Above: Anamanaguchi plays live (Source)
When it comes to my tastes in music, I owe a good deal to video game soundtracks. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 introduced me to Rage Against the Machine's The Battle of Los Angeles, my first CD. Guitar Hero 2 sparked my interest in heavier, more instrumental music, leading me to listen to bands like Lamb of God and Every Time I Die. Rock Band made me want to make music, and played a huge part in me teaching myself how to play drums. This isn't exactly the music I think of when I think of video game music, however. I think of something like Anamanaguchi or Metroid Metal. Often, I think of songs with a structure not seen in "regular" music. I hear wildly creative sound effects, songs that can be played endlessly on loop, set an atmosphere, or even just get my blood pumping on a slow morning. The fun thing is, most of this music isn't even in any games. So why is it still video game music? Let's talk about that.
Thanks to a recent Did You Know Gaming post, I learned that the composer for a number of Mario games would listen to his music for hours on end to see if he got sick of hearing it. This fascinated me, because I found it to be true for many of my favorite games. Take Metroid: Zero Mission, for instance. As someone who's played that game more times than I can count, I still love every bit of that soundtrack. Hearing it brings me back to that world, every time. I can't help but think of the first time I explored the depths of Brinstar - the "aha" moments when I destroyed hidden blocks, the satisfaction of eventually knowing the map by memory. Now take that music, and listen to it played on an acoustic guitar, or even covered in the style of a metal song. Even outside the context of the game, I find this music to be lovely to listen to, yet I doubt anything like it would have existed without it originally being in the context of a video game. Something about this repetitive, atmosphere-building music is more engaging to me than any alt rock song on the radio can be.
Also, these guys sent a slice of pizza into space for a music video. Just saying.
So game music can stand on its own when pulled from its source, but like I said earlier, it doesn't have to actually be in a game to be considered video game music. Take chiptune, for example. At it's heart, chiptune is music made out of the bleeps and bloops we all remember from our youth, using old consoles like the NES and Game Boy as instruments. Anamanaguchi is probably one of the most well known artists in the genre. Ignoring the fact that they are using video game consoles to create their music, there's still something distinctly gamey in their writing approach. I don't think we could ever see a song like Airbrushed exist without first having experiencing the infectious catchiness of the Super Mario Bros theme. Matter of fact, these guys are so well known for capturing the essence of classic game music that they did the entire soundtrack to the Scott Pilgrim vs the World video game. How's that for full circle?
Taking one further step away from video games, we have Infinity Shred. These guys use chiptune in a way that doesn't sound like it came from a game console at all. To quote one of their Bandcamp reviews, they sound like "a chiptune version of Explosions in the Sky." What you end up getting is progressive, spacey, video game-inspired music that simultaneously relaxes and sends a chill down your spine. This and much other game music can be considered to be in the progressive genre, meaning that they abandon the usual verse-chorus format in favor of more complex arrangements. This makes every song a trip that begins one place and takes us to another, solely using a constantly changing soundscape.
Which brings me to my next artist, The Protomen. While Metroid Metal takes existing music and converts it to metal, and Anamanaguchi and Infinity Shred turn old consoles into instruments, The Protomen create epic tales out of Mega Man lore. When performing live, they dress in matching outfits and accompany those tales with dystopian versions of our favorite Mega Man characters. To a casual listener, they probably wouldn't know these guys were writing songs about a video game at all. Some of their songs even sound like they came straight out of an 80's pop album. It's the kind of strange but epic show you can really only get out of gamers, which is definitely a positive thing.
Video game music definitely doesn't end here. Sadly, even amongst gamers I find that few people do listen to it. Not because it's bad, either - they just haven't heard it yet! I've actually seen all of the bands mentioned above live, which is actually where I heard both The Protomen and Infinity Shred for the first time. Video game music is just as varied as any other music: MC Frontalot and Starbomb rap about video games, Powerglove is video game power metal, and the list goes on. Let's not also forget Danny Baronowsky, Disasterpeace and Alec Holowka, three excellent game composers. My favorite genre is still by and large chiptune, and I'd recommend anyone looking to get into the genre to listen to Chipzel, as well as SoulEye's VVVVVV soundtrack. There's a lot of talented, amazing artists out there who unfortunately don't get enough attention due to the nature of the internet. If you're at all interested in discovering new music, I hope you spend some time discovering some artists of your own!
