Jaws was
John Williams' first film score to capture the imagination of the public, and the first hit movie score of the 1970s not to involve a love theme (à la Love Story). The obvious centerpiece of the music is the bump-bump-bump-bump theme associated with the movements (usually unseen) of the shark, which became so well known that it was used as an essential part of various comedy sketches in a multitude of media at the time (
Williams himself quoted it comically in his scoring for Steven Spielberg's 1941). It does reappear in numerous forms, many of them veiled, throughout the score, along with a handful of additional memorable musical phrases associated with
Williams' score, many involving the hunt for the shark. This was not only where
John Williams' career as a superstar soundtrack composer began but also where he first started using the musical attributes that would identify that phase of his career. ~ Bruce Eder