Ok. I'm going to try and say this nicely.

I'm tired of people dissing John Williams.

This is not a new thing. I know you've heard somebody do it. You might have even done it yourself. The typical argument runs something like this:

"John Williams is a thief. He steals all of his material from other (read: legitimate) composers. His music is all neo-romantic fluff. It's too bad that people think he is such a good composer."

Now, I'll be the first to say I'm no fanboy of Mr Williams, and I fully realize that the inspiration for much of his work comes from the classical and romantic canon. But there is NO WAY I'm going to let somebody sit there and put down one of the greatest composers in the history of music (yeah, you read that right). In case you aren't convinced, check the link above, and this one. And tell me you can't hum the music from 90% of the movies listed.

That is what every composer dreams of. Case closed.

There are some who like to point out that Williams only sketches the themes and other people under him do the orchestration. Well, that's the way the industry works, and every film composer does this - Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, everybody. You'll be glad to know that Williams paid his dues as a staff arranger and orchestrator for many years at Columbia and 20th Century Fox, while I've heard several times over the years that Danny Elfman can't even read music. (I don't know if it's true or not, and I don't think it makes any difference, but people who make fun of John Williams apparently do.) So although Williams doesn't score his own work anymore, you better believe he could if he wanted to.

Here are some statistics in case you still aren't convinced:

Oscar nominations = 41 (Wins = 5)
Gold and Platinum records = 20+
Grammy nominations = 26 (Wins = 18)
Emmy nominations = 4 (Wins = 2)
Golden Globe nominations = 21 (Wins = 3)

Remember, kids: John Williams owns you!