Welcome to a brand new io9 music smackdown! We’re putting together the ultimate science fiction (and fantasy) playlist — all the music that every self-respecting fan should have on his or her iPod.
Today, help us decide which original music scores absolutely must be in the mix. Which would you rather have in your ultimate science fiction playlist: a little bit of Moon, or some Tron: Legacy?
Here are the rules for this particular playlist. You can vote for four total. The winners will be added to io9’s ultimate playlist. The poll is at the bottom of the posts, and we’ve included every single song on the list so you can decide first-hand. This is a tough section, does one amazing theme song blot out an entire score from another film? Debate amongst yourselves…
Also if we forgot anything, please let us know in the comments. If enough folks agree, we’ll add it on! And finally, we lumped large saga films such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter together for spacial reasons. When you vote for Indiana Jones, that’s a vote for the whole collection.
Remember: you can vote for up to four items.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcdSvS0_yfQ
Poltergeist – Jerry Goldsmith
Metropolis – Gottfried Huppertz
Pan’s Labyrinth – Javier Navarrete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QjuEWsdgEc
The Dark Knight – Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
Star Wars – John Williams
Coraline – Bruno Coulais
Superman – John Williams
Dune – Toto & Others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdcvBSRVkUU
The Thing – Ennio Morricone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6fka74ZnpU
Jurassic Park – John Williams
The Day The Earth Stood Still – Bernard Herrmann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TerKgrAFQ5k
Let the Right One In – Johan Söderqvist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCNHVMIYqiA
Harry Potter (1,2 & 3) – John Williams
Moon – Clint Mansell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=102YJqW5C7Y
Sunshine – Underworld & John Murphy
Attack The Block – Basement Jaxx
Hanna – The Chemical Brothers
The Matrix – Don Davis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCVIdQggZgo
A.I. – John Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Afc2uzw4g
Tron: Legacy – Daft Punk
E.T. – John Williams
Lord of the Rings – Howard Shore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5H0sCdvZ14
Hook -John Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OkFLdPaoZQ
The Omen – Jerry Goldsmith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMLPnk9-6MM
Halloween – John Carpenter
Dragonheart -Randy Edelman
Nightmare on Elm Street – Charles Bernstein
Friday the 13th – Harry Manfredini
Indiana Jones – John Williams
King Kong – Max Steiner
Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Jerry Goldsmith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv8dl9jCn58
Star Trek II and III – James Horner
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – John Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNidEo0Mme8
Dawn Of the Dead – Goblin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHjJTtPR1Is
The Bride of Frankenstein – Franz Waxman
Edward Scissorhands – Danny Elfman
Krull – Jamer Horner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHsPQMHkI7o
Gremlins – Jerry Goldsmith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzhB4T6512E
Planet of the Apes – Jerry Goldsmith
Beetlejuice – Danny Elfman
Blade Runner – Vangelis
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl – Klaus Badelt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yaf5luaO_c
Stargate – David Arnold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3vsB-f0HyY
Young Frankenstein – John Morris
Terminator 2: Judgement Day – Brad Fiedel
Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Wojciech Kilar
Forbidden Planet – Bebe & Louis Barron
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9fcHHOCBDg
Gattaca – Michael Nyman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDVhSP5sUoY
Back to the Future – Alan Silvestri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN0ReQK_I8k
Princess Mononoke – Joe Hisaishi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaT-JX5r8i8
Alien – Jerry Goldsmith
Inception – Hans Zimmer
Men In Black – Danny Elfman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4au8cH3FHA
The Incredibles – Michael Giacchino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFOc0aJr1Ts
The Witches of Eastwick – John Williams
Conan The Barbarian – Basil Poledouris
Batman – Danny Elfman
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GroDErHIM_0
Up – Michael Giacchino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiWoF8tx6Zw
The Amityville Horror – Lalo Schifrin
[assocaite]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDv1sdJZPOI
Interview with the Vampire – Elliot Goldenthal
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Jon Brion
Not technically an original work (or, not an original work at all) but we felt they deserved a mention in this category, and should compete in this heat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2084jXETMzk
A Clockwork Orange – Wendy Carlos & Classic Musicians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNgyVliUM3c
The Exorcist – Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells”
2001: A Space Odyssey – Various classical works
Previously:
Vote for the greatest use of pop music in all of science fiction and fantasy
Vote for the greatest animated TV theme song of all time
Vote for the greatest science fiction theme song of all time
https://gizmodo.com/vote-for-the-greatest-use-of-pop-music-in-all-of-scienc-5838872
https://gizmodo.com/vote-for-the-greatest-animated-tv-theme-song-of-all-tim-5836955
https://gizmodo.com/vote-for-the-greatest-science-fiction-theme-song-of-all-5836365
