I recall one theory by Claudia Gorbman, whom in 1980 proposed that 'film music' was actually any music that was put into a film, because regardless of the musical style or the film genre music would eventually "do something" (Gorbman, 1980, p. 189).
I think this totally applies to videogame music, especially old school music. Because of the same limitation in of sounds given by the sound cards and the programming formats AND the skills of the engineers [and sometimes musicians] that "composed" this music THEN you would get music that can, in fact, be translated into all different music styles. For example, think of the Mario Overworld theme, and how it can sound awesome being played just by a piano on its own, or by an live orchestra. OCRemix is definitely an example of the malleability of the old school music. Contemporary game music in a way doesn't have that luxury of being reinterpreted like, because the composer has more control [if not absolute control] over the final sound of the music that goes into the game.
And not to mention licensed music. How cool are the FIFA soundtracks, for example? Or think about racing games. Many of them have licensed music. So, it's not about bagging radio music, indie music, but think about the music that was found in a game and how that music impacted you, whether you played that game or not.
And thanks for all your responses!
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