“I never really liked film music very much,” John Williams was quoted as saying in an interview for a new biography.
Those words were enough to spark a small media storm. But what did the legendary American composer actually mean? Could the man behind our favorite movie soundtracks — the one who, for many of us, defined what film music even is — really not like the genre he helped elevate?

t all began with an article carrying a headline tailor-made to go viral:
“Composer John Williams says he ‘never liked film music very much’”, written by Dalya Alberge and published on August 24 in The Guardian.

For many readers, those words were nothing short of shocking — especially for those whose love of film scores started with Williams’ own music.
How could the greatest film composer of all time claim not to like film music?
To some, it sounded as absurd as if Robert Lewandowski said he didn’t like football, Lewis Hamilton admitted he wasn’t into racing, Gordon Ramsay confessed he hated cooking, or Pedro Pascal revealed he disliked acting — and moustaches.

But before jumping to conclusions based on a click-worthy headline, let’s take a closer look at the article that briefly “shook” the world of film music.

First, an important clarification: John Williams never gave The Guardian a direct interview in which he criticized film music.
That distinction matters, because many media outlets — including Poland’s Radio Zet — repeated the false claim, implying that Williams had nothing better to do than show up in the press to publicly trash the very art form to which he devoted his life.

The now-famous quote actually comes from an interview Williams gave to Tim Greiving for his book John Williams: A Composer’s Life, recently published by Oxford University Press.
In her Guardian piece, Dalya Alberge cherry-picked some of the juiciest lines from that conversation — and from the book itself.
However, she didn’t just pull the “I never liked film music very much” soundbite. She also included the wider context of his remarks:

“I never liked film music very much,” Williams admits in a rare interview.
“Film music — while sometimes good (though usually it’s not), except for maybe eight minutes here or there — doesn’t really exist as a complete form in my view.
What we think of as this precious, great body of film music… we remember it in a sort of nostalgic way.”

He continued:

“The very idea that film music belongs in the concert hall alongside the great works of the classical canon is, I think, a mistaken assumption.”

Later in the same interview, Williams elaborated:

“Much of [film music] is ephemeral. It’s certainly fragmentary, and unless someone arranges it properly, you can’t even really call it a concert piece.”

The author of the biography, Tim Greiving, later commented on those remarks himself.
He admitted that Williams’ position on film music had caught him off guard:

“His comments are quite shocking and not the product of false modesty.
He’s genuinely self-critical — and equally critical of film music as a form.
He even said that the most prestigious assignments he ever had were, to him, ‘just jobs to be done.’”

But Greiving quickly added an important caveat:

“I don’t think we should take his words literally.
He approached the craft of film scoring more seriously than anyone in history.”

Greiving continued, explaining that Williams has always maintained a certain distance from film music:

“He sees it as functional music — which is funny, because I view his scores as high art.
It’s not false humility; he genuinely considers film music to be a lesser form.
And, to be fair, that’s often true — it’s created quickly, with limited resources.
But his work defies that rule. He perfected the art of film scoring.
He elevated it — turned it into something noble, refined, and enduring.”

Despite the global acclaim, John Williams remains his own toughest critic.
He once told Greiving:

“If I could do it all over again, I’d aim for more unity — for my film and concert music to feel more like mine, whatever that means.
But that never really happened. Film music was simply a job to be done, or an opportunity to seize.”

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The Guardian article also mentioned the upcoming book and offered a few biographical details — Williams’ lifelong collaboration with Steven Spielberg, his iconic scores, and his countless awards.
But what truly stood out was that headline.
“I never liked film music very much.”

And it didn’t take long for that one quote to circle the globe.
Soon, respected outlets like Variety, Classic FM, The Telegraph, Germany’s Der Spiegel, and even Radio Zet jumped on the bandwagon — all running nearly identical headlines:
“John Williams doesn’t like film music.” 

Within days, the situation had spiraled so far that Tim Greiving himself decided to step in.
On August 27, The Hollywood Reporter published his response piece, aptly titled:
“Does John Williams Really Dislike Film Music? It’s More Complicated Than That.”

The article served as both clarification and damage control — a public attempt to put the “non-scandal” into proper perspective.

Greiving wrote that he was astonished by how widely The Guardian piece had spread online — and how other outlets ran with the quote, often without reading the full context.
He called the use of that provocative line “unfair” to a man like John Williams, making him appear ungrateful or dismissive toward his own life’s work.

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Williams did indeed tell him, “I never liked film music very much,” Greiving confirmed.
But, he explained, that statement came during one of roughly twenty interviews they conducted over 18 months. In that particular conversation, Williams was talking about the difficulty of performing film music in concert halls.

Back when he served as music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra (from 1980 to 1993), Williams struggled with creating concert programs based on film scores.
The challenge, Greiving said, was that film cues are often written as short, functional pieces — designed to fit a scene, not to stand alone.

There’s nothing controversial about that point, he argued. Williams was simply being realistic.
Film music is written to serve the film. It’s made up of fragments, often without a clear beginning or end.
To perform it on stage — or even to release it on an album — it must be rearranged, often as a suite.

Compared to classical music, Williams said, film scores are always at a disadvantage: they must use simpler language, fewer colors, and less complexity. Their job is to support dialogue and sound effects, not to compete with them. Film music is subservient to editing decisions and the director’s vision — whereas concert music exists for its own sake, free to move at its own pace and dazzle with its structure, technique, and sheer beauty.

But Tim Greiving didn’t stop there. His Hollywood Reporter article was long, thoughtful, and clearly written with care — you could tell he genuinely wanted to set the record straight.

He stressed that John Williams never said he wasn’t proud of his work, nor did he ever express regret about dedicating his life to film scoring. Like many true artists, Williams has his moments of doubt and self-criticism. He doesn’t think of himself as a genius, and he often feels he could have done things better.

He also told Greiving that he doesn’t usually watch the films he’s scored for pleasure — he doesn’t like looking back. But he’s deeply aware of how much his music means to people around the world, how audiences feel a genuine, emotional bond with it. And he responds to that love with gratitude and humility.

As Greiving pointed out, if John Williams really disliked film music, he wouldn’t still be composing it in his nineties — or performing it live in sold-out concert halls across the globe.
That alone, he argued, proves how deeply Williams values the art form, even if he sees it as distinct from the classical tradition. And if you read the book closely, you’ll also come across this passage (photo below)

Greiving also addressed another rumor that had begun to spread — that Williams had supposedly criticized modern film music. That, too, he said, was false.

If anything, Williams was speaking about film music from several decades ago, particularly the era when he led the Boston Pops. Even then, his remarks were general, not dismissive.
He never said anything along the lines of “everything today is bad.” In fact, as Greiving recalled, Williams rarely comments on current trends at all — simply because he doesn’t listen to modern film scores or watch many new movies.

Still, whenever the topic came up, Williams had nothing but optimism for the next generation of composers.
He believed that film music had a bright future and that new artists could take it in surprising, exciting directions.

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In the latter part of his article, Greiving offered something that journalists rarely do these days — a heartfelt apology. He said he was deeply sorry for all the confusion and noise that had come out of The Guardian’s article, and for the misleading impression it left behind.
He didn’t want John Williams to be seen as a cranky old man who looked down on his own career.

Quite the opposite, Greiving wrote: Williams is “one of the most brilliant, kind, and cheerful people I’ve ever met.”He’s polite, humble, full of grace — and he never speaks ill of others.
It would genuinely sadden and annoy him to know that his words had been taken out of context.

And, of course, Greiving couldn’t resist a gentle bit of self-promotion — inviting readers to check out his book, which, he promised, paints a much more complete and nuanced portrait of John Williams than a cherry-picked quote ever could.

The “Scandal” That Never Was

You don’t even need a deep analysis to see how wildly exaggerated this entire “controversy” was.
In truth, it was a non-story — a case of sensationalism winning over substance. Saying that classical music holds a higher artistic value than film music isn’t exactly revolutionary.Most film composers would probably agree. Yes, film music has become a beloved concert phenomenon in recent years, filling arenas and symphony halls worldwide. But no one disputes that performing it outside the cinematic context is a tricky business.

And how many debates have we already seen about whether film clips should be played behind the orchestra during such concerts? (John Williams, like Hans Zimmer, prefers not to.)

The real issue, though, lies in how today’s media works. Headlines drive clicks — and nuance doesn’t.
A story titled “John Williams discusses the challenges of adapting film scores for concert performance” simply wouldn’t spread as fast as “John Williams: I Never Liked Film Music.”

It’s an unfortunate but familiar truth of our digital age: provocation sells, context doesn’t.

And, inevitably, some readers were disappointed that Williams hadn’t actually criticized the state of modern film music. Imagine the online traffic if the headline had read:
“John Williams Blames Hans Zimmer for the Decline of Modern Film Scoring.” (Let’s hope no one tries to run with that one.)

Instead, what we actually got were Williams’ thoughtful, measured, and utterly gentlemanly reflections — words full of class and dignity, but far less explosive than scandal and gossip.

So no, there was no real drama here — only a misunderstood remark turned into a clickbait firestorm.
And sadly, it’s unlikely that anyone will learn much from it.
Because the quiet truth will always attract fewer readers than the loud headline screaming:

“Shock and Outrage! John Williams Hates Film Music — and Blames Hans Zimmer!”