Ludwig Goransson is a Swedish-born composer, conductor and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Black Panther, Tenet, And Belief as well as TV shows like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, And New girl. He has won an Oscar, a Grammy and an Emmy for his film composition work.
Göransson is known for his hip hop, techno and electronic sound. His scores are often an interesting combination of traditional instruments and synthetic music. A longtime partner with director Ryan Coogler and emerging staple in franchises such as Star WarsGöransson has created masterful work and there is much more to come.
Here are Göransson's best music scores, ranked.
10 Poison (2018)
2018 Sony movie venom follows journalist Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy, as he becomes the human host of an alien symbiote named Venom. Venom as a movie is mediocre at best and so is the score that comes with it. Göransson's score is full of dark and dramatic sounds with deep tones and dissonant intervals. The music is very cacophonous and frankly a bit unremarkable. There are no super strong or obvious musical themes like in some of Göransson's other works, and overall the music sounds a bit like the music from any other action movie.
9 Fruitvale station (2013)
Directorial debut by Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale station is what first united Coogler, Michael B. Jordan and Göransson; all three worked on it Black Panther And Belief together after this movie. The film is a biographical drama based on the events leading up to the death of Oscar Grant, a young black man who was killed in 2009 by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer at the Fruitvale precinct station in Oakland.
The theme music for this film is soft and airy with a touch of mystery and uncertainty. Göransson uses a lot of elongated, technological sounding tones. In general, the music complements the film nicely, but in itself it is very subdued and homogeneous. Many of Göransson's signature elements are already present in this score, but it is clear that he is still in his infancy as he develops his signature sound profile.
Community is a sitcom based on creator Dan Harmon's own experiences at community college. The show follows an ensemble cast at a fictional community college and has gained somewhat of a cult following due to the meta humor and pop culture references used by the show.
Göransson composed original songs and incidental music for the show throughout its six seasons from 2009 to 2015. Göransson's electronic and techno sound is completely absent from this series. Instead he opts for many bright, sparkling keys, accompanied by cheerful and light percussion and ensemble instruments. The music is upbeat and fun, just like the content of the show, but tonally it's quite simple and mostly used for background music.
7 New Girl (2011)
Created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Television for Fox, New girl with Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamore Morris, Damon Wayans Jr. and Hannah Simone. The series revolves around a crazy teacher after she moves into a loft in Los Angeles with three men she met on Craigslist. The sitcom is one of the most popular and well-known shows of the 2010s.
While Göransson didn't write the iconic "Hey Girl" theme song — that was Deschanel herself — he did do the appropriate underlining throughout the show. His sound is quirky, just like the show's personality, and while the look isn't very flashy, it fits the style of the content really well. Longtime viewers will recognize the lightly brushed rhythmic sounds and guitar that Göransson tastefully uses throughout each episode of each season.
6 Creed (2015)
A spin-off of the Rocky movie series, Beliefwith Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone and Tessa Thompson. In the film, amateur boxer Adonis Creed is trained and mentored by Rocky Balboa, the former rival turned friend of Adonis' father, Apollo Creed. Because the movie is connected to the original Rocky series, Göransson cleverly pays homage to the iconic rocky theme, "Gonna Fly Now" by Ayn Robbins and Bill Conti" in his score for this film.
The music is characterized by large brass instruments and bells supplemented with strong percussion. Many of the pieces sound march-like and give the feeling of going into battle. Göransson's signature style begins to come through as he blends techno and hip hop sounds with more traditional full orchestral scores throughout the film.
5 Turning Red (2022)
To blush is a Pixar animated film that follows Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian college student who transforms into a red giant panda when she experiences strong emotions due to a hereditary curse. like a movie, To blush is a bit strange to be honest, but Göransson's music is quite good. He uses a pentatonic scale with lots of flute melodies to create a classical Chinese-inspired theme, but then mixes those traditional Chinese sounds with hip-hop.
This clash between traditional and modern music perfectly mirrors the cultural clash between Mei and her mother in the film. Mei is obsessed with a boy band called 4Town, while her mother is a very traditional conservative woman. However, by the end of the film, the two are able to reconcile their different points of view and live together in harmony, much like the two different tone motifs in Göransson's score.
4 The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
Göransson's second score in the Star Wars franchising, Boba Fett's book is a spin-off of The Mandalorian take place after the events of Return of the Jedi. The series follows bounty hunter Boba Fett as he establishes himself as the new crime lord of Jabba the Hutt's former territory on Tatooine.
Göransson is in his element here; Boba Fett's book has a very punchy, recognizable theme with both traditional instruments and Göransson's signature remixing and hip-hop sound. There are lots of very strong drums and percussion as well as tribal-esque vocals to reflect the time Boba Fett spent with the Sandpeople. The music is high in emotion and character and perfectly complements the TV show.
3 Black Panther (2018)
Coogler's third film on this list, Black Panther is a Marvel movie starring the late great Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/the Black Panther alongside Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Sterling K. Brown, Angela Bassett , Forest Whitaker and Andy Serkis. In the film, T'Challa is crowned King of Wakanda after his father's death, but is then challenged by Killmonger who intends to abandon the country's isolationist policies to start a global revolution.
This is arguably the best score in the MCU. Göransson uses lively trumpet fanfare and African drums for the Wakanda theme. He then contrasts this with an unobtrusive hip-hop theme for Killmonger. The different sound palettes reflect the contrast between the insular Wakanda and Killmonger as a modern outsider. Overall, the music Göransson makes is so powerful, moving and catchy and so unique compared to the timbre of most of the music in the rest of the MCU. Whenever you hear those drums, you know where you're going and that's the sign of an effective score.
2 The Mandalorian (2019)
Possibly the best recent entry in the Star Wars canon, The Mandalorian was created by Jon Favreau as the first live-action series in the Star Wars franchise. The series stars Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin, also known as The Mandalorian, a lone bounty hunter who goes on the run to protect the Force-sensitive child Grogu. In layman's terms, Pedro Pascal is a space father to Baby Yoda, and it's amazing.
Almost as great as the show itself is the music that accompanies it. Competing with industry titan John Williams and what is probably the most recognizable movie theme of all time, Göransson holds his own with The Mandalorian. The theme of the show has become a staple of the Star Wars musical repertoire; everyone recognizes the chime "ba dum" that plays over the low horns at the beginning of each episode. It's so simple, yet so effective, and it's one of Göransson's best works to date.
1 Principle (2020)
Basic principle is a 2020 sci-fi action thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. The film follows a former CIA agent who learns how to manipulate the flow of time to prevent an attack from the future that threatens to destroy the current world. The actual plot and science of Basic principle is more than confusing, but the atmosphere is impeccable.
If you just follow Robert Pattinson's advice and "don't think, just feel" while watching the movie, your viewing experience will improve immensely. One thing about this movie that isn't at all confusing, though, is how good the music is. What makes Göransson so unique and different from other film composers is his techno and electronic sound. He sometimes looks more like a scientist than a musician in this film, recording sound and changing the pitch, frequency and wavelengths with precision. In Göransson's score, almost no instruments are perceptible, everything sounds computer-generated, which fits perfectly with the futuristic character of the film. The thumping vibrations tickle the brain and satisfy the ears, and the tension Göransson builds is almost as good as the climaxes he reaches. Basic principle really wouldn't be the movie it is without Göransson's musical genius.
Ludwig Göransson is one of today's most interesting and creative composers. He has already established his unique sound profile and has been the creative genius behind some great, popular scores. Scheduled to compose the music for Christopher Nolan's upcoming movie OppenheimerGöransson has nothing but a bright future ahead of him, and we can't wait to see what he produces next.
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