The music we love also has a woman's name

How easy it is to think of soundtrack composers: names like Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, John Powell, Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, and Hiroyuki Sawano immediately spring to mind. They are indisputable icons, the creators of some of the most emblematic music in contemporary film and video games; they are part of our collective imagination.

But if we widen our perspective a bit, we realize that many of the compositions that have defined the sound of our generation were authored by women. Pieces of music we have listened to for years, that we have hummed, and that have moved us on the big screen or in front of a console.

The cultural narrative often oversimplifies. It associates a work with a single name, a more visible figure: the director, the producer, or the most high-profile composer. In that process, other names are left in the background, despite having been just as instrumental in constructing that sonic universe.

Today I am shining a spotlight on female composers whose work has moved me and—why not say it—inspired and influenced me as a musician. This isn't an exercise in filling quotas or being politically correct, but an exercise in awareness and listening. Because understanding who built the music we love is also part of understanding the music itself.

Yoko Shimomura

Notable Works
- Street Fighter II
- Kingdom Hearts
- Final Fantasy XV

Sound Signature
Powerful lyrical melody, classical sensibility, and a restrained emotional epic. Shimomura has an extraordinary ability to build memorable themes that combine the melodic clarity of the classical tradition with the energy of video game musical language.

It is common to find very clear structures in her compositions, highly singable melodic motifs, and piano writing that reveals her classical training. Many of her themes function almost as small concert pieces, capable of standing on their own even outside the game itself.

Reflection
For years, when talking about the great Japanese video game composers, the focus almost always fell on names like Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) or Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros). However, Shimomura has been equally decisive in the emotional evolution of the modern JRPG.

Her work on Kingdom Hearts, for example, demonstrates a very particular melodic sensitivity, capable of shifting between intimate delicacy and emotional grandeur without ever losing thematic clarity.

And long before that, she had already marked a milestone with the music for Street Fighter II. Not only did she compose some of the most recognizable themes in video game history—such as the iconic Guile’s Theme—but she also personally recorded many of the characters' voices and shouts.

Yuki Kajiura

Notable Works:
- Kimetsu No Yaiba
- Sword Art Online
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica
- Tsubasa Chronicle
- Fate/Zero
- Xenosaga III

Sound Signature
Ethereal choirs, ritualistic textures, and dark modal harmonies. One of Kajiura's hallmarks is her use of the choir as a central element of the musical narrative. For her lyrics, she uses "Kajiurago," an invented language, to reinforce the mystical and ceremonial character of her music. This allows her to treat voices much like an instrument, choosing the sounds that best suit each melody.

Her compositions blend electronic elements with symphonic orchestration and choirs, creating a highly recognizable atmosphere that exists between the epic and the spiritual.

Reflection
The rise of contemporary epic choral music is often associated with Western film composers like Zimmer or Williams; however, the experimental choral universe found in much of modern anime owes a great deal to the musical language developed by Kajiura. Her way of using the voice as a narrative texture, rather than simple accompaniment, has defined the sonic identity of many productions.

Yoko Kanno

Notable Works
- Cowboy Bebop
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Macross Plus

Sound Signature
Radical eclecticism. Jazz, electronica, rock, orchestral music, experimental pop... everything coexists naturally in her work.

Kanno has an extraordinary ability to move between seemingly incompatible styles without losing narrative coherence. Every project she tackles seems to become a small sonic laboratory.

Reflection
Shinichirō Watanabe, the director of Cowboy Bebop, is much better known outside of musical circles. In spite of that, the sonic identity of the series—a universe that mixes jazz, blues, funk, and futuristic electronica—is inseparable from Kanno's work. Her music doesn't just accompany the story: it defines the emotional tone of the world we see on screen. In her case, the soundtrack is not a mere addition. It is a structural part of the show's language.

Lisa Gerrard

Notable Works
- Gladiator (with Hans Zimmer)
- The Insider
- Dead Can Dance

Sound Signature
She has an ethereal voice and a deep spirituality that connects with ancestral musical traditions.

Gerrard is best known for her vocal work with the group Dead Can Dance, but her contribution to the world of cinema has been equally influential. Her voice, also singing in an invented language, has become one of the most recognizable textures in contemporary epic cinema.

Reflection
The Gladiator soundtrack is almost automatically associated with Hans Zimmer. And rightly so: his musical signature is clearly present. But the emotional dimension of the music—the sense of spirituality, melancholy, and transcendence—is profoundly marked by Gerrard’s voice and compositional sensitivity. It is a clear example of how media narratives tend to oversimplify the authorship of a complex work.

Conclusion

There are many other female composers who have built the soundscape of contemporary audiovisual media: Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, Chernobyl), Pinar Toprak (Captain Marvel), Natalie Holt (Loki, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Sarah Schachner (Assassin's Creed Origins), Jessica Curry (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther), Michiru Oshima (Fullmetal Alchemist), Michiru Yamane (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Suikoden), Lena Raine (Celeste, Minecraft), Laura Shigihara (Plants vs. Zombies), among many others.

The point isn't to replace one set of names with another or to construct a new canon. The point is to listen more carefully.

For decades, we have learned to identify certain music with certain names. But when we start looking closer, we discover that the history of audiovisual music is much richer, more complex, and more collaborative than we usually imagine.

As a musician, and as a listener, recognizing these influences is also a way of better understanding where our work comes from. Because the music that moves us is not just composed—it is inherited. And often, that heritage has a woman's name.