Why am I so obessed with video game music?

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Something else thats kinda funny, its pretty evident that lots of people see something in it. There's an older track by Freaky Flow called Myst or Mist, something like that, the melody sounded real familiar and real MIDI'ish, I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Turns out my roommates decided to break out Zelda for Super NES, a game I never really had the chance to play as a kid and yeah, that's what the sample's from. I can't diss producers doing that either just because, when your talking about the classic games they put a lot of effort into injecting a lot of mood into the graphics, storyboard, and the music was probably the strongest component of that - being mood is the basis of good music for a lot of people it shouldn't defy reason too much.

It's pretty silly to criticise old video game music simply because they were typically short midi loops. Isn't most popular music today similar, in that you have looping versus and choruses?

Oh yeah, and Final Fantasy music rocks, btw. Well not so much with the newer ones, but FFVIII (which was fairly recent) was decent, although not as good as FFVI. Although I'm probably biased since I liked FFVI the most out of the series. Probably the best piece of music I can think of that came out of the series were the FFVII and FFVI overworld themes, and the FFVIII main theme.

Other notable soundtracks I can think of off the top of my head (older games) are Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Super Metroid, and Donkey Kong Country 2 & 3. Also, while it wasn't something anyone would actually listen to outside of the game, Clock Tower's music worked very well with the game's atmosphere. Anyone who has ever had to run away from the scissor-man in that game knows what I'm talking about.

Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) does some great music, he's got a real talent for creating themes and emotional auras. Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor) also does some great scores that comliment the atmosphere of the games brilliantly. Anyone who thinks video games music is simple needs to get their ears tested, even the old sonic themes had a good tune to em, they did their job. Classical themes were concieved often to acompany a particular opera or play, to compliment the visual, much as movie and video games music is. The question is, can you listen to a video game track and STILL visualise the scene, the atmosphere or the emotions that piece is conveying? If so, then it's done it's job. And most of the good composers can do that.

Oh and if anyone is actually interested, you can download original game music soundtracks at http://www.zophar.net/music.html and spiffy remixes at http://www.ocremix.org .

Anyone like any of the American or European Video game soundtracks? Ultima, Daggerfall, Total Annihilation... anything by Jeremy Soule?

My friend sent me some of the Secret Of Mana harp arrangements, very nice. Not overly impressed with the Final Fantasy ones though, perhaps I've not heard the best ones.

I seem to remember the original Blood Omen had an awesome soundtrack for a game nearly 10 years old, that was done by a Canadian company...

Oh yeah, Total Annihilation had a great soundtrack. Although the quieter low-key tracks weren't as good as the loud bombastic ones. They didn't really fit the style of the game since 90% of the time you were trying to kill everyone.

Also, since you reminded me of RTS games, I remember the game Command and Conquer had a pretty funky soundtrack.

And another couple I should've definitely remembered - Jet Force Gemini and Zelda for the N64.