John Carpenter

John Carpenter is best known as a masterful horror filmmaker, having directed ’70s and ’80s classics like Halloween, The Thing, Christine, and They Live, as well as detours from horror, like Escape from New York. But in his other role as a composer and musician, he pioneered an entire subgenre of electronic music and film soundtracks. Born in Carthage, NY, in 1948, Carpenter made his major directorial and compositional debut in 1974 with Dark Star. His music relied chiefly on synthesizers, and his combination of urgent rhythms and ominous, atmospheric textures created a singular sound that influenced film scores of the era—as well as the 21st-century synthwave subgenre that went mainstream thanks to the highly Carpenter-esque theme to Stranger Things. By the 2010s, Carpenter had shifted his focus from film to music, releasing a series of Lost Themes albums and even performing his music live on tour. Reissues of his soundtrack albums by Sacred Bones Records have also helped reignite interest in Carpenter as a composer.