Evolution of music in videogames

[Dancso]

I found myself frequently listening to soundtracks of videogames from my childhood and thought "why don't games of today have absolute bangers like this?"
Thinking back to recent games I've played, only a handful of them seem to have anything memorable, whereas most of the ones I grew up on seem to be so catchy. I wondered, surely it's not ALL nostalgia and being impressionable at a young age? Musicians certainly haven't gotten less talented, less able, or less available.

One thing is for sure - as the budget of games grew and sampled music became available, games could offer more than a simple level of stimulation with their music, such as building immersion.

People like to praise Doom 2016's music but i personally thought it was built for quick effect, rather than being memorable. (they're not proper tracks anyway, just segments)
That being said, the soundtrack of FTL: Faster Than Light is one of the "more recent" ones that have caught my attention as much as my beloved classics did, so it's not a lost art by any means.

I feel there may be more to this, so I'd like to know what you all think is behind this cultural shift? (if there even is one) Am I imagining this?

[Enjay]

I have little to add in the understanding of "why" but I thought the Amiga game Battle Squadron had amazing music "back in the day" (which in this case was 1989).

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I have to say, that I always rated the music from the original Doom very highly. In comparison, even Doom2 was disappointing in that regard IMO.

[RiboNucleic Asshat]

I'm unsure of the exact reason for it, but there is definitely a noticeable shift. It's not even a relatively knew phenomenon, either; Compare the soundtracks of Super Turrican and Super Turrican 2. Both are by the same composer, both are for the same series, yet the soundtrack of the first is catchy and memorable, while the soundtrack for the second is... significantly less so.

For comparison, level 1 in both games:

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Now, that's not to say that Super Turrican 2 has a *bad* soundtrack. It complements the gameplay well, and sets a proper mood. But it loses the upbeat energy of the first game's music in favor of a more "cinematic" approach.

[Chris]

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say it's because fewer games today rely on strong melodies. They'd often be the centerpiece of the stage, not something to just sit in the background while you play. Some games today do rather well, but it does seem many games are fine with, or even expect, you to turn down/off the music and not lose much.

[SouthernLion]

Portal and Portal 2 had some pretty memorable music scores for me.

[Arctangent]

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say it's because fewer games today rely on strong melodies. They'd often be the centerpiece of the stage, not something to just sit in the background while you play. Some games today do rather well, but it does seem many games are fine with, or even expect, you to turn down/off the music and not lose much.

I would say it's mainly just this. Older games didn't really have the luxury of doing more orchestral or heavily ambient music due to the limitations of sound hardware of the time, so they were often left with relying on more straightforward music with strong melodies - which would also often save a lot on space, given that you could usually easily loop such tracks and keep them actually pretty short.

It's always worth keeping in mind that there's more games where the music often is just relegated to ambiance and game cues, whereas a lot of older ambient tracks was still very much normal music. This style doesn't really need to be memorable, and in fact might work better when it's not, because it's meant to hit the player in the back of their mind to invoke a certain emotion or inform them that something is happening. An amazing composer could likely still make a memorable soundtrack that still serves this purpose, but that leads to something else worth remembering:

The ratio of high skilled composers to video games quantity is just dramatically different than it was a few years ago. The best of the best just can't be used for every project, both because they'd be stretched too thin and stuff like them costing too much or being bound by company contracts or something for others to call upon their talents. Not to mention that modern video game music can be a lot more complicated - entire orchestras have to be gathered and prepared for some games. So, not only are there a lot less composers available for each individual game, but they might not even be familiar with the style of music the game calls for.

Even still, I can't remotely agree with thought that only handfuls of modern games have memorable music. Practically anything from Nintendo, Sega, Square-Enix, Blizzard, and Valve still amazes to this day, and Oblivion and Minecraft have wonderful atmospheric soundtracks that always get me emotional. You could play the Halo theme at random and a ton of people will instantly recognize it. Play the slightest bit of a MapleStory track and you'll hit many people right in the nostalgia. Civilization IV's main theme has won a Grammy, and while it mostly uses songs straight from the culture you're playing as, they're still amazing renditions of them, especially considering they're just meant to play in the background as you go about managing your nation. Even smaller indie titles, like Nuclear Throne and Rivals of Aether, just have fantastic songs that refuse to leave your head.

Video game music is still amazing, there's just a lot more of it now and Sturgeon's law applies in full force.

[Enjay]

It's always worth keeping in mind that there's more games where the music often is just relegated to ambiance and game cues, whereas a lot of older ambient tracks was still very much normal music. This style doesn't really need to be memorable, and in fact might work better when it's not, because it's meant to hit the player in the back of their mind to invoke a certain emotion or inform them that something is happening.

Half -life was one of the first games where I sort of spotted that. I'd kind of got used to ripping game music and listening to it. Quake basically came with a free NIN album. But when I pulled the music out of Half-life, I was surprised how many of the tracks were really quite short and just used for cues. I'm not saying it was a bad soundtrack or anything (in fact, I thought it was very effective) but it was one of the earlier examples of what you are talking about I think.

[wildweasel]

Quite a lot of modern games have amazing soundtracks worth listening to - just gotta know where to look. A recent favorite of mine is Yakuza Zero, which covers a lot of genres, but favors ultra heavy electronic with a tinge of metal.

[Chris]

The ratio of high skilled composers to video games quantity is just dramatically different than it was a few years ago. The best of the best just can't be used for every project, both because they'd be stretched too thin and stuff like them costing too much or being bound by company contracts or something for others to call upon their talents.

It doesn't help when talent is squandered or ignored. Eric Heberling, who I contend provided the best music for the Elder Scrolls, has basically been ignored by the industry since the late 90s. It's a crime that the guy is (was?) stuck doing music for slot machines. It's not that Soule's not talented himself either, but most of his work on TES3/4/5 does blend together, with only a few tracks being able to stand out (he's done far better work on other games, like Guild Wars 2).

Not to mention that modern video game music can be a lot more complicated - entire orchestras have to be gathered and prepared for some games.

I'd say that's more a cost issue than complexity. Orchestras are costly, yes, but MIDI music offered a hell of a lot of complexity for music arrangements with dynamic alterations driven by gameplay. Sierra's i-Muse system or whatever it was called being a well-known (but not the only) example. Seamlessly changing instruments and the volume of individual tracks, if not transition the entire song "realistically", in response to where you are and what you're doing isn't something you can really do with prerecorded music. It's only been relatively recent that people have been trying to recover that kind of dynamic behavior using layered music segments, but MIDI music can be a lot more complicated.

Even still, I can't remotely agree with thought that only handfuls of modern games have memorable music.

It's not just about the music being memorable, but music that's proactive in setting a mood for the game rather than purely ambient or reactive cues. Music that's not content to "just sit in the background while you play" and be divorced from the game.

At least for me, this is why I hold Daggerfall's music as the best in the Elder Scrolls series. Sun, rain, snow, cloudy, night... the music is purposely composed to fit, and fit well with memorable hooks. Sunny music is bright and cheery, cloudy music has an dreary undertone, the music for rain is designed to invoke the feeling of falling raindrops, all of which play at the appropriate points in the game. The music is all catchy and memorable on its own, but also sets a mood that's connected to the game. Can't think of music without also thinking of that point in the game, and vice-versa. Compared to Morrowind and Oblivion where, while the music itself is good, it's basically designed to meld together and play at random. There's little to no correlation with the game itself, to the point where it's not unusual for players to add music from one game to another.

[NeuralStunner]

I'm inclined to say "it varies, just like it always has". (As Arctangent summarized above.) Personally, a lot of my favorite music is from games, much of them pretty new ones!

I bought the Frozen Synapse 2 OST the day the game launched. Got DUSK's as soon as it posted. And a recurring joke to my friends(though the sentiment is quite sincere): "Have I mentioned how much I love the music in this game?"

[Gez]

Indie games tend to have catchy tunes quite often. There's a reason getting the full soundtrack in MP3 or OGG form was a selling point for the first few Humble Bundles.

It doesn't help when talent is squandered or ignored. Eric Heberling, who I contend provided the best music for the Elder Scrolls

Heberling wasn't alone on Daggerfall, but the name of the other composer is not known. (Source: an interview with him made by a French TES fansite.)

[leileilol]

In recent gaming soundtracks, Celeste is pretty nice.

I think the last time this discussion was had though there was a bad argument that killed it, like something about not using technology to produce better music and implying that using squarewaves makes music effortlessly trivial to produce or some bs like that


I stillhave a fondness for that acidtechnodnbhouse phase of 97-2000 though. and the Nobuo SPC orchestra era of 91-94...

There was the 1994 3DO Road Rash game which was one of the first home console games to LICENSE record label music recordings of very-well-known bands that aren't 2Unlimited, but only for menus and cutscenes. The ingame music was original synthesized stuff. Since this was an EA game, we can blame them for killing original game music

[gramps]

I kind of have a fondness for that acidtechnodnbhouse phase of 97-2000 though. and the Nobuo SPC orchestra era of 91-94...

Yeah, Amon Tobin's stuff for Splinter Cell was a sweet spot for me. Still looking forward to hearing Descent soundtrack on the gizmo that one guy had.