John Carpenter

USA, 1974–now

American filmmaker and composer (b. 1948) who scored most of his own films because the budgets allowed nothing else. The stalking 5/4 piano figure of Halloween (1978) and the analogue-synth pulse of Assault on Precinct 13, Escape from New York and The Thing became the grammar every later synthwave record works from; since 2015 he has released the Lost Themes albums as standalone music.

MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced John Carpenter and 1 artist John Carpenter influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced John Carpenter?

• Ennio Morricone — Morricone is the composer Carpenter reaches for first; he calls the Once Upon a Time in the West score one of the great ones, and hired Morricone himself for The Thing.
• Tangerine Dream — Carpenter has called Tangerine Dream's Sorcerer score a huge influence on his own music — the model for scoring a film with sequenced synthesizers rather than an orchestra.

Which artists did John Carpenter influence?

• Kavinsky — Kavinsky's whole sound is built on Carpenter's film scores, and the OutRun album took Carpenter's Christine — the car that is alive — as part of its concept.