Curated playlist
American male film score composers
- Marvin GayeMotown boss Berry Gordy refused to release Marvin Gaye's What's Going On.
- Duke EllingtonDuke Ellington wrote his first piece while working as a soda jerk, before he could read music.
- Clint EastwoodPresident Reagan quoted Clint Eastwood's line "Go ahead, make my day" to Congress.
- George GershwinGeorge Gershwin's last words were "Fred Astaire." He collapsed at age 38 while working on a film score.
- Aaron CoplandComposer Aaron Copland planned one year of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger but stayed three.
- Robert RodriguezRobert Rodriguez paid for his first feature by joining medical testing studies. El Mariachi cost $7,000 in 1992.
- John WilliamsSteven Spielberg laughed at John Williams's two-note Jaws theme, thinking it was a joke.
- Trent ReznorTrent Reznor once worked at Right Track Studio in Cleveland as an assistant engineer and janitor. Studio owner Bart Koster remembered his employee this way: "He is so focused in everything he does. When that guy waxed the floor, it looked…
- Frank ZappaAs a boy, Frank Zappa spread mercury across his bedroom floor with a hammer. His father brought it home from work.
- David ByrneDavid Byrne was turned away from his middle school choir, which judged him "off-key and too withdrawn". That boy grew up to be an American musician, writer, visual artist and filmmaker. Over his career he has received an Academy Award, a…
- Michael GiacchinoMichael Giacchino used pieces of a real airplane fuselage as instruments on Lost.
- Dan the AutomatorDan the Automator is the stage name of Daniel M. Nakamura, an American record producer. His credits include a song for the 1997 film Scream 2. They also include a 2024 album for the Black Keys. Between those two points sit rap records,…
- Quincy JonesQuincy Jones taped a sign to the entrance of a recording studio in 1985, and it read "Check Your Ego at the Door." Behind that door waited most of the major American recording artists of the day. Jones needed every one of them to work as…
- Daniel LichtDaniel Licht scored every season of Dexter but wouldn't call it his big break. He began on clarinet at age eight.
- Danny ElfmanDanny Elfman retired his rock band Oingo Boingo on Halloween night in 1995, after five sold-out concerts at the Universal Amphitheatre. The band had made him a name in Los Angeles new wave. Yet the career waiting for him afterward was…