Comics/Graphic Novels

The Music of Star Wars

Swapna Krishna

Staff Writer

Swapna is the Comics Editor at Book Riot. She's a Space Columnist for Paste Magazine and writes for Syfy Wire—Fangrrls, Tor.com, Bustle, and other sites. She co-hosts a podcast called Desi Geek Girls. You can find her incessant ramblings on Twitter at @skrishna. She lives outside Philadelphia.

I love Star Wars. If you don’t know that by now, you are probably new to Panels (HI, welcome! Feel free to poke around!) One of the aspects of the franchise I love most is its music. That’s unsurprising, because John Williams is a musical genius—you might say that the music is the part of the franchise I like best because I do genuinely love the soundtracks of the prequels. (They’ve grown on me in recent years. I will never LOVE them, but I’ll watch them without cringing. Well, except when Anakin talks about sand. That will never not be painful.)

The music is amazing as just that—music—but it’s also incredible how much a single track, a few notes, can evoke the feelings of an entire scene of the movie. All of the soundtracks (I know The Force Awakens soundtrack has gotten panned by some critics, and it’s totally okay if you don’t love it, but I do) have a special place in my heart and have become a sort of comfort music, a place I turn when I’m down about something

With that in mind, I’ve put together a little playlist of some of the most iconic Star Wars tracks. This isn’t comprehensive—if you want that, listen to each of the soundtracks individually! They’re amazing and available to stream on Spotify. And if I left your favorite track off this playlist, feel free to suggest it to readers in the comments. I’d love to know what your favorites are.