In Memoriam: Mark Snow, Beloved Composer of The X-Files, Blue Bloods

The ASCAP community mourns the loss of Mark Snow, a giant of TV and film music for more than 40 years. Snow was an ASCAP member since 1974.

This prolific composer was best known for his scores and themes for television series like The X-Files, Blue Bloods, Ghost Whisperer, Elementary, Smallville, One Tree Hill, Kojak, Millennium, Starsky and Hutch and Hart to Hart. Mark’s iconic theme for The X-Files became a top 10 hit across Europe in 1996, and has been recorded by artists in almost every musical genre, from pop to country, hip-hop to heavy metal, punk to jazz.

“Mark Snow’s music has accompanied many of our favorite TV moments of the past 50 years,” said ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams. “He was a sculptor of mood and texture, and a pioneer of using the synthesizer as an expressive tool. Mark was also one of the most generous composers in the industry, always willing to lend his advice and expert feedback to young composers. His music and his kindness have touched so many of our lives. He will be missed.”

A Brooklyn native, Snow attended New York's Art and Music High School where he befriended the composer Michael Kamen. The pair attended Juilliard as roommates, and formed the baroque pop/rock band New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, which signed to Atlantic in the late ‘60s. After five years with the band, Snow relocated to Los Angeles and embarked on his film/TV music career.

While he trained as an orchestral composer, Snow was an early proponent of the potential of electronic synthesizers – as evidenced in the evocative theme and moody underscore for The X-Files. Snow was capable of a bewildering variety of sounds, textures and moods – whatever the project called for, he adapted to its needs.

Starting with the police procedural The Rookies in the mid-1970s, Snow shaped the sound of television for half a century. He contributed to some 50 TV series and 100+ TV films, netting 16 Emmy nominations in the process for his work on The X-Files, Ghost Whisperer, Helter Skelter, Children of the Dust, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and Something about Amelia. 

He also composed music for more than 25 feature films, including the scores to both X-Files movies, and the last four movies by the iconic French director, Alain Resnais: Private Fears in Public Places, Wild Grass, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet and Life of Riley.

Snow was a veteran award winner at the ASCAP Screen Music Awards. He earned 57 ASCAP awards between 1986 and 2025, plus the prestigious ASCAP Golden Note Award in 2005.

In addition to his composing work, Mark was well known for his generous mentorship of up-and-coming composers. He helped secure scoring gigs for several of the biggest names in TV music, early on in their careers, and in 2018 partnered with The ASCAP Foundation to establish a lecture series for aspiring film/TV composers and film students at Brooklyn College. Mark was a frequent mentor at ASCAP’s film scoring workshops in Los Angeles and at NYU, as well.

Mark Snow’s music, and his commitment to paying it forward, will continue to be an inspiration to the composer community.