Taxi Driver was released in 1976, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a restless cab driver in New York City. Its main title became one of the most recognisable pieces of film music from the era because it captures the city at night in a few notes. Online, the excerpt spread through soundboards and edit communities as a shorthand for loneliness, obsession and late-night cruising, and creators still reuse it whenever a scene needs instant cinematic weight without dialogue.