Game music is really groovy!
In the beginning, all was silent… like a newly created universe everything was cloaked by darkness, and the very first titles like “Tennis for Two” and “Spacewar” had no sound. But similar to the big bang, Atari arrived with Pong bringing the very first sound effect in a video game; a simple “pong” that changed all!
Yes! Video games would be not the same without music; and some tracks transcended the gaming world to become actual hits listened to daily by thousands of people. But we can enjoy a real music tune only in 1980 during the intermissions of the legendary Pac-Man; it was so revolutionary that helped to increase the game’s awareness around the globe, and captured this catchy sound, the dynamic duo Buckner and Garcia released their hit song “Pacman Fever” two years later.
Luckily nowadays we can listen to hundreds of game music tracks. Super Mario, NieR, Final Fantasy, Ace Combat, The Legend of Zelda, and Animal Crossing are only the best examples of great games with great music. We may find the technical origin of game music in 1981 when IBM released the first PC with an integrated speaker. Its main function was to indicate errors and other system messages with a simple beep. And to exploit them to make the gaming experience even more vivid; Sierra began to implement rudimental soundtracks in their first adventures.
No Music, No Game!
The years go by, and in 1985 the NES reach western countries, at that time the console was bundled with Super Mario Bros; even if not all gamers recognized the name of Koji Kondo they surely recognized the music. He could master the characteristics of the console’s sound chip; changing the whole game music world from monotone sound effects to catchy tunes with a relatively vast number of variations.
After him, other legendary composers such as Hirokazu Tanaka, Nobuo Uematsu, the Konami Kukeiha Club, and Manami Matsumae contributed to elevating video games as an actual form of art thanks to their musical creations. Game music became so popular in these decades that from 1999 it is an actual genre known in Japan as Picopop (or Pico-Pico, if you prefer). Recreating the nostalgic sound of the retro systems; a big number of artists release every month amazing bleepy tracks that give a boost to this colorful ‘n happy subculture.
Cool events like the Usagi-Chang Night Fever, the Symphonic Game Music Concerts; or the Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy reflect this popularity. Thanks to each of them; we can enter a fabulous multiverse where music and binary-coded aesthetics encouraged all of us to remember the epic adventures we lived on screen.
Game music inspires us!
Obviously, here at Playasia, we love game music. This is why we have a vast (and always updated) selection of soundtracks and Picopop albums that make the joy of all of our ears. Even if you prefer CDs or vinyl records; we have the best music. Not only classics like Persona, Castlevania, Super Mario, or Metal Gear series, but also [sadly] almost forgotten masterpieces like Musashiden, Wild Arms, Dynamite Deka, and Armored Core; all these precious opuses have their unique atmosphere that put every one of us in a certain mood.
Like Johan Huizinga wrote in his essay Homo Ludens; music is placed between the areas of a noble game and the enjoyment of art. And this is particularly true for game music where the concept of “gaming” is strictly associated with the concept of “beauty”. In this way, we can say that all of these soundtracks are the perfect alliance of sound and forms in motion. Also, popular bands like Garbage, Cubanate, Feeder, and Florence + The Machine have succumbed to the pop side of game music; contributing to merging purely virtual adventures with real people who normally are not linked with video games.
Feel your heart pump when you listen to the heavy metal battle tracks or relax when the piano pieces start. Enjoying these wonderful compositions, to start a new day in a great mood; put on the music and breath some rejuvenating air… we can choose between hundreds of albums and get the best for you!
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