One of the most important features of a film that many people may tend to overlook is its music. Music is compelling because it sets the mood and tone of a scene and can completely alter the way we view that scene. Academy Award categories even exist for music, including best original score and best original song, which honor the geniuses behind some of the film’s best and most iconic music. A film score, to be clear, is a piece of music specially composed for a movie that is usually only instrumental, while a soundtrack, which can refer to many things, is all of the music in the film, including the score and lyrical songs. Some soundtracks include music that was written for the movie individually, while other soundtracks use songs that already existed. Ranking film’s best soundtracks and scores are nearly impossible, so instead, here is a subjective list of the best soundtracks and scores from films (in no particular order).
- “Booksmart” soundtrack
- “Black Panther” soundtrack
- “Baby Driver” soundtrack
- “Call Me by Your Name” soundtrack
- “Clueless” soundtrack
- “Schindler’s List” score – John Williams
- “Little Women” score – Alexandre Desplat
- “Halloween” (1978) score – John Carpenter
- “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” score – John Williams
- “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” score – Henry Mancini
