Is video game music considered “real music” to you?

Question

tiffany_g · Accepted Answer

Absolutely. If you take the stage 3 music of the NES port of Sky Shark (or Flying Shark to the Japanese and Europeans), convert it from pulse waves, a triangle wave, and noise pulses to trumpets, clarinets (sounds like clarinets to me, but no telling what instrument the composer was trying to emulate), an electric guitar, and percussion it wouldn't be out of place at all in an 80s action movie.

There is music from Legacy of the Wizard, a mid-80s NES game, that actually has me looking into the logistics of licensing so I can extend it and incorporate it into one of my works.

Actual pop singers provided music for Final Fantasies 8, 9, and X2 (that's the letter x, I refuse to call it 10 2). A Japanese metal band provided the music for the second to last boss fight for X. And those are the confirmed cases. I'm not even going to get into the rumors about Michael Jackson and Sonic 3.

If you're in a music store testing the synthesizers and you use Final Fantasy 6's Dancing Mad as a test piece, no matter how simplified, as long as you hit the right notes you'll get a crowd around you as though it's an impromptu concert. People who don't recognize it are blown away to find out that it came from an early 90s video game.

When video game music became more than just intro jingles (such as at the start of a Donkey Kong or Pac Man level) if care was put into it it had all of the structure of "real" music. There were exceptions, cash grab games rushed to market where the "music" was just a short loop of a public domain song, but when studios actually cared about the music you could identify genres, you could often figure out what instrument they were trying to emulate, there were verses, choruses, and if space allowed for it, even bridges.

I wasn't familiar with calypso music in the 1980s (too young to care about genre, I either liked it or I didn't like it), but I could tell that Super Mario Brothers' overworld theme was in the same style of the Harry Belefonte songs I couldn't escape as a child. The music of the TMNT games, particularly after the first one, was designed to capture the feel of the Saturday morning cartoon show that they tied into.

Video game music got a bad rap because of hardware limitations and poor programming. You had 4 monophonic melodic channels, a noise channel, and a very limited sample player on the NES. Those same four channels also had to be used for sound effects, so part of the music would have to cut out any time you did anything that made a sound.

Wendy Carlos faced the same monophonic limitations using "primitive" wave forms (although she had access to one the NES didn't, i. e. the sawtooth) when recording Switched-On Bach, but she was able to overcome it by multitracking so she had as many "channels" as she needed. And no one would argue that Switched-On Bach isn't music. Purists who think Baroque music should be performed on period appropriate instruments might argue it's not good music, but they still acknowledge that it's music.

The sound instructions also took up space that had to be allocated between multiple departments. If a lot of that space went to huge worlds with a lot of moving things and a lot of stats to track space for music had to take a cut. That's why Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest rarely had background music longer than 8 measures that repeat. Two of the songs are longer, but they rely on repetition to pad things out. The 12 measure town theme only has 10 unique measures with 2 of them repeated. The 16 measure throne room music only has 14 unique measures.

And the arcade further damaged things. Most machines used FM synthesis. Poorly programed FM synthesis. You could make out all of the parts, but it sounded horrible. That one can't be entirely blamed on hardware limitations, because while you didn't have the fine control over each operator that a high end synth would give you, it's clear that they just cranked the modulator operator to max and relied on the frequency to give it the characteristic of the instrument they were emulating.

In other words, I could turn on my DX7, a staple of 80s music, and come up with patches that sound as bad as the arcades. In the same vein, I could open up a program that emulates the most common FM chips used in the arcade machines and make them sound much better than the developers bothered to. Poor sound design just made them sound like garbage.

But I think the biggest part of it is the dismissal of games altogether. The same people who say video game music isn't music are the same people who say that games have absolutely no artistic merits when in reality they combine several artistic disciplines.

JoahZ10nT · Accepted Answer

It’s music because it has instrumental beats. I have a nephew that likes and enjoy that type of music. I personally, like songs with lyrics. But I think that music is for gamers and brings good memories or calm them I don't know.

DryGermanGuy · Accepted Answer

There are absolutely fantastic game music scores out there, always have been. Just on top of my head, Indiana Jones 4, Unreal or HALO.

GuyAnswersGirls123 · Accepted Answer

Video game and film and television soundtracks make up a lot of my favorite music. I think they're fantastic. Take this one for example from the Banner Saga (gets exciting around the minute mark for the impatient):

Sonorous · Answer

I'm not a gamer myself but I mean I'll like it if it's good music. Here are some examples of video game music I like:

Sirenboobzilla · Answer

"Blood upon the Snow" by Bear McCreary and Hozier from God of War: Ragnarok is one of the best songs made for a video game that I've heard in recent years. Hell, whole GOW series has beautifully composed music. Sky: Children of Light is another one.

A good bit of the video game experience is the soundtrack. Can 100% guarantee that Halo wouldn't be as popular if it weren't for the one singular theme.

AaronKrieger · Answer

Why wouldn't it be? It is composed like other forms of music for the radio, a movie, or TV show.  Here are examples if someone happens to believe they are not:

OfDeath · Answer

It’s real music but it is designed to serve a particular purpose. It isn’t really made to be played in concert or danced to in a club. Despite the fact that some of it may well work very will in those settings, the idea is actually to assist projecting a certain atmosphere for the game.

Nikki1989 · Answer

It is sad the people can't tell the difference between computer generated music and real music played by real musicians. Of course, it is NOT real music, but most modern music is fake these days.

Smashingdoozy · Answer

There's no such thing as fake music. Someone put time and effort into making that music therefore all music is real. You not liking it doesn't mean its inferior in any way

strateguy632 · Answer

it has melody and rhythm. it is real music and realer music than jazz and hip hop category.

Dargil · Answer

Stewart Copeland, who did the Equalizer TV Series instrumental music and the Wall Street soundtrack made and still makes video game music.

Noodle_fan · Answer

sure , some of em feels pretty nostalgic to me

DarkLegacy · Answer

Oh yes, the music really makes the game. I sometimes just listen to the sound tracks of computer game music.

andreasderjuengere · Answer

Any game I play has the "music" muted. It's garbage ballast to me.

Ms_Facesitter · Answer

It's vocals or instruments used in harmony to express what's happening? is music to me.

Unit1 · Answer

Yes. Some of them are pretty dope at producing music.

Dnice1 · Answer

Yes it is and it's quite beautiful too. It's my favorite music to listen to.

verylovelyguy · Answer

from late 90s to early 2000s it became real music

DextroShade · Answer

Yes, sometimes they will have actual orchestras do the music for games.

boggboss · Answer

Yes why wouldn't it be

NathanDavis · Answer

yes... I'm not a snob

wiltingrosepetal · Answer

If FNAF music isn't real, I don't know what is 🥲

TheSpaceGnome · Answer

More than any other form of music.

Astarlessnightsky · Answer

Sure.

laly520 · Answer

it is

DagonbroughtMehere · Answer

Yes.

shortster · Answer

Of course

Is video game music considered “real music” to you?

Most Helpful Opinions

What Girls & Guys Said

Is video game music considered “real music” to you?

Most Helpful Opinions

What Girls & Guys Said

We're glad to see you liked this post.