The Williams Effect

John Williams's scores for Star Wars, Jaws, and Indiana Jones proved that a melody can define a film's identity more powerfully than its visuals. Audiences recognize the Raiders March or the Superman fanfare instantly, and those few bars summon an entire character — heroism, adventure, and momentum — before a frame of footage plays.

A single theme can follow a character across decades and multiple films. The Imperial March does not merely accompany Vader on screen — over six movies it fuses with him so completely that the music alone can stand in for the character, carrying his menace into stories where he never appears.