“Real music” and “Videogame music”

Music in videogames has a stigma surrounding it, or maybe multiple stigmas that are all related to each other. It’s not considered as artful as soundtracks and scores in older mediums such as movies and television, stereotyped as something only “nerds” listen to. It may be the only music some of those “nerds” might listen to because they haven’t expanded their taste yet. There are reasons for gaming soundtracks to be taken as seriously as other mediums, why there shouldn’t be a stigma for listening to them, and for people who do not listen to “regular music” to expanding their listening experience.

“The idea of composing video game music wasn’t always regarded with seriousness.”, says Tavi Kaye from Berklee Online, before going into how it is a legitimate career and its influences. “The impact of video game music has helped the music industry by creating a new audience for the classical orchestra. Popular concert cover albums of game music have generated dedicated fandoms and conventions, such as the US MAGFest – a large game convention based in Maryland focusing on game music cover artists.”, says Dr Brent Alan Ferguson, a lecturer at Brunel University London. Ferguson wrote about games influenced his own career and negative aspects related to gaming music, such as layoffs within the gaming industry as a whole and the issues with streaming.An older article from The Telegraph focuses on the positives of videogame music and how it introduces children and young people to classical music.  “It is encouraging to hear that there are platforms and opportunities for young people to engage with orchestral music, albeit in different mediums.  It is about sparking their interest.”, says James Williams, the managing director at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) at the time. All these professionals acknowledge that it has grown into a legitimate art and career that has benefits of its own.

               As for young people only exposed to music and specific genres through games, I think it would be best not to mock them but suggest to them what to listen to next. Encourage them to try out artists from the same genre as whatever game music they like or see who influenced their favourite composer and tell them to check out those influences. For example, Persona 5 and its jazzier songs were a gateway for some players to actually get into to jazz, despite all the “Persona 5 invented jazz” memes about comparing any piece of jazz music to Persona 5. If someone enjoys the music from the Silent Hill series then they should be directed to some of the genres in the game, such as trip-hop, industrial and ambient, look at the influences of composer Akira Yamaoka such as Trent Reznor and Massive Attack. Don’t make fun of them for being “nerd who only listens to game music”, let them find their way or encourage them while still using game music as their gateway.

               A lot of problems regarding videogame music being taken seriously or not is just one of the many growing pains of videogames being still a newer medium and still having a stigma about being for “nerds” despite its massive popularity for years. It will go away eventually, but it will take time. While the “are videogames art?” debate still goes on after Roger Ebert’s comments not too long before his death, the music does seem to garner respect, especially as time goes on and it influences professionals in the industry.