What makes good game music?

[BrothaDom]

I'm sure this has been asked a billion times, but, what exactly makes good, memorable tunes?

I've been trying to make original music for some games...but I'm not sure if I'm capturing what made the tunes of some of my favorite games so memorable.

Any thoughts/suggestions on what made your favorite tunes so memorable?

[Meteo Xavier]

Strong melodies. Melodies you can hum. In my opinion, thats what makes game music good. Unlike TV/movie soundtracks which are mostly to help setup the atmosphere, game music is designed to help push things along and entertain.

That means its much easier to do energetic western-music-theory/rock tracks or jazzier numbers that take the better forefront of the sound experience. You don't, for the most part, have to create music against an active scene, the music drives much of it home alongside the action itself.

Does that help?

[ShrackAttack]

There are a few elements that play into making game music memorable:

1) If you're referring to older nes/snes/n64 music you notice that most of the most memorable tunes are just short and to the point and are usually only around 0:45 to 2:00 in length and then repeated incessantly. For obvious reasons, you remember something much easier when you have listened to it much more (IE Pop radio). Even if you don't particularly like or care for a song, you still will find it memorable just because you have heard it 70 times.

2) One reason you remember certain game songs so well is due to the visuals that go along with the song. Just listening to a random song once and going on your way with no actual game to go with it won't really make the song 'memorable'. The point is that if you put each individual medium (the visual, the audio, or the story behind it) on its own then it will probably be a much weaker idea. But if you combine: Terra's struggles in FF6, the visual events in the game, and Terra's theme song you create a much more memorable concept. It is the story behind the song that helps to make it so memorable and recreate that nostalgia for you. If you went up to a random person on the street and had them listen to Terra's theme a couple of times they would probably either just call it shitty game music or think it was an okay song. They wouldn't have that same connection with the song as you did.

Now I'm not saying that the music doesn't stand on its own legs, but all of these elements are what really create something nostalgic for us like a lot of old game music.

3.) Obviously good writing

[Calum]

I'd say, in terms of melody repetition - and not just repetition of the melody as a whole but having the melody have repetition within itself. E.g. having a rhythm which repeats throughout the whole melody. Or having one pitch which it keeps returning to. I often find that I instinctively put repetition like that within melodies as it's what sounds good to me but i think you'll find that if you construct a melody with repetition and either in-step movement or movement based around triads/arpeggios, you'll come up with a great one. Don't forget to leap up a 5th at the beginning of the melody or jump up an octave at the end - those are kinda classic formats which seem to work!

But otherwise (still just talking about melody) analyse other songs closely. Something that was instantly catchy or you thought just worked (make sure it wasn't because you'd heard it 100 times - however you can tell that!) and see how the melody was constructed? Is it based around the triad? What kind of shape does it take? Do they keep returning to one note? How does the rhythm play a part in it?

[dannthr]

I'm sure this has been asked a billion times, but, what exactly makes good, memorable tunes?

I've been trying to make original music for some games...but I'm not sure if I'm capturing what made the tunes of some of my favorite games so memorable.

Any thoughts/suggestions on what made your favorite tunes so memorable?

I find it interesting that you're asking a question that isn't really directed at good game music but rather memorable music in general.

Good game music must support the game 110%. Good game music must SERVE the game.

In service to the game, it may be necessary to create a memorable musical theme, but sometimes the exact opposite is necessary--you may need to create a musical moment that supports the action but is completely forgettable.

Memorable game music doesn't equate to good game music by default.

However, in respect to your question about memorable music, basically, you must employ elements of form such as unity and variation, contrast and balance.

Create a melody utilizing scale information and scale degree relationships, then remember that the shorter your melodic motiv, the more likely someone is to recall that motiv. Repeat with variation, sequence, transposition, etc, etc. You can create variation and contrast by creating a new melody, but retain coherence by utilizing unity in rhythmic motif.

Study simple examples of this like Yankee Doodle Dandy and America the Beautiful.

Study cadential antecedence and consequence.

Melody is structure informed by harmonic relationships.

You can do it all intuitively, because it's part of your biology, but for the beginner, you may find yourself searching often for direction.

Music theory informs your direction.

Tip #1: Study music theory.

[Rozovian]

Straight from the LoTR appendices: is it hummable?

[DusK]

Straight from the LoTR appendices: is it hummable?

This is a really good way of putting it.

[FM]

Repetition is a form of change - Brian Eno

[Omni-Psyence]

Straight from the LoTR appendices: is it hummable?

Man I can hum all sorts of shit though, I'm like Peter Griffin with those ridiculous scat skillz.

[BrothaDom]

Meteo, yes, helps a lot thanks!

I find it interesting that you're asking a question that isn't really directed at good game music but rather memorable music in general.

I guess I didn't phrase the question in the most clear way. I didn't mean to equate good with memorable. I always think tracks like Ice Cap Zone, Elec Man's theme, and things like that are good and memorable and it seems that others agree fairly often I imagine.

I'm just curious what made them good AND memorable. Like it was said before, there's tons of good tracks that aren't memorable and many tracks that are memorable but aren't good.

[noTuX]

I was kinda thinking about this the other day when I was playing some old SNES games, and comparing them to modern gaming.

Now-a-days, I find myself being more distracted by the eye candy, explosions, and in-your-effin'-face action to even pay attention to the music. By revving the visual processing power of modern day gaming systems, it seems to me like the emphasis is being shifted from making a great, memorable soundtrack, to creating a visually pleasing, "great looking" game. And all that is understandable, because its only good marketing to try to take full advantage of a gaming system's power. But that kinda puts the music on the back burner.

For instance, I can remember the music from the first stage of Contra vividly, even though I haven't played that game in well over 15 years, but I can't remember a single melody from MW3, and I just finished playing it yesterday. I remember FF7, and FF8's soundtrack pretty well, but I can't remember shit from FF13 except for Lightning's theme, and that's only because they played it several times throughout the game. With that said, I suppose repetition plays a huge role in making a song memorable.

IDK, maybe its just me getting old.

Finding a balance between music and gameplay is the key, IMO.

[Calum]

I can't remember shit from FF13 except for Lightning's theme, and that's only because they played it several times throughout the game.

Not quite sure I would put ff13 on par with MW3 music-wise. MW3 - the music is pretty much just to fuel your adrenaline so it's pretty unmemorable - it does its job (similar to what Dannthr was saying about serving the game) but i'm not a fan of MW3 music. But FF13 is full of great music which I found pretty memorable, maybe you didn't. True that lightening's theme was put in a lot of the other tracks as well as it was kinda the main theme in a way - it was in the battle theme (if memory serves).

I don't think game companies are focusing less on music but perhaps more atmospheric/adrenaline-fueling music is possible now so it's less about lead, lead 2, chords, drums which is suited towards more melody-centric music and people can (and inspired by cinema) will produce a lot more atmospheric music. There's a big focus on game soundtracks now, i think... with like iOS games getting super popular and stuff selling on bandcamp and those who grew up with video games coming of age... perhaps i'm making big sweeping statements.

I am a little sick of forgettable movie-music in games and would trade it any day for a NES-type melody-centric soundtrack. But i think there's a lot of games which get production and new possibilities right along with great memorial soundtracks.

[PROTO·DOME]

RECREATE, SELL TO GAME COMPANIES, $$PROFITS$$

Repeat for infinite money.

[dannthr]

The demands of sound and music have grown incredibly in the past 20 years while audio staff still fight tooth and nail to get an appropriate budget of system resources and money to make it happen.

We are not the same video game players we were 20 years ago.

We have greater expectations and demand higher production value.

At this stage, game composers are fighting a losing battle to keep users from turning the soundtrack off and listening to their own iTunes.

I guarantee that if you replaced the 200 something minute soundtrack for World of Warcraft with a 40 second looping 8-bit theme song, it would be replaced within minutes with an iTunes playlist playing Lord of the Rings or Nightwish or something similar.

There just isn't enough music to satisfy the demands of players these days--people play MMOs like it's a 40+ hour a week job.

One of the biggest soundtracks ever for any game: Star Wars: The Old Republic, shipped with 10+ hours of music (including 3+ hours of originally composed music just for the game). The original soundtrack is brilliantly executed in the highest honor of John Williams tributage, recorded at Skywalker Sound with members of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Yet, people still complain and bitch and moan.

I would bet money that all of the audio content in Star Wars The Old Republic didn't cost EA more than 2% of their budget.

Forget trying to make it memorable, make it important to the game experience, make it so that no one wants to turn it off because it's vital to hear while playing.

That's good game music. It has to be a part of the game, not just something you listen to while you play it, but an integral component of the game design.

You guys forget that because you listen to game music out of context.

Who cares if it's great listening music, if you can put it on your ipod while you jog or do homework.

That goal needs to be ancillary to serving the game.

Making something memorable in the context of the game means making a motivic connection between moments or experiences.

Music can connect two completely disparate dots in the game play timeline by utilizing a memorable theme. The restatement of that theme will literally evoke a synaptic response in the players brain recalling the last time they heard that theme.

Good game music is effective with goals that serve the experience.

Everything else is ego.

[BrothaDom]

Thank you...that really sums it up in a concise way. I appreciate your help

[Nabeel Ansari]

I guarantee a tradition 8-bit style NES melody-centric song for Silent Hill would utterly destroy the game's atmosphere.

[BrothaDom]

Right! I want to figure out the happy medium between good 8bit music and good modern music. They have different strengths, and I want to find the middle ground.

[lazygecko]

In typical Japanese 4-channel NES music, the first channel would almost always be playing some kind of melody while the second one was a sort of jack of all trades. Sometimes it would harmonize the lead melody, then it might switch to a more complex counter-melody, and sometimes it would be playing a fake echo/chorus variant of the lead melody to shift more attention towards it and giving the music some breathing room from the complexity. I think these are some of the key features that made the music so memorable.

[GSO]

If you can, get your hands on music from the VGM "pioneers" (uematsu, mitsuda, koji kondo, etc.) don't try to copy them necessarily. just listen to the music figure out what you like about it and incorporate those elements into your own music, at least that's what I did.