by Joseph Carlson
I've played games for a very long time. Before I got the NES for Christmas I played games on the Atari 2600. I moved on to bigger consoles with bigger memory and different media, like cartridges and then onto CD's. The music back then got stuck in my head and every time I listen to it or hear it on a YouTube video I am instantly brought back to those times when I spent hours in my basement playing games.
Today there is more sophisticated music in games then any other time in history. You can use full orchestras in games now. It's pretty amazing when you think about it. One thing hit me the other day; it seems like my taste in video game music and music that I listen to outside of games seem to align more and more now. It seems like my hobby of games and music has crashed together in my life.
I hope that doesn't sound like a complaint. I love it. I have started downloading albums from my favorite games more and more and listen to them outside of when I play the games. The Last of Us, The Division, and No Man's Sky(at least selected pieces that have gone online for the last one) are almost on my permanent playlist on various audio services.
It's weird to think you grew up with games that the music is also a part of that. I know, everything in an industry changes over time. It's just hit me the other day that music in games seems to speak to me in the same way that music spoke to me when I was 13 or 14. During that time a lot of people go through changes in their lives and most of the time their musical tastes get cemented in this time frame.
It seems like now though, that the game music I am hearing is having the same effect on me as music did back then. I identify with it and it makes me look at life experiences in a different way. I hope this trend continues and now when I wait for a games release I am going to pay more attention to the music that is promoted along with the game.
Let me know what you think of game music in the comments below.