Set the scene: It’s 2013, and your mom just bought you the new GTA V. You sit down on the floor while looking at the bright living room TV screen, the game loads up, and that’s when it happens. A deep, rumbling bass backs up a plucking rhythm that makes you want to commit some devious crime, like stealing from your parent’s cookie jar.
The sound track perfectly backs up the theme of GTA V, and the inclusion of MF DOOM and Dr. Dre threaded between missions only makes the content of the game thrilling. In fact, hip-hop has been highly ingrained in video game culture.
NBA 2K Game Line has always had the latest and greatest tracks from recent rappers, which not only fit the game play but also introduce players to new, unheard music.
Even a ground-breaking Indie game called PaRappa The Rapper is based on hip-hop, which Indie games are known to be more of an atmospheric sound experience than musical.
Most games don’t follow the same path as NBA 2K or PaRappa The Rapper, as rap doesn’t always fit the atmosphere of a game. The most common route for a game is to use ambient noise and light music.
A light piano with a spacey aura fits most modern-day video games, and one of the most likely influences on this music choice is Minecraft.
Markus Persson, the creator of Minecraft and the 2009 Sand Box game, was looking for a tune to fill an empty void within the game. When C418 (Daniel Rosenfled), a German sound engineer, sent a message to Persson, he felt like it was destiny. That would be the start of what is more commonly said to be the most atmospheric and influential piece of music in video gaming history.
The blissful, long-winded piano keys and the variety of uncommon instruments created an interesting, lonely-motivating music that can only be compared with such an artist as Aphex Twins.
You can hear the inspiration in more modern games like The Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild and Stardew Valley. In addition to Minecraft being popular by itself, the soundtrack on streaming servers has nearly hit gold certificate status as an album.
As lovely and peaceful as C418’s music is, sometimes you just want some deep, heavy rock or metal music. Which totally encapsulates DOOM, a 1992 classic gun and run fighting video game. And the soundtrack is not only a classic within the game community but also a magnum opus within the rock/metal community.
The Arist Mick Gordon had only been releasing music for 4 years when he got offered a deal to make music for the new DOOM franchise game in 2016. The game was not only an absolute hit upon release but also brought a mass amount of attention to Mick Gordon, who had not been nearly as popular as an artist of his caliber should be.
Since the music is so new, it hasn’t had the biggest splash (yet) on the gaming community, but it is sure to be just as influential as Minecraft, Nba2k, and PaRappa the Rapper.
