Nicholas Britell — Succession (Main Title Theme)

The waltzing piano-and-hip-hop motif that opened every episode of HBO's Roy-family saga is back across the global charts today, appearing on 129 country and platform charts after a brief absence. Composed by Nicholas Britell for Succession, the theme fuses classical strings with a lurching, off-kilter beat — a sound built to mirror the show's dynastic absurdity, and one that won Britell the Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music in 2019, per Tunefind. It remains one of the rare prestige-TV cues to migrate from opening-credits furniture into standalone listening, spawning a Pusha T remix that added rap vocals over the original arrangement. Britell has since scored Andor, but this broken, imperial waltz endures as his most recognizable television work — and its return to broad rotation continues a pattern common to sync-driven instrumentals whose lives outlast their shows.