As a child, my exposure to quality cinema was (understandably) limited. For me the Pirates of The Caribbean film franchise was the epitome of high art. I was obsessed – the great visuals, the musical score, the unabashed immorality, the jawline of Orlando Bloom…I didn’t think it could get better.

But it did. I grew older. Watched better movies. Discovered better jawlines. My fascination with the series diminished in most respects, except one. After all these years, my appreciation for the film’s musical score has only grown. Hans Zimmer created a masterpiece within a mediocre film franchise which changed forever the ways in which I perceived cinema. I started paying attention to background scores – within context of a film and in isolation, and in doing so realized the impact a compelling score can have on a movie.

Zimmer is a pop cultural icon – rare for a musical composer, but he made it happen. Part of the reason for his commercial success seems to be the number of cinematic universe’s he’s helped construct. While his work on the Pirates franchise holds a great deal of personal significance, a less biased fan would argue that he has far greater accomplishments.

Here is also where our friends The Nolanites join the fandom, and understandably so. Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan create a unique brand of magic every time they work together. With Inception and Interstellar, Zimmer gave us grand, orchestral scores which matched the sublime scale of these space-and-time-transcending movies. With The Batman Trilogy, he gained a cult status by inviting fans of the franchise from all over the world to join an epic choir in The Dark Knight Rises by simply recording a chant online. Thousands of people from 107 different countries recorded the chant, contributing to the film, and gaining bragging rights for eternity in the process.

It’s been years since that epiphanous realization of the ways in which a truly great score can elevate a film, and I’ve since come across several composers who’s work I’ve loved. Ludovico Einaudi for The Intouchables, Stephen Price for Gravity, Yann Tiersen for Amélie, Max Richter for Arrival… a shout-out to John Williams too , for casually laying the foundation upon which this Empire was built. It’s been years since that epiphanous realization and I still find my way back to Zimmer, and to the swashbuckling pirates he immortalized through music.