composed the score for Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989).
- Mitsuto Suzuki
- Masafumi Takada: Longtime collaborator of Suda51 for titles such as Killer7 and No More Heroes. Also the main composer for the Danganronpa series.
- Tommy Tallarico: Responsible for the music of many, many games, such as Cool Spot and Earthworm Jim.
- Hirokazu Tanaka: Composer for many early games for Nintendo, including Dr. Mario, EarthBound (1994), Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Super Mario Land and Tetris. Also was involved with numerous vocal songs for Pokémon: The Series.
- Nobuo Uematsu: When you think of video game music, his name typically comes up, because he did all the music for the first nine Final Fantasy games. He also composed some pieces for Chrono Trigger.
- David Wise: Composer for Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, Star Fox Adventures and Wizards & Warriors.
- Kenji Yamamoto: The composer for the Metroid series, the Prime Trilogy, and various others.
- Michiru Yamane: Important composer in the Konami Kukeiha Club who did most of the Castlevania series music and eventually became independent.
- Akira Yamaoka: Another Konami Kukeiha Club veteran who quickly achieved breakout success with Silent Hill.
- Mahito Yokota: Composer for the Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda under Koji Kondo's supervision; he's been in charge of composing for live orchestras.
Fandom Musicians
- DAGames: Mostly known for his songs related to Five Nights at Freddy's. He also specializes in other video games as well when he has the vibe for it.
- JT Music: Mainly known for his songs related to Five Nights at Freddy's and BioShock. He specializes in many other video games though.
- Madame Macabre: Specializes in songs regarding Creepypasta, Gravity Falls, and Doki Doki Literature Club!. Also original songs.
- Man on the Internet: Specializes in lyricizing music from video games as well as original songs.
