Your Top 70’s-80’s electronic/synth movie scores –

[BluRayTim]

1. The 1st 3 Dirty Harry Movies
2. The Terminator
3. Jaws
4. The Goonies
5. 48 Hours
6. The 1st 4 Star Trek Movies
7. Robocop (1987)
8. Piranha II: The Spawning (particularly the opening and closing credits; too bad the movie itself sucks)
9. Episodes IV through VI of Star Wars
10. The Back To The Future Trilogy
11. The 1st 2 Beverly Hills Cop Movies
12. Miami Vice
13. Diff'rent Strokes
14. Just about any John Hughes Movie from that era
15. The 1st 2 Superman movies (and the Richard Donner Cut version of Superman II)
16. Cloak and Dagger
17. The 1st 5 Nightmare On Elm Street Movies

I will edit this message as needed.

[JeffTheMovieGuy]

Lets not forget Miami Nights 1984

I don't know if they've scored any movies but they get you in the mood for the 70s and 80s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpTFR5UpZg4

Oh and Hotline Miami which is like the mask scene from Drive turned video game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPFDD2mqCwY

[SIWilson]

1. Blade Runner
2. Witness - Maurice Jarre
3. Fatal Attraction - Maurice Jarre
4. Mosquito Coast - Maurice Jarre
5. Beverly Hills Cop
6. Starman
7. Top Gun

[FrellingFrakker]

Robocop, Terminator, Legend, Chariots of Fire

[redxrebellion]

Transformers The Movie (1986) - Vince dicola
Just about any John Hughes movie from that era

[Spirit Zero]

Trancers
Near Dark
Legend
Blade Runner

Anything with Tangerine Dream basically.

[Harpersaj]

Originally Posted by Spirit Zero

Trancers
Near Dark
Legend
Blade Runner

Anything with Tangerine Dream basically.

Yeah those guys pretty much win as far as this discussion goes -

Carpenter's Escape From New York opening title theme is still my favorite of all time though. Hell the entire soundtrack is my #1 for good reason.

[groove93]

Originally Posted by redxrebellion

Transformers The Movie (1986) - Vince dicola
Just about any John Hughes movie from that era

Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Rocky IV
The Terminiator
Beverly Hills Cop
Bladerunner

[PocosuTheCamel]

Originally Posted by Spirit Zero

Trancers
Near Dark
Legend
Blade Runner

Anything with Tangerine Dream basically.

Tangerine Dream >>>

[karsten]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

It's not a movie score, but Jan Hammer's music from the Miami Vice TV series is perfect, just perfect.

"Crockett's Theme" by Jan Hammer

[Show spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfgf9HatIHI

I own all five seasons of Miami Vice on DVD, and I'd just about sell my soul to have them in high definition on Blu-ray.

There was a fair bit of synth soundtracking throughout the Miami Vice series, wasn't there? That's how I remember it, anyway. But I wonder what you ended up thinking when you got your Miami Vice blu-rays (as I assume you did, based on what you wrote above). I own the series on DVD and was thinking about splurging for the blu-ray box, but looking at the caps, to my eyes it would appear as if they have been subjected to some significant color alteration, which I'm not crazy about. As is so often the case, it looks as if the blu-rays have lost all of the pink tone that I so vividly recall from this show when it was originally broadcast, in favor of heaps of teal and sallow yellow (which is so often a blu-ray color tendency).

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=10...03&i=1&l=0&a=0

Sorry, that's off topic.


To the subject at hand, I love synth soundtracks. Nothing, but nothing, more immediately transports me back to the 1980s than a synthesizer/electronic score. To me, they are very atmospheric -- moody, melancholy, and magical. The '80s had a very fresh and distinct sense of what the immediate future would be like, and these soundtracks vividly conjure that specific vision.

Others have mentioned some of the standout choices, but I would also add that Logan's Run had some electronic music in the score that obliquely fits in with this genre, if as a progenitor. And the Moroder-scored version of Metropolis constituted my first exposure to that movie, so it has always stuck in my mind.

[JDub1]

Halloween 1, 2 & 3
The Terminator & T2
The Thing
Revenge of the Nerds
Beverly Hills Cop 1&2
Escape From New York
Assault on Precinct 13
Blade Runner
Starman
Risky Business
Chariots of Fire
Scare Face
The Shining
Big Trouble in Little China

[BladeRunner2007]

Halloween
Escape from New York
The Thing
The Fog
Assault on Precinct 13
Christine
Scarface
Creepshow
Thief
Blade Runner
The Terminator

[Todd Tomorrow]

Dawn of the Dead - Goblin
Assault on Precinct 13 - Carpenter
The Fog - Carpenter
Escape from New York - Carpenter
Blade Runner - Vangelis
Risky Business- Tangerine Dream
Near Dark - Tangerine Dream
Miracle Mile - Tangerine Dream
Starman - Jack Nitzsche
Mrs Soffel - Jack Nitzsche
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence - Ryuichi Sakamoto
Psycho III - Carter Burwell
Cat People - Giorgio Moroder
American Gigolo - Giorgio Moroder
The Last Wave - Charles Wain


I’ll sneak in Bitter Moon by Vangelis. 1992, but as good as his Blade Runner Score.

[MJD64]

Most of my favorites have been cited on these lists, so just a shout-out to two that haven't received mention:

Vangelis' underrated score for the equally underrated 1984 film THE BOUNTY
and
Thomas Newman's synth score for LESS THAN ZERO, one of the most hauntingly beautiful scores of the '80s.

[Thomas Irwin]

My absolute favorite is Forbidden World by Susan Justin.

Forbidden World AKA Mutant (1982) Complete Soundtrack - YouTube

[PipesDonatello]

[Show spoiler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ2y1jltaSA

[Show spoiler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v9CqnWOdm8

[Show spoiler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYfRdOxP9yM

[don3663]

Miami Vice
The Keep
Thief
Risky Business
Escape From New York
Less Than Zero
Blade Runner
Scarface
Midnight Express
Agneepath (an Indian film that heavily uses Jean Michel Jarre)

[Al_The_Strange]

1. Blade Runner (Vangelis)
2. Midnight Demon 1 and 2 (Turquoise Moon)
3. Beverly Hills Cop (Harold Faltermeyer)
4. Halloween (John Carpenter)
5. Christine (John Carpenter)
6. The Terminator (Brad Fiedel)
7. Big Trouble In Little China (John Carpenter)
8. Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter / Alan Howarth)
9. They Live (John Carpenter / Alan Howarth)
10. Gremlins (Jerry Goldsmith)

I'm also quite fond of the 2010s wave that's became apparent in soundtracks for Drive, The Neon Demon, Kung Fury, BR2049, Hotline Miami, Far Cry: Blood Dragon. John Carpenter's Lost Themes is pretty awesome too.

Haven't listened to the older electronic scores as much as all you guys, it's been mostly the John Carpenter scores I've bought and listened to. I ought to rectify that and check out more Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder, and the rest. Do have my fair share of Italian movie scores (like Suspiria, Tenebrae, Phenomenon, The Beyond, Cannibal Holocaust, Pieces, and more), but I haven't made the time to sit down and give them spins.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

A few lesser known little gems:

Love this music from the score to 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Particularly beautiful is the 1st minute which plays over a great little montage of Scheider's character spending time with his family and doing research in the months leading up to his space flight. Love the montage shots and the music.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WsJtXM...t&index=3&t=0s

I found myself watching the Charles Bronson Cannon film, Murphy's Law, which just recently went up on Tubi, and this piece of soundtrack music really stood out to me. The script has her character, Arabella, mostly annoying throughout its running time, but she was given a surprisingly beautiful theme:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IlHnFm...H&index=3&t=0s

[PipesDonatello]

Goblin is great, but Tenebrae is my favorite score of theirs, and also my favorite Argento movie.

[Show spoiler]

https://youtu.be/T0rQ-pIaWfE