Humming a Tune

There's nothing like humming the first 6 or 7 notes of the Super Mario Bros theme and having a room full of people follow it up to its completion a Capella style. It's a song that nary a man or woman under 30 doesn't recognize. The Zelda theme has a similar effect, if for a bit of a smaller audience. Music from the era where we could still see the bits in our 8-bit games had truly memorable, catchy music that we won't soon forget short of a case of early onset Alzheimer's.

As games moved forward visually, so did the music. Super Nintendo got rid of the bleepy chiptunes of the previous generation for mock-instruments that mimicked many different styles from symphonic to rock (See Chrono Trigger and Megaman X), and best of all, it was still just as great and as memorable, if not more so, than ever. The Super Nintendo era of games introduced a complexity of music that easily rivaled other musical genres. Video game music was evolving into a genre of its own and had its own varied styles and sounds that other music couldn't offer. The sheer number of bands that cover music from this era of gaming (The Advantage, Powerglove and the NESkimos, to name a few) is tantamount to its quality. This tradition is held strong in the next era of gaming as well with the Nintendo 64 and Playstation. The Final Fantasy games alone from this generation give us an admirable library of beautiful music.

However, it seems that the longer games are around, the less memorable the music is. Can anyone name more than 5 games of the current gen with good AND memorable music? (If you're reading, this is a real challenge. Please list current gen games that, in your opinion, have great music). There are certainly lots of games with "good" music, but I can't hum a single one of them. They don't stick in my head. I couldn't hum you the first note of a large collection of some of the highest ranked games that have come out in the last 3 years. The only games that come to mind with, what I consider to be, excellent music are Megaman 9 and 10 and they are mimicking the 80s in graphics, gameplay and music. Video game music has lost its video game-ness. In an attempt to keep up with graphics attempting to be realistic, music has done the same thing and a demand for orchestrated music with real instruments is on the rise. Heck, it's taking over. The problem here? I can't freaking hum a symphonic score.

Ok, so whether or not I can hum a tune doesn't make it good or bad. The problem is that the composers for a lot of these games (Red Dead Redemption, Uncharted 1 and 2, any FPS, just for some examples) are trying to make hollywood style music for these games, rather than video game music. This is a seriously major distinction and something that has been bothering me about video games a lot lately. Their attempt to be like a Hollywood movie. As much as I thought Uncharted 2 was a great game, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was playing through a Hollywood treasure-hunter movie (see Lara Croft or National Treasure). But that's another topic. Video game music is something special that is recognizable even if you haven't played that game. You will instantly know that a song that is properly video-gamey is from a video game and not a movie. I actually tried to sneak in some orchestrated Chrono Trigger music to a party play-list once to fool my friends into liking video game music, but one of them commented, "this sounds like video game music, what is this?"

Even apart from games that try to be hollywood movies, video game music has been degrading. I can't remember any new Mario music from New Super Mario Bros, NSMB Wii, Mario Galaxy or Mario Galaxy 2. I remember at several points in Twilight Princess thinking, "this is a pretty song," but I can't remember what they sound like at all anymore. That was not the case with Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time. Music from those games stuck after one or maybe two playthroughs. Followers might remember my lament (part of it, at least) about there being hardly a trace of Metroid-type music in Other M. Guess what it was replaced by? Yeah, you guessed it.

Megaman 9 and 10 are a glimmer of hope in the sea of symphonic crap that plagues games today. The Scott Pilgrim vs The World game that Anamanaguchi created the music for is also a great throwback to the excellence of 8-bit music.

I invite people to give examples of excellent modern-day video game music to prove me wrong. Maybe I'm just missing something.