twbrn t1_j1xldpy wrote on December 28, 2022 at 3:34 AM

Battlestar Galactica. This is not really a competition.

Ramin Djawadi's scores for Game of Thrones and Westworld are an honorable second, but Bear McCreary's BSG soundtrack is the most impressive, most original, and most unorthodox yet appropriate music I've ever seen attached to a TV show. Even McCreary's other work, though impressive, clearly didn't have the level of pure creative freedom he had with BSG.

Jmen4Ever t1_j1xmhjz wrote on December 28, 2022 at 3:43 AM

What's crazy is he was what 22 or 23 when he got picked to do BSG?

twbrn t1_j1xnled wrote on December 28, 2022 at 3:52 AM

Something like that, certainly no more than 24. Working on the BSG miniseries under the previous composer Richard Gibbs was basically his first job out of college. When Gibbs didn't come back for the regular series, he became the main composer.

Iwoulddiefcftbatk t1_j1xpb8e wrote on December 28, 2022 at 4:07 AM

I do think he set the bar for how television scores are done now. A lot of shows in early the 00’s had recycled music from previous projects; SG1 used music heavily from the movie throughout the series but tried to mix it up from time to time or just a copy paste X theme for every episode, ie most procedurals. Bear really stepped up the composing for each episode and worked on establishing leitmotifs and evolving them as the series went on.