It's great to hear musicians' takes on this! Particularly Neblix, but everyone really. Interesting thread!
It probably doesn't help that videogame music hasn't really been broken down into different styles like band music has? Difficult to talk without terms and groups sometimes...
I think there's been an overall shift in genre caused by things many people have mentioned.
- new instruments to use / more memory
- more control over mood through graphics (I hadn't considered this before)
- shift to ambient or low-key atmospheric music
- sheer designer or musician preference to do something different
Developers can make music with modern instruments that is both similar to older style music and distinct. (See the numerous examples people have posted. Also see Ys
vs
vs
) It is, as I believe has been said repeatedly, that music is now a bit more in the background for some games due to changes in how atmosphere is created. A move to the ambient, even.Ah, a gripe of mine: don't conflate ambient with classical. Simply because orchestral music is used, does not mean the music has to be low-key atmospheric generic-y. A game could easily have kick ass orchestral tracks like the
and the
. Or something whimsical like
. Also notice I've pointed to the best of the best of classical music. If you complain that there are few examples of great music of today's games, then you haven't acknowledged that most creative works aren't amazing -- they're 'merely' good. The genre or set of instruments examined isn't going to change this fact. Consider how many 8-16 bit games there are (or that you've played) compared to how many of their soundtracks you listen to.On a related note, I have wondered if the more realistic the graphics are, the less likely they are to have older style VG music? Would it feel wierd to have a highly realistic game with older style music? Quake 4 would play well with Quake 2 music, so this is not the best generalisation, I know...
One of the HyperDuck guys said in an interview that Microsoft (? or someone else) had asked them to change up their Ys (8-16 bit era) to something
for Dust. Listening to their full soundtrack including
(the older tracks they had made before switching styles), I think either style could have worked for the game, but maybe that's not always true.