5 shows that prove Bear McCreary is the best composer on television
By Daniel Roman
The Walking Dead
Starting with its premiere in 2010, AMC’s monster hit show The Walking Dead basically paved the way for a resurgence of zombies in media. While the music is not one of the things you typically hear people rave about, it gives us another insight into why Bear McCreary is such an effective composer.
The Walking Dead‘s score is creepy, alternating between the droning of discordant string instruments and bleak, uncomfortable silences. There are some episodes that have hardly any music at all. And that’s part of the beauty of the show, because all those quiet moments add to the tension in a way that no song could.
It takes a great musician to know what to play and when to play it…but it takes an even better one to know when not to play. In The Walking Dead, Bear McCreary’s minimalist approach to the score calls attention to specific details, like the ominous feeling in your gut as the camera lingers on that barn door long after the last zombie has fallen, hinting at what else might lie hidden within.
And of course, when the music does kick in, it hits twice as hard.
