Game Music - Not for Every Taste

Intelligent Qube, an obscure yet wonderful PlayStation title, had a terrific, beautifully orchestral soundtrack. I don't think it was licensed classical music; it was just music. It was ambient and calming yet intensified at just the right moment (usually when you were just about to die). With IQ's simple premise and graphics, the mood music did a great deal to add to the memorability of the game.

Much music in games today is licensed, especially since the popularization of the music game genre. Actually, it was Road Rash that first made licensing music matter - when games could be put on CD's, there was plenty of space on the disc for things like Soundgarden songs. But now, only sports games (EA Trax) and Tony Hawk games get the licensed music, and it all sounds the same: rap and hair metal. Where can we hear some indie music, or techno, or Beck? Puzzle games would be an obvious fit for all three, but where else? Indie music in indie games? I could imagine some Radiohead or Death Cab for Cutie playing while I slash my way through The Dishwasher. Recent PlayStation Network games like Fl0w and Flower seem almost made for weird ambient music that can sit with you while you inhabit a strange, surreal world. Maybe instead of just throwing together a Tony Hawk tracklist, developers could design games around certain styles of music - to let the gamer feel what it might be like in a techno bass beat, or a faux-gay emo chorus, or a sweeping Vivaldi symphony. Even video games could use a little synaesthesia. Something different. The genres have become so defined that it is difficult for anyone to take a risk on something new for fear of going out of business... just like Okami developer Clover Studios. People, en masse, fear change. But we need it.