Who's the world's most popular film composer?
Ask any group of die-hard film score nerds who the world’s most popular film composer is, and they’ll probably tell you it’s their favorite film composer. Which means you never ask a die-hard film score nerd to answer global questions like that. They almost always possess a myopic view of music in general (i.e., “rap” sucks — ooh, good one).
With a website like Last.fm, which when using their their software “scrobbles” (counts) what you play in iTunes and on your iPod, you get a more comprehensive picture of what composers and soundtracks people all over the world are listening to — or at the very least, a list of composers who have the broadest appeal and public profile. Let me throw some numbers* at you:
Top 20 Number of Listeners:
Yann Tiersen (569,209)
Hans Zimmer (454,357)
John Williams (434,234)
Ennio Morricone (416,856)
Vangelis (392,020)
Howard Shore (341,424)
Danny Elfman (337,835)
Clint Mansell (330,742)
Thomas Newman (278,756)
Michael Nyman (252,403)
Craig Armstrong (231,912)
Klaus Badelt (226,331)
Michael Andrews (218,881)
James Horner (201,422)
Angelo Badalamenti (192,038)
Harry Gregson-Williams (181,595)
Jon Brion (158,766)
James Newton Howard (142,856)
Alan Silvestri (139,248)
Jerry Goldsmith (130,690)
Top 20 Total Number of Plays:
Yann Tiersen (28,336,872 plays)
Hans Zimmer (13,497,905 plays)
Howard Shore (11,080,116 plays)
John Williams (10,729,778 plays)
Clint Mansell (9,030,039 plays)
Danny Elfman (7,332,700 plays)
Ennio Morricone (7,289,269 plays)
Vangelis (6,765,295 plays)
Thomas Newman (5,220,732 plays)
Klaus Badelt (4,527,334 plays)
Harry Gregson-Williams (3,908,761 plays)
Bear McCreary (3,561,336 plays)
Michael Andrews (3,473,175 plays)
Jon Brion (3,307,683 plays)
Michael Nyman (3,102,329 plays)
James Horner (3,082,135 plays)
Carter Burwell (2,901,837 plays)
Craig Armstrong (2,795,690 plays)
Angelo Badalamenti (2,759,586 plays)
James Newton Howard (2,406,979 plays)
According to our entirely scientific number-analysis program, Yann Tiersen is currently the most popular film composer in the world. Not surprisingly, popular cross-over artists like Clint Mansell, Vangelis and Angelo Badalamenti make the list. Klaus Badelt appears courtesy of Pirates of the Caribbean, Howard Shore no doubt is included thanks to the Lord of the Rings films (unless She Devil has been enjoying a renaissance) and Michael Andrews due to Donnie Darko.
Question: who’s your top scrobbled composer? Mine’s Danny Elfman (number seven on the list), followed by Jerry Goldsmith, who barely broke into the Top 20!
* Stats as of Friday, August 21, 2009. All numbers based on Last.fm users (approx. 30 million)
While you're at it:
- March 11, 2009: Saturn Awards '08: Music Noms
- January 22, 2008: '07 Academy Award noms announced
- May 11, 2006: 'Amazing' 10 year wait worth it
- January 17, 2009: IFMCA 2008 nominees announced
- July 17, 2007: Rescue Dawn
jimnyc62 said,
August 22, 2009 @ 5:54 am
Wow, not a Steiner, Korngold, or Newman (Alfred, that is) anywhere. Not that I was expecting there to be. I’m embarrassed to admit there are composers on here that not only do I NOT own any of their music, I’ve never even heard a note of it or seen their films. So I’ll put a positive spin on it and say, “Look at all the new film music I get to discover!” (Given my semi-pessimistic nature, that spin hurt.)
Ryan Keaveney said,
August 22, 2009 @ 9:37 pm
I think this shows what a divide there is in the film music fandom, in terms of both age and taste. It’s likely that fans of Golden Age composers are also not fans of apps like iTunes, and digital music in general, while younger, more casual listeners are of the MP3 generation. These of course are generalizations, but it’s interesting to me to see just who is being listened to and how often.