Soundtrack for Newcomers: Where to Start

Right, don't overthink this one. People treat getting into soundtrack music like it needs a reading list and a degree, and it really doesn't. You've been listening to it your whole life without noticing — every film that ever made you feel something had music doing half the work. Here's the quickest, least painful way to start paying proper attention on purpose.

Forget the Deep Cuts — Start With What You Already Love

The biggest mistake newcomers make is hunting for some obscure, credible starting point instead of just using what's already in their head. You know the Star Wars theme. You know the Jurassic Park theme. You've hummed the Harry Potter music without ever meaning to learn it. Start there. Put one on properly, on decent speakers or headphones, away from the film, and actually listen the whole way through instead of half-hearing it in the background of your own memories.

Know Roughly What You're Listening To

You don't need the full glossary, but two words will save you a lot of confusion: a score is music written specifically for the film, and a soundtrack album can also mean a collection of existing songs used on screen. Knowing which one you've pressed play on changes what you should be listening for. Our beginner's guide goes further into the terminology if you want it, but honestly, this is enough to get going.

Your First Four Listens

This is the order I'd actually give a mate, because it covers four completely different sounds without overwhelming anyone on day one.

1. A classic orchestral blockbuster score — John Williams's music for Star Wars. Big, thematic, impossible to misunderstand.
2. A synth score — Vangelis's music for Blade Runner. Completely different mood, completely different tools, same job.
3. A curated, song-based compilation — the Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 soundtrack. Proof that a good one doesn't need a single note of original music to work.
4. A modern award-winning song — “Shallow” from A Star Is Born. Shows how a song written for a film can go on to have its own separate life entirely.

Four listens, four totally different approaches, and by the end you'll already have a sense of which one you gravitated towards.

A Few More Starter Picks, If Four Isn't Enough

Once you've got through the first four, don't stop there. Ennio Morricone's music for the spaghetti westerns he made with director Sergio Leone is a brilliant next step — theatrical, instantly recognisable, and about as far from a modern hybrid score as you'll get. James Horner's music for Titanic, including “My Heart Will Go On,” is worth hearing too, purely to see how a full orchestral score and a massive pop ballad can share the same soundtrack without fighting each other for space.

Actually Finding the Music

Streaming has made this embarrassingly easy compared to even a decade ago. Most major services carry soundtrack albums in full, and film score labels regularly release expanded or restored editions of older scores if you want to go deeper. Don't get precious about whether the version you're hearing matches the exact film cut — for a first listen, it genuinely doesn't matter.

Mistakes Worth Skipping

• Writing it off as “just background music.” Watch a tense scene with the sound off sometime and you'll change your mind fast.
• Expecting every soundtrack to sound like a normal album. An orchestral score is built to serve scenes, not to sit in a neat verse-chorus shape.
• Judging the whole genre off one film you didn't enjoy. A soundtrack you don't rate says nothing about the next one you'll hear.
• Feeling like you have to catch up on decades of history before you're “allowed” an opinion. You're not sitting an exam. Like what you like, in whatever order you find it.

The Bottom Line

You don't need permission or homework to get into soundtrack music — you need four different listens and about an hour of your evening. Once you've got a feel for what you actually like, our pieces on the different subgenres and the best artists to know will help you find more of exactly that.

Frequently Asked Questions