As with most things originally geared for kids, in the United States video games tend to be marginalized by the mainstream public and considered low-brow and beneath the notice of serious people. This especially holds true for video game music. While movie composers such as John Williams, Danny Elfman, and Howard Shore have gained recognition for the quality of their work, composers such as Nobuo Uematsu or Motoi Sakuraba receive little attention in the United States although they have composed some truly haunting and beautiful pieces. The only problem is that their compositions were created for video games.

Video game music began as electronic midis providing background sound. As time went on they evolved into themes associated with specific characters and grew in catchiness and complexity. As early as 1982, Clive Davis, the president of Arista Records, wrote an editorial in Billboard magazine entitled “You Can’t Hum a Video Game.” His article went on to defuse the growing fear in the music industry that video games would put them out of business. He was wrong that video games would put the music industry out of business, of course, but as Matthew Belinkie points out, he was also wrong in that you can’t hum a video game. Practically every person who grew up in the Eighties can still hum the Super Mario or Mega Man themes.

As video games evolved in terms of graphics and game physics, so too did video game music. In his article “Changing Our Tune” (http://www.jameshannigan.co.uk/changing.htm) James Hannigan points out that video game soundtracks became more and more cinematic in nature. Written in 2004, Hannigan’s article argues that video game music should be more non-linear and interactive, breaking away from the decidedly linear and non-interactive cinematic model. His argument aside, Hannigan’s article clearly places music as an important component of video games, comparing it to famous works of music from films such as John Williams’ Raiders of the Lost Ark theme or Jerry Goldsmith’s score for Roman Polanski’s Chinatown where the music is “entwined with the most poignant or evocative moments of films.” However, Hannigan concludes that “In games, despite our growing use of film industry production methods and values, we’re nowhere near this level of artistry yet. But it’s achievable.”

With all due respect to Mr. Hannigan, I disagree. Fans of Final Fantasy VII absolutely tie “Aeris’ Theme” to her death, or “One Winged Angel” to the climactic battle with Sephiroth. And how many Final Fantasy fans can forget the opera scene from Final Fantasy VI? The difference between these scores and the works of John Williams is that Williams’ music reaches a larger audience because movies are accepted as a legitimate form of entertainment for people of all ages and social positions, whereas video games are typically considered in the United States fit for adolescents and nerds.

The point, however, is that video game music has evolved to where it can stand on its own. For example, one of my favourite pieces of VG music is “Aquatic Ambience” from Donkey Kong Country. It’s a lithe, gorgeous bit of music that absolutely fits the title and I’ve never played the game. The same goes for the soundtrack for the Xbox 360 title Eternal Sonata. I haven’t played the game (although I hope to soon), but I have the soundtrack—which goes by the game’s original Japanese title Trusty Bell for those interested—and I’ve listened to it a few dozen times in the three weeks I’ve owned it and plan on listening to it many, many times more.

Eternal Sonata serves as an interesting example because the game’s story and music is based on the life and work of Frederick Chopin. Although to some it may seem odd that an Asian composer working for an Asian game company would base his music on a European source, that’s actually fairly common and speaks to the strength of video game music design. Matthew Belinkie’s 1999 article “Video Game Music: Not Just Kid Stuff” explains it very well: “This is the strange world of video game music. It is a world in which eastern musicians, greatly influenced by western music, compose music for an eastern audience, which is later sold back to the west.” Belinkie goes on to quote Michael Huang, an amateur game composer who believes that video game composers are more experimental. Some even go so far as to say that it doesn’t have any identity at all. It’s not serious pop, serious classical, or serious contemporary. Somehow it encompasses these various styles (and more) while transcending their limitations.

That isn’t to say that video games provide the best means for artists to experiment and break the bonds of convention—although concert violinist Joshua Bell did jokingly state that if Beethoven were alive today he would compose for video games (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89565567). What it does illustrate is that video games provide a legitimate venue for composers, and should accordingly be afforded more respect in the United States than it currently has.

Thankfully the situation seems to be changing here in the U.S. In 2003 Time magazine named Nobuo Uematsu as one of 100 musical innovators (http://www.time.com/time/innovators_v2/music/profile_uematsu.html ), and on April 12, 2008 NPR’s All Things Considered printed an article about the changing role of video game music, citing among other things the sold out 2004 Los Angeles Philharmonic performance Final Fantasy by Uematsu (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89565567). This performance prompted composers Jack Wall and Tommy Tallarico to launch the Video Games Live concert in 2005 where some of the world’s finest orchestras played video game music in the “world’s finest concert halls” (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12478692).

Unfortunately, even though VG music is becoming more popular here in the States, it is still hard to come by. Luckily, there are several websites devoted to video game music such as VGMusic (http://www.vgmusic.com/) and OverClocked ReMix (http://www.ocremix.org/), which provide enough VG music mp3s to satisfy almost any fan’s musical jones. And the best part about these sites is that the music is completely legal and do not break any copyright laws. Amazon also serves as a good place for finding video game soundtracks provided you have the money to spare as many of the OSTs are quite expensive.

Video games and video game music have come a long way since Mario jumped his way into our hearts. Like the icons, the music has worked its way into our national subconscious, but has been all too often written off as kid’s stuff or just popular culture. However, at its best the quality of this music is so good it cannot be marginalized forever. Quality and beauty have a way of making themselves known and this case is no exception. Good music should be appreciated no matter its source, and the marginalizing of this genre of music is sheer snobbery. But thankfully times and attitudes are changing, and if this trend continues we’ll hopefully reach a point here in the U.S. where video game music and its composers receive the recognition they deserve and become more than just “kid’s stuff.”