44 Rock Artists Who Wrote Film Scores

One might assume that writing songs for an album and writing songs for a film’s soundtrack are two entirely separate forms of artistic processes.

But as many songwriters will tell you, the experiences are actually remarkably similar. In both cases, a story is told through music — an image created in the mind’s eye using only instruments and voice. Which is why it makes sense that so many musical artists have tried their hand at composing music for the big screen.

“When it connects in my imagination somewhere, and I can see it, it becomes like a movie to me,” Robbie Robertson, who scored numerous, critically acclaimed films for Martin Scorsese, told Vulture in 2019. “If I can see it, and it helps tell the story, then I know it’s true.”

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For some, working on music for movies hasn’t necessarily been a direct goal, but instead a general creative challenge.

“There was a point in time where I could have been on stage all day,” Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who scored his first film in 2010, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. “Now it feels like something that I wouldn’t mind doing it a little bit, but I’d much rather be not being watched, somewhere with my kids or just thinking about stuff, you know? I can’t say that consciously [was why I got into film scoring]. It was more trying to see what I’m capable of in unfamiliar places.”

So get your popcorn and your turntable ready: we’re taking a look at 44 Rock Musicians Who Wrote Film Scores…