For those of us old enough to remember arcade culture, our first introduction to video games was probably flashing lights, trilling beeps, and clattering coins punctuated by loud computerized voices yelling famous phrases like “Finish Him” or “Hadoken!”
Arcade sounds of the late ’70s and early ’80s were a dazzling cacophony of carnival noises held together by a digital musical style known as chiptune. Chiptune is a form of synthesized electronic music produced by sound chips installed in early computers, arcade machines, and legacy video game consoles. For members of GenX or elder Millennials/Xennials, chiptune defined some of the warmest memories of our childhood.
Today, we expect our favorite games to have a full range of sound effects and music, much the same as we expect when watching a movie. In the beginning, however, sound was mainly used as an emphasis to action in largely silent experiences. The first sound ever included in a video game is believed to be from the classic paddle game Pong (1972). The name of the game itself came from the singular, punctuating sound the ball made when it bounced from side to side.
The game with the honor of containing the first true “soundtrack” is the legendary fixed shooter Space Invaders (1978). With its easily recognizable four-note loop (that increases tempo as the aliens get closer), it became a study in understanding how sounds enhance gameplay. The synergy of sound to motion helped create an indispensable part of the experience. With an enduring legacy, it’s a game that still exists in various new and preserved forms today.
From Beeps to Bach
Composers started taking inspiration from everything from pop and folk music, electronica, jazz, and even classical, similar to the approach movie composers take when scoring films. A chiptune version of “Toccata and Fugue” by Johann Sebastian Bach, used in many video games over the years, first appeared as the background music in the arcade and NES game Donkey Kong Jr. Debussy’s famous “Claire de Lune” emphasized the approach of a save point in the horror game The Evil Within. Mozart’s “Requiem in D” plays during your visit to the Hall of Heroes in the dream-like Bioshock Infinite.
In the platforming classic Earthworm Jim 2, the chiptune synthesized strains of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata urge the player forward at a quickening pace. Even the catchy track at the heart of Tetris is an arrangement of a Russian folk song called Korobeiniki from the 19th century. The song is now known, even in Russia, as “The Tetris Song”. The London Philharmonic is one of several orchestras that has performed their own arranged rendition over the years.
But for most people, the first truly memorable song from a video game was the iconic Super Mario Bros theme song, known as the “Overworld Theme”, by composer Koji Kondo. It stands as one of the most recognized soundtracks ever despite only containing three minutes of original music. The score would go on to define a generation of gaming in the 1980s (now known as retro gaming) that, driven powerfully by nostalgia, is still fondly remembered and revered.
Kondo followed up his Super Mario success with another legendary piece of electronic chiptune for the iconic RPG franchise, The Legend of Zelda. The Legend of Zelda main theme has been included in some form or other in most of the over 20 franchise games that followed. It’s a track so iconic that it’s identifiable by nearly every video game fan from every generation. In fact, you probably hear it in your head as you read this.
The popularity of these early 8-bit soundtracks began a crucial shift in the industry. Unlike the musical score for motion pictures (where the music is added in after filming is complete), video game soundtracks started being developed alongside their games. This ensured the sounds matched the play experience, thus unifying all parts of the design process. Anyone who has ever felt anxiety when the music starts to crescendo as the timer runs out on Mario while he makes his way through an underwater level knows exactly what I’m talking about.
Under the auspices of Kondo and his peers, a vaunted list of talent that included the likes of Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy, Rad Racer), Yoko Shimomura (Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts), Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana), and many others, original soundtracks (OST) for video games were elevated from something akin to a child’s lullaby to the realm of real music.
As video games transitioned from the arcade to the home, and the home consoles became more and more powerful, the musical capabilities within games also scaled. Gone were the electronic sounds of chiptune. By the late 1990s, video game OSTs had evolved to full production level. The 1998 PlayStation release of Heart of Darkness contained the first-ever OST to be scored by an actual orchestra. The game’s composer, Bruce Broughton, is an Emmy Award-winning musician who had scored numerous movies and TV series. The musical compositions of video games were something to be taken seriously.
Modern Impact
Since the late ’90s, various mainstream musicians and recording artists have also contributed to video game scores. Method Man (World Gone Sour), David Bowie (The Nomad Soul), Nine Inch Nails (Quake), Sheena Easton (Lost Odyssey), and many others have all lent their talents to game soundtracks. The Pink and Eminem collaboration “Won’t Back Down” appears in the end credits of Call of Duty: Black Ops (it was an easter egg in the game’s Zombie Mode). Travis Scott and Ariana Grande both performed virtual concerts inside the online mega-hit game Fortnite. Even Sir Paul McCartney wrote new material for inclusion in Bungie’s online FPS game Destiny.
By the 2000s, an appetite developed for video game music to be enjoyed as a standalone experience. In 2002, at a concert event at the Tokyo International Forum, several tracks from Final Fantasy X, including the popular “To Zanarkand”, were arranged for orchestration and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
That concert was so successful that in 2004, Uematsu joined up with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a special event, to perform select songs from the entire Final Fantasy franchise. The event sold out in 3 days. Today, the Distant Worlds concert series continues to bring orchestral arrangements of Final Fantasy tracks to countries all over the world.
The Video Game Orchestra, an eclectic group of musicians performing rock and roll arrangements of popular video game songs, has performed in such hallowed places as the Boston Symphony Hall. Game On!, The 8-Bit Big Band, and many others perform renditions of retro and current video game music in concert halls and music stages across the world.
This year (2023), the Grammy’s finally added a category for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media. The seeds for this recognition were sown as far back as 2011 when Christopher Tin’s track “Baba Yetu”, which he wrote for the game Civilization VI, was nominated for a Grammy in a different category after he also released it on a commercial album.
Current media has also vibrantly brought video game music alive in popular adaptations of video games for TV and movies. Kenichi Matsubara’s epic battle theme “Bloody Tears” from Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest was orchestrally arranged for inclusion in Netflix’s excellent animated Castlevania show. Brian Tyler brilliantly remixed some of Kondo’s classic Mario tunes for the worldwide smash hit Super Mario Bros Movie.
Gustavo Santaolalla, the composer for The Last of Us video game series, was also the co-composer for the acclaimed HBO adaptation, remixing iconic tracks from the game for the show. Even the somewhat maligned Halo TV series on Paramount+, criticized for its divergence from the source material, used elements of the game’s main theme sprinkled throughout the show’s first season.
Today, video game developers are releasing original music from their games on albums and music streaming services like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music. Many iconic tracks from popular games have their loops converted into ringtones (disclosure: My personal ringtone is the Legend of Zelda main theme). Video game music is now identifiable even to people outside the gaming community.
As gaming continues to mainstream and more and more people are exposed to the excellent music being produced for them, it’s likely that the importance of video game scores will only continue to grow. An exciting prospect for both game and music lovers.
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