Billboard’s “25 Best” Game Songs List is a Joke; Ignores the Brilliance of Gaming Soundtracks
December 2nd, 2008 | Written by Anthony Perez | Topic: Industry News
There are times when mainstream publications acknowledge the videogame industry and its contributions to the art and entertainment mediums, and there are other times where they attempt such reverence but end up making fools of themselves. Thus is the case with Billboard’s 25 Best Video Game Song Ever list, which features no music composed or recorded specifically for any actual videogames.
In a stunning display of ignorance and laziness, the list is a compilation of real world music added to the soundtracks of various Grand Theft Auto, Tony Hawk, and Guitar Hero games. I could rip into Billboard more for this list, but I’d really like to move on to more pressing stories so I’ll let you all do that in the comments below.
What’s sad is that I had just rekindled my love of gaming music over the Thanksgiving holiday. My cousins are mostly musicians, with one amazing piano player currently studying music at the University of Delaware. Another of my cousins plays both the piano and drums, and when I was hanging with them, he played a ton of video game songs on the piano including To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X, Aeris Theme and One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII, the Legend of Zelda theme, and a lot more.
When listening to those songs played as pieces of music detached from their respective games, you can hear the emotion and brilliance of them. So seeing such a shitty list from Billboard frankly pisses me off because it doesn’t highlight the truly great music that has been composed for videogames.
I leave you with Nobuo Uematsu’s One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII as performed by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra:
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Comment by Jacob Stutsman on the December 2nd, 2008 at 5:39 am
While I do think that some videogame music has a ways to go, there are a plethora of stunning songs out there, and making a videogame music list without videogame music is like making a movie music list without movie music. Why does My Chemical Romance or whoever deserve to go above John Williams?
Comment by TonyP on the December 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 am
That's exactly the point Jacob, it's just completely retarted that we ignore games the way we do. We need to recognize that games have and can contribute more than a few mascots and waving wand controllerS.
Comment by David Macphail on the December 2nd, 2008 at 11:48 am
I completely agree, there have been some excellent original musical scores (Some of the best i've EVER heard) done for videogames recently. Some great examples that comes to mind are:
Final Fantasy (Any really)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
LittleBigPlanet
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools Of Destruction
It's a bit pathetic that anybody would pick any random song that happens to be popular now but nobody will remember in 5 years time off of a game's soundtrack rather than actually listen to the melodys that are used during the most emotional moments of the game. It's the original scores that MAKE the game so enjoyable in the first place, the ones that really let you connect with and understand what's going on in the game's story……..and that let you become a part of it.
I mean, Blink 182 are cool and everything………….but would the scene in MGS4 (SPOILER WARNING – LOOK AWAY NOW!!!) where Naomi chooses to let herself die be so emotional if "All The Small Things" was being blasted through your speakers at that particular moment??? I don't think so………….
Comment by AJMarra on the December 3rd, 2008 at 1:35 am
You know what's funny? I actually have tracks from Age of Empires III on my iPod. I think the track "LastNameCraneIchabod" should have been on the Top 25 list, if they had done it correctly
Comment by Danreb on the December 3rd, 2008 at 7:57 am
I can only imagine how stupid it would be playing Chrono Trigger with music from Guitar Hero…
Comment by CoolAid on the December 3rd, 2008 at 8:41 am
Yeah sure, and I bet Michael Jackson goes great with Kingdom Hearts. But seriously, this list is the stupidest thing I've seen. None of it was actually made for games. They are just popular songs that happen to be in games.
Comment by fdinolfo on the December 7th, 2008 at 9:19 am
At least they remembered the NIN Quake soundtrack. In that entire list that's the only music that was actually written sepecifically for the game. The rest is all commercial stuff. I think we need to do something about that list …
Comment by TheForgotten0ne on the December 7th, 2008 at 5:42 am
When I first read this a few days back I got really mad. Because this isn't really game songs.
This is songs that have been popular before, and almost all of the songs in this list are either from Guitar Hero or Rock Band. I think thats says most of it.
EDIT
Couldn't we make a list? And telling them this is how it's supposed to be!
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