Film scores have been around since the 1930s. From the styles used in movies like King Kong (1933) to today’s styles used in movies like The Dark Knight Rises (2012), music in films help to create the mood of the scene, whether it involves action romance, or the death of an important character.

Then, in the 1980s, the first video games were coming out. In 1985, the hit game Super Mario Bros. came out with its iconic theme that was implanted into the minds of all who played it. But in 2001, the world of video game music changed with the release of Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved. It’s iconic theme revolutionized the world of video game music. It was one of the first games to incorporate music produced by a studio orchestra. In today’s film and video game music, there are composers that are rising to fame because of their music: people such as Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Martin O’Donnell, Neil Davidge and more.

Hans Zimmer
Today, the German-born composer Hans Zimmer is one of Hollywood’s most recognized musical talents. In 1988, Zimmer was asked to score Rain Man which went on to win Zimmer his first Academy Award nomination. In the early 1990s, Zimmer proved his musical talent with the award-winning score for The Lion King (1994). The soundtrack sold over 15 million copies and earned Zimmer an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, American Music Award, and two Grammies. In 2000, Zimmer scored Gladiator (2000), which sold three million copies and got Zimmer an Oscar, Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Award.

Steve Jablonsky
Steve Jablonsky, born October 9, 1970, is another great film composer. His first score was for the 2003 film Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He did some work for the video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) and composed some music for the BBC television show Seven Wonders of the Industrial World. Some of his career highlights include the Transformers Trilogy (2007, 2009, 2011), Battleship (2012) and Steamboy (2004). Jablonsky also did some work on video games like Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (2007), Gears of War 2 (2008) and Gears of War 3 (2011).

Martin O’Donnell
Martin O’Donnell is a very well recognized composer today mostly for his work on the Halo games. He composed the music for all the Halo games that Bungie made. However, O’Donnell had done several video games before he worked for Bungie, games like Myst and Riven. The first game he composed the music for under Bungie was Myth: The Fallen Lord. But O’Donnell is most famous for the iconic theme from Bungie’s 2001 game Halo: Combat Evolved. From there, O’Donnell kept working on Halo’s music. The only Halo soundtrack O’Donnell didn’t do the music for while Halo was under Bungie was Halo Wars. Unfortunately, once Halo left Bungie, so did the music.

Ramin Djawadi
Ramin is a very good composer, but not as well-known as he should be. His first work was on the short film Shoo Fly (2001). His career cover films like Thunderbirds (2004), Open Season (2006), Mr. Brooks (2007), Iron Man (2008), Clash of the Titans (2010) and Red Dawn (2012). He is also doing the music for the upcoming 2013 movie Pacific Rim. Djawadi has also done several television shows like The Grid (2004), Prison Break (2005-2009) and Game of Thrones (2011-Current). But he also has done some video games like System Shock 2 (1999), Medal of Honor (2010) and Medal of Honor: Warfighter (2012).

Brian Tyler
Brian Tyler is another famous not-so-well-known composer today. He has done music for several movies like Four Dogs Playing Poker (2000), Last Call (2002), War (2007), The Final Destination (2009) and Battle: Los Angeles (2011). Tyler did some television shows like Jenny (1997), The Education of Max Bickford (2001) and Transformers Prime (2010).