Game Soundtrack
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The full-length body of music composed for a video game, encompassing menu, overworld, battle, and cutscene cues bound into one release; historically shaped by the sound chips of the day, from the pulse/triangle waves of the Famicom to the FM synthesis of the Genesis and the CD-quality streaming of the PlayStation era. Melodies are strongly hummable and built to survive infinite repetition, with clear tonal themes, leitmotifs tied to characters and places, and arrangements that scale from solo synth to full orchestra. The mood ranges from bright and heroic to melancholy and cinematic, and the best scores treat looping and interactivity as compositional constraints rather than limitations.
History
Game soundtracks grew out of arcade bleeps (Space Invaders, 1978) and matured on the Famicom/NES, where Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. (1985) and Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy (1987) proved a few oscillators could carry unforgettable melodies; Koichi Sugiyama brought classical craft to Dragon Quest (1986). The 16-bit and CD generations let composers approach film-score scope, and Square's Final Fantasy VII (1997), Rare's soundtracks, and Bungie's Halo (2001) drove the medium into orchestras and concert halls (Video Games Live, Distant Worlds). Streaming platforms and indie hits like Undertale (Toby Fox, 2015) then made the game soundtrack a mainstream listening category in its own right, with Grammy recognition following.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- One-Winged Angel(1997) — Nobuo UematsuSpotifyYouTube
- Super Mario Bros. Theme(1985) — Koji KondoSpotifyYouTube
- Halo Theme(2001) — Martin O'DonnellSpotifyYouTube
- Dragonborn (Skyrim)(2011) — Jeremy SouleSpotifyYouTube
- Dearly Beloved(2002) — Yoko ShimomuraSpotifyYouTube
- Nascence (Journey)(2012) — Austin WintorySpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Karen Collins, Game Sound (MIT Press, 2008)
- Andrew Schartmann, Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack (Bloomsbury 33⅓, 2015)
- Square Enix official soundtrack liner notes