John Williams vs Hans Zimmer

[emrikrev 0]

People often refer to Hans Zimmer as the greatest film composer of all time. Lion King, Inception are very well known films and soundtracks. John Williams however has as of 2024 composed 124 soundtracks and been nominated for an Oscar 54 times. He has written the soundtracks of our lives. 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,105]

Hahn Zilliams

[Bellosh 3,972]

 

 

40 minutes ago, emrikrev said:

People often refer to Hans Zimmer as the greatest film composer of all time.

 

People as in redditors or youtube commentors on one cue from Interstellar.

[Thor 8,686]

Gonna give a robotic answer to this:

 

Both are brilliant, for very different reasons. You would need far more specific parameters to make any kind of meaningful comparison.

 

You seem to be using commercial success as a defining factor (which doesn't say anything about their artistic merit), and even that would take some serious research, and - again - compatible parameters.

[Mr. Hooper 3,747]

This is like going on a forum devoted to hamburgers and asking, "What's better? Hamburgers or hot dogs?".

[Stark 580]

I think they’re incomparable; far too many differences in style at almost every level. They happen to both be in my pool of favorites.

[Thor 8,686]

11 minutes ago, Stark said:

I think they’re incomparable; far too many differences in style at almost every level. They happen to both be in my pool of favorites.

 

Same here. Williams is first, Zimmer is second on my top 10. I've become immune to the immense Zimmer hatred that pervades this forum, although it still irritates me when they post in the appreciation thread.

[Jamie Dutton 7,651]

1 hour ago, emrikrev said:

People often refer to Hans Zimmer as the greatest film composer of all time. 

 

What people?

[Mr. Hooper 3,747]

1 minute ago, John Dutton said:

 

What people?

 

"Well, I mean, let's face it. You're not exactly normal, are you?"

[LSH 1,085]

They are both ‘designed’ for very different things. In fact, I cannot think of a single project one of them did that the other would have been more preferable for.

[Edmilson 9,419]

22 minutes ago, John Dutton said:

 

What people?

Those that post "Hans Zimmer is the "BEST COMPOSER EVAH!" on Youtube, Reddit and Twitter.

[NL197 499]

24 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

"Well, I mean, let's face it. You're not exactly normal, are you?"

It’s not exactly a normal world, is it?

[Jurassic Shark 13,711]

45 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

This is like going on a forum devoted to hamburgers and asking, "What's better? Hamburgers or hot dogs?".

 

And then some user, let's call him Mr. Pooper, will start the Hamburger Disenchantment Thread. 

 

3 minutes ago, NL197 said:

It’s not exactly a normal world, is it?

 

It's the only world. 

[GerateWohl 5,341]

 

     

  

[NL197 499]

46 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

And then some user, let's call him Mr. Pooper, will start the Hamburger Disenchantment Thread. 

 

 

It's the only world. 

Wait, that's not the line! You're supposed to say "why did you bring me here?"

 

[Stark 580]

1 hour ago, LSH said:

They are both ‘designed’ for very different things. In fact, I cannot think of a single project one of them did that the other would have been more preferable for.

This is a fascinating question to consider.

[Drawgoon 116]

To be able to tell if one film composer is better than the other, they need to anonymously score the same film, under similar conditions.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,105]

No pressure

[Davis 3,331]

The real question is, who is the better composer, John Williams or Lorne Balfe?

[ManofDestiny 86]

Let them fight.

[Mr. Hooper 3,747]

1 minute ago, ManofDestiny said:

Let them fight.

We need @BB-8 to work his magic and Photoshop us a picture of JW as Godzilla fighting HZ as a MUTO...

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,105]

5 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

We need @BB-8 to work his magic and Photoshop us a picture of JW as Godzilla fighting HZ as a MUTO...

 

Zimmer would be Ghidorah because his other two heads are the ghostwriters.

[Chen G. 4,774]

Hello hello, what’s this thread now? *brings pizza*

[Datameister 2,360]

Zimmer? Williams? Never heard of 'em.

[Schilkeman 1,332]

[BB-8 4,127]

3 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

We need @BB-8 to work his magic and Photoshop us a picture of JW as Godzilla fighting HZ as a MUTO...

 

I have asked our treasured friend "DALL-E mini" for some help with this (not wasting more time in this thread):

 

 

 

 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,105]

Fuel for the Brody thread

[DarthDementous 1,275]

If I had to compare them in terms of influence over the film music industry I would pick John Williams as encouraging the sort of sensibilities I would much rather see amplified today, compared to Zimmer

[BB-8 4,127]

 

...missed opportunity.

[Bayesian 1,447]

21 hours ago, Davis said:

The real question is, who is the better composer, John Williams or Lorne Balfe?

This is so triggering. The only two words other than Hans Zimmer that don’t belong within twenty miles—no, twenty time zones—of JW.

[badbu 139]

both are great composers! 

[Mr. Hooper 3,747]

19 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Hello hello, what’s this thread now? *brings pizza*

We're trying to figure out who the six people are that voted for Zimmer, so we can paddle them until they recant—or else strip them of their forum membership.

 

 

 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,105]

When you're referring to a piece of music credited to John Williams, you can be fairly sure he actually wrote it. But when you're listening to a form of audio credited to Hans Zimmer, who really wrote it? Some staffer?

[Tom 5,226]

It is not really a fair comparison.  One is a composer and the other is a guitarist.  

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,105]

22 minutes ago, Tom said:

It is not really a fair comparison.  One is a composer and the other is a guitarist.  

 

 

[Mr. Hooper 3,747]

2 minutes ago, The Train Station said:

 

I thought playing an electric guitar could make anyone look cool...

 

Guess I was wrong.

[Edmilson 9,419]

39 minutes ago, The Train Station said:

When you're referring to a piece of music credited to John Williams, you can be fairly sure he actually wrote it. But when you're listening to a form of audio credited to Hans Zimmer, who really wrote it? Some staffer?

This is a question that has been plaguing me ever since me as a teenager thought "hey, this Hans guy writes some awesome music! I'm gonna Google his name so I can find out more about him! Wait... What does this site mean by "additional music by Klaus Badelt, Ramin Djawadi, etc"?

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,105]

11 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

This is a question that has been plaguing me ever since me as a teenager thought "hey, this Hans guy writes some awesome music! I'm gonna Google his name so I can find out more about him! Wait... What does this site mean by "additional music by Klaus Badelt, Ramin Djawadi, etc"?

 

And then if I find out a certain track within a Hans Zimmer score was really written by one of these other guys, I end up wondering how it might have sounded if Zimmer just did it himself instead.

[Schilkeman 1,332]

One writes art music, and the other writes (for his part) new-age soundscapes. As I've said before, I think Zimmer knows what he's doing, and does it well-enough, he just doesn't happen to know very much, and put up against the stupidly learned scores of John Williams, he sounds like a my-first-casio jam-band-accountant, the Yanni of film composers. If both their names did not appear in the credits of films, the comparison wouldn't even occur to us to make.

[CatastrophicJones 62]

On 07/10/2024 at 10:44 PM, ManofDestiny said:

Let them fight.

 

The ultimate cage match

[Mr. Hooper 3,747]

43 minutes ago, Schilkeman said:

the Yanni of film composers

 

[BB-8 4,127]

6 hours ago, Tom said:

It is not really a fair comparison.  One is a composer and the other is a guitarist.  

One is a genius and the other a sound engineer commissioned by the German car industry.

 

 

[Schilkeman 1,332]

8 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

I don’t. He managed to turn his brand of Ross Geller fusion into a very successful enterprise. He is to classical what Kenny G is to jazz. They both seem like alright dudes, it’s just not what I come to music for.

[Thor 8,686]

Yanni is one of my guilty pleasures. He has some good stuff inbetween the cheesy.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,105]

 

 

[Mr. Hooper 3,747]

Laurel.

[BB-8 4,127]

 

I wish he had told this to BMW regarding these motor sounds...

[Jurassic Shark 13,711]

For @Thor.

 

https://www.nrk.no/video/660fe1b1-5b0b-4200-90c4-d32224df2ba5

 

On 08/10/2024 at 5:45 AM, Chen G. said:

Hello hello, what’s this thread now? *brings pizza*

 

Sorry, there's no Ring talk here... yet.

[GerateWohl 5,341]

18 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

For @Thor.

 

https://www.nrk.no/video/660fe1b1-5b0b-4200-90c4-d32224df2ba5

 

What are they saying?

[Jurassic Shark 13,711]

The one on the left is tired of seeing Zimmer's name everywhere, while the one on the right kind of likes Zimmer. A bit like me and Thor you could say.