Well, me and my friends are big music fanatics (who isnt these days?) and most of us are gamers too, so combining those two things is awesome and i'm not talking about guitar hero >_> i'm talking about (background) music in games. There's plenty of games out there with great sound tracks(old C&C series, tons of snes stuff, old school shooters and the like)but the music i've heard in games lately pretty much sucks. When i play a new game, one of the first things i look at is if the music is good, and if it fits the game. Lately, i've been pretty dissapointed with both factors, Mass Effect for instance had extremely shitty music and it almost always felt out of place(often some weird track during dialogue and such).

Is it just me or is music being somewhat overlooked in todays games?
And does it bother you? or do you just pay your own music in the background? (something i avoid at all costs with singleplayer games, and something MUST do in multiplayer to get my blood pumping :P)

Discuss please:)

oh and while you at it, you could name your favourite game / music artist(games only) :)

guess ill note a few:

1. Frank Klepacki (this is a no brainer, the first thing i remember when i think C&C is the music)
2. Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori (the Halo soundtracks, say what you will, but the music was great)
3. Tyrian (i have no idea who made the music but the game actually had a jukebox for listening without playing (its originally a DOS game))

The only recent game I've played that had outstanding music was Portal with Jonathan Coulton's fantastic Still Alive. I thought the music for Half Life 2 Episode 2 was well done, and fit with the game extremely well, but have no idea who composed it.

My all time favorite game soundtrack is probably Icewind Dale. It put Jeremy Soule on the map, and he has done a lot of game music since then, but none of it has been as good.

Bioshock inexplicably won a couple of awards for its soundtrack this year, but I can't remember a single track, or even a few notes from it.

Perhaps music has taken a backseat to visuals in recent games. It is disappointing, but I can't say it has bothered me while playing a game. I only notice music if it is good enough to stand out, or if it is really annoying. Most of the time it seems to fade into the background.

Another factor might be that games no longer play music the entire time you play them. Back when 2D platformers like Mario Bros were king the music never stopped. That's not usually the case anymore so a catchy theme isn't as important.

The only time good music is absolutely required in my book is for a fighting game. The rest of the time I can manage without an awesome soundtrack, but obviously music good enough that I buy the soundtrack for its own sake is a bonus.

The Irrelevant Gamer:
The only recent game I've played that had outstanding music was Portal with Jonathan Coulton's fantastic Still Alive. I thought the music for Half Life 2 Episode 2 was well done, and fit with the game extremely well, but have no idea who composed it.

My all time favorite game soundtrack is probably Icewind Dale. It put Jeremy Soule on the map, and he has done a lot of game music since then, but none of it has been as good.

Bioshock inexplicably won a couple of awards for its soundtrack this year, but I can't remember a single track, or even a few notes from it.

Perhaps music has taken a backseat to visuals in recent games. It is disappointing, but I can't say it has bothered me while playing a game. I only notice music if it is good enough to stand out, or if it is really annoying. Most of the time it seems to fade into the background.

Another factor might be that games no longer play music the entire time you play them. Back when 2D platformers like Mario Bros were king the music never stopped. That's not usually the case anymore so a catchy theme isn't as important.

The only time good music is absolutely required in my book is for a fighting game. The rest of the time I can manage without an awesome soundtrack, but obviously music good enough that I buy the soundtrack for its own sake is a bonus.

I've heard a lot of praise for that Portal song. I only want to hear it when I get around to playing and finishing the game, though.

Fighting games! That reminds me: music makes up a big portion of the upcoming Smash Bros. On their site (which gets updated every weekday, oh joy), they have a list of nearly fifty composers that are coming to make tracks for the game representing several franchises. You should have a look; it's really very interesting.

I haven't played the game itself yet, but Mario Galaxy seems to have beautiful music. Very suitable, very cosmic, and ORCHESTRAL! Love it.

EDIT: There was a show here in Sydney at the city's Opera House a few months ago called Play! A Video Game Symphony. My brother said it was very entertaining: stuff from Mario Bros, World of Warcraft, Square Enix games and various other games. Not sure if this contributes anything worthwhile, but it's still worth noting.

EDIT: I'm sorry, that was ridiculous. I didn't say ANYTHING worthwhile, just gushed about music I thought was good. Well, I think that music definitely isn't as relevant as it once was - Mario Bros was a good example - but it can still stand up and be noticed every now and then, as in those examples I posted.

The music from Halo was the only thing great about the series. The music from Mass Effect (esecially the end credits) was also very epic and uplifting. It makes a feel for the atmosphere. HL2 and the episodes did a great job at that as well.

Honestly, I don't remember much music from modern games. Defcon and Half-Life 2 come to mind, particularly the airy sounds from the bridge level. In Half-Life, I turned the music off because it was annoying. The music and ambient sound in Half-Life 2 prevented me from doing that in that game.

Looking at it, I notice that the games I've liked recently (Shadow of the Colossus, ICO, Half-Life 2, Defcon) had music that wasn't particularly memorable but was effective for establishing the mood. On the other hand, Team Fortress 2 has some really memorable themes in the title screen. I don't know for how much that counts.

To the "Games are art hippie" gamers yahtzee (no idea how to spell that despite being a fan of his work) mentions, yes. Music is very important.

To someone like me, it's exremely important. I listen pretty much exclusively to soundtracks, and right now my most commonly hear music is from Sonic Rush, Radiata stories, and Ragnarok Online, none of which I play anymore. Music is so important to me that I literally can't get to sleep without having some playing, and original, well-composed video game music that appeals to me is way too hard to come by nowadays, because of the third mention:

To game developers, No. It's cheaper to licence (shitty) music made by "real" bands that the ignorant masses listen to, because it will make said ignorant masses more willing to buy "Generic crappy game for the ignroant masses" in the unlikely even they even plan to put music into it.

Let me just set an example out, Burnout 2 was wonderful in gameplay, and beleive it or not, music, too. the tempo and volume would change whenever you hit the boost and would keep with you,then calming back down once the boost meter was empty. That's pretty sweet.

Then EA buys them up. They take Criteron's game, Burnout 3, which is like a big, expensive, well painted supercar, and slap ugly advertisement stickers all over it, drop one of those stupidd 6000 megawatt subwoofers that drown out the music they're supposedly for playing, and just for the record, smear 7 kinds of animal shit all over the windsheild. You've still got a supercar that's fun to drive and handles well, you just need to shut off the shitty music and ignore all the ads. and hold you nose.

At least they got rid of the ads in Burnout: Revenge.

To me, music is very, VERY important, and companies that refuse to put time and effort into compsition gain no respect from me.

But I'm just one person, one person who doens't know one damned song in guitar hero, so he never bought any of those games and has everyone glareing at him like the guy who took a piss in the kool-aid because he thinks everyone loves that flavor.

Oh I want to add I hate licensed music in games. It only makes sense for Guitar Hero, and Rock Band, and on any other game it smacks of the bad horror movies with popular flavor of the month bands all over the soundtrack. Racing games, I'm looking at you. I still remember the music from Big Blue on F-Zero, but couldn't tell you a single track on any of the Need For Speed games that featured mindless, licensed crap. Hire a composer! I blame the mainstreaming of games for this particular issue.

Music is the unsung hero of the gaming world. It's not till you play small company Asian F2P MMORPGS that soundtracks contain heavy metal, all the whilst your slaying herds of butterflies that you truly apprecaite how much of an effect it has on your gameplay. To me, it adds a whole level of that crack of the gaming world known as immersion.

Mind you, I don't go as far to research game-soundtracks and their composers.

It's kinda like my molars, They enhance my eating, but I don't think about them everyday. However if they were gone I'd definantly know.

Also - Age of Conan has an excellent soundtrack, some Norse guy I think.

FurryMIG--I can't agree with you more about Burnout 3's soundtrack. I never played Burnout 2, but what it did with sound sounds pretty awesome from your account. Burnout 3's soundtrack had two or three good songs on it, tops. The rest was horrible, and its awfulness was only increased by its lack of appropriateness. Good God, why whiny, unemotional pop-punk for a driving game? I might understand it if it got my blood pumping, but the it only got it to boil instead. Why?

Music in gaming, for me, is extremely important. If well done, it only adds to the emotion and atmosphere of the story. Think of your favorite movies, would they be the same if you took out all the music, especially the tracks that played in the most dramatic scenes of said film? Of course not. They'd feel boring and empty. At the same time, I think too much music, and indeed, liscenced music is unfitting for a game. Having music tracks playing all the time diludes the thrill and emotion of the more dramatic tracks that play at the key moments in the story. Silence adds to a games mood as well. In some cases, a games soundtrack is one of the more memorable things from the game, not unlike the story. This is especially true for my favorites:

Kelly Bailey's work on all of the games in the Half-Life series.
- Very well composed, varied tracks that always enhanced the mood of the given situation in which they played. Whether it was slow, atmospheric tracks that make you feel uneasy to rock/electronica heavy beats that got the heart pumping to match the action. A grossly underappreciated musician.

Jeehun Hwang's work on the Mechwarrior 2 series.
- Very moody, ambient music with twinges of electronica and metal that fit very well with the theme of a far flung battlefield dominated by 30 foot tall walking war machines. Yet another underappreciated artist. His music was years ahead of it's time in the world of gaming.

Martin O'Donnel's work on the first Halo soundtrack.
- The first games music was very well composed and just felt right. Had a very epic feel to the orchestral arrangements.

This thread makes me want to play Mega Man.

The Resident Evil 4 Mercenaries minigame has good music, notably Wesker and HUNK's themes. Knights O' The Ol' Republic has one of the most epic final boss themes I've ever heard. Also, there's the obligatory mention of Halo's title screen.

The Guilty Gear series is known for its kickass music. Here's one of the songs - No Mercy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDk1MQU0n1o&feature=related

One of the things I hate about some games is when the final boss fight has the same theme as the rest of the boss fights. It just seems, underwhelming and unfitting.

I think the "best" music is the kind that gets stuck in your head and makes you want to hum/whistle it. Yeah, Halo has good music...but the only real song I remember is the intro theme to Halo 1.

Games like Phoenix Wright, however, have me going absolutely bonkers because of how addictive the courtroom song is.

...but I guess that didn't answer your question. Yes, I believe it's relevant. Music can sets the mood of a moment.

As for Mass Effect's music, I think it gave it a rather star-trecky feel to it. Additionally, you've gotta love that cheesy elevator music that plays while you wait.

OC Remix (www.ocremix.org PLUG!) is a great testament to music from games. Their remix projects are especially good (like The Dark Side of Phobos and Voices of the Lifestream).

My personal favourites are Guilty Gear, C&C and Road Rash. The last, in particular, certainly set the tone and mood of the game. The GTA series has always had music that appreciates the times and tastes of the time/culture.

And the Duke Nukem theme by Megadeth is EPIC WIN on a stick. I need to get to A Night in Fantasia at some point >_>

I'm extremely happy to know that I'm not the only person who cares so much for a game's soundtrack.
Some favorites off the top of my head: most of Sonic Adventure soundtrack (Dreamcast)
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time Soundtrack - Koji Kondo
Star Fox 64 - Koji Kondo
Metroid Prime - space pirate theme - Yenji Yamamoto
Shenmue - Yuzo Koshiro

My favorite game of all time, Ocarina of Time, isn't memorable just for gameplay - a huge part of it was the music. Though there's been very good sequels since, the music hasn't lived up the first 3D Zelda, which is part of the reason none have surpassed it.

It definitely makes a huge difference. Such as in games like Final Fantasy.

Music should be able to make or break a game, but all of those fat sweaty 12 year olds aren't really caring so much because they're too busy eating chips over the sound of the game. Pity eh?

Although the music in Prince of Persia - Warrior Within, can DIE! I HATE the battle theme (it's like 13 seconds of horrible rocks that LOOPS endlessly) and it's basically the only battle theme there is.

*Shudder*

Gamemusic has been very important to me ever since I started gaming. A good soundtrack can make a so-so game great in my mind.

I'm a dedicated fan of so-called chipmusic, for example Martin Galway, David Whittaker, Mark Cooksey, Jun Chikuma (respectively Arkanoid, Dogs of War, Paperboy, Faxanadu).

Newer games though .... I liked the music in Chrono Cross, but that's pretty old by now. Homeworld, of course, but that's like ten years old now too. Same with Fallout.

I'm trying to remember some tune from a game I've been playing recently, but it seems military marching music from bad synthesizers and lame samples only pop up.

A lot of newer game music sounds just like music for film; non-committal, uninspired and run-of-the-mill orchestral scores churned through dubious software synthesizers with much too many filters applied.

I can't recall a single tune from any (contemporary) game I've played the last few years, except the irritating song played in Battlefield 1942 as you're looking for a server; partly because I know the guy who wrote it and because it gets pretty annoying pretty quick. Even games I played really a lot (Titan Quest for one) haven't left a single memorable melody in my head. Appalling! Gaddamit, I can march around singing game tunes from the 80's and 90's all day long, what the hell happened to game music?

Video game music is like elevator music. It must be subtle, repetitive, pleasant and able to flow into other music seamlessly. Since lists are easy here's mine.

Subtle: Game music must never jar the player into paying more attention to the music than the game itself. This has to do with the significant amount of time the player will be hearing each song. If there are elements of the music that are bombastic or memorable it will draw attention to the repetitiveness of the piece, which can make it more annoying for the player. If you want an example, the post above mentioned the "Battlefied" series. I can hum the theme right now, and aside from Mario I don't think I can say that about any other game.

Repetitive: Games have gotten significantly longer since save features became popular and PC gaming got big. So instead of writing a 18-20 hour score most game developers use atmospheric music. This means the songs still are short (normally five minutes), but loop seamlessly and serve as mood setting rather than a piece of music to be intellectualized. Other games (namely sports games) often license pop music and play it on a sort of random repeat setting. Don't let it fool you this is still repetition.

Pleasant: Use instruments played with a certain timbre. That is to say, pitches that never go too high or low. Moderate coloration, no sudden sharp attacks, long releases for pad elements and minimal modulation (vibrato, or tremolo). Sorry for technical junk, I don't know how to put it otherwise.

Seamlessness: A lot of times game designers use game music to set a mood. An early example is eating a star in Super Mario Brothers. The music no matter where it was made sense to go into the new (frantic) music. This method is still very much alive today.

If I was going to be critical of game music I would say that it's all gone a little Pete Tong. There are certainly new ideas out there (judging from Mass Effect's stellar Jeff Mills impression), but they just aren't touching the audience in a way that most gamers identify with.

I would have to say the Halo music by Marty O'Donnell, but most of all "Blow me Away" by: Breaking Benjamin in Halo 2. The two minutes of the game where that song was playing were the most memorable two minutes of the Halo 2 campaign for me. I also liked the song during the Mass Effect credits.

Okay, the topic creator gets super-bonus points from me right off the bat for liking Tyrian's music. That game's music was nothing short of a criminally underrated list of masterpiece after masterpiece. Not to mention that the game itself was THE best top-down shoot-em-up ever. Hands down.

That said, I believe that good music in a game can either define a game, or be ignored.
By that, I mean that there are two types of game music, the type you don't notice, but you'd notice if it was gone. The very nature of this type of music makes it a bit hard to actually find a good game, but a lot of the old classic Doom's music was like this. (The ones that didn't fit into category nr.2, that is)

The other type of music, the type that defines a game, is more common and easy to do, but doesn't make it worse at all.
Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Megaman, Doom, Guilty Gear, Halo (I hate the game, but the music was sublime, I will happily accept that much), Metal Gear Solid and Contra are good examples. These games are defined by their music, and more often than not, specific songs return game after game, cherished and loved by fans worldwide.
I still get goosebumps whenever I hear Vampire Killer or the short but endlessly, namelessly satisfying tune at the end of every Contra level. And god help me, I feel like saluting my TV screen when the epic, rousing Metal Gear theme starts playing at the end credits of MGS3.
But I can only mention maybe one or two of Doom's songs, but if you remove all music...well, the experience gets worse. (Yes, I know Doom pretty much made Midi versions of a lot of popular rock music, so what?)

That said, I think that music in games nowadays has...lost it's ways, mostly.
We no longer have lovely songs you can keep in your head after the game is turned off. Try remembering any music from any game lately, with the possible exception of Halo's theme song...
I don't think I can, sadly.
Music is very much relevant, and back in the day a game's background music could add or subtract considerable points from the ten-grade score.
And I think that when game designers realize that music still is important, gaming will become better, ever so slightly. Not necessarily more immersive, but better and more enjoyable.

Of course music in games is important. I don't think it's strictly necessary in some online games, and when a developer tacks on some awful techno or rock garbage just because they feel like they have to, it detracts more than adds to the experience. However, in singleplayer games I think music is important in the same way it's important in a movie and can add to the experience in the same way.

My favorite game composer is Alexander Brandon, most famously from Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex. He often works with another composer named Michiel Van den Bos who's also amazing. I don't think they're very well-known, but they really write some fantastic game music using simple mod tools.

Best soundtracks I've ever heard are Unreal Tournament (1) and Donkey Kong Country 2. Beyond Good and Evil's was very memorable too.

As everyone so far has already said, music really has been overlooked recently... I onestly can't remember a recent game that had a decent soundtrack( with the exeption of "Still alive" from Portal.
I'm a bit surprized no one's mentioned Mark Morgan so far, the creator of the soundtracks from Fallout and Planescape Torment. He's probably my favorite composer since each of his melodies seems to capture the essence of the moment when it's used, each song captures the personality of the character it was meant for.
Among other favorites there is Jeremy Soule, Frank Klepacky, and the soundtracks from Halo, Eve Online, Beyond Good and Evil. The Final Fantasy ones also did the job nicely.

personally, i think halo 2 had one of the best soundtracks ive ever heard, alot of the movements, such as follow (featured in the banshee chase scene on the "heretic"), being done by my favourite band "incubus".
That and a few mind blowing solos from "Steve Vai" and "blow me away" by "breaking benjamin", just make that game more enjoyable to play, especially because when you look back at the game you realise how damn boring it is when your not trying to break it.

But on one of the last levels as the master cheif, when you reach the mausoleum and there is that massive old battle between the elite and the brutes, the second "blow me away" by breaking benjamin starts it just pumps you up and throws you into the game, and makes you wanna run to the middle and blow everythings minds out (unless you're playing on legendary difficulty, in which i cower in a corner waiting for them to kill each other.....hehe), it completes the game experience.

I think the music in Mass Effect is terrific. Usually I find game music to be derivative and uninspired, with JRPG's being some of the most egregious offenders.

But Mass Effect's music, while definitely inspired by the whole Tangerine Dream/Vangelis Bladerunner moment in movie soundtracks, is by no means derivative. If anything it's a little stranger. More importantly, it plays a large part in defining the mood of the game. The music has this throwback Doctor Who feel to it, almost eerie actually. If the game had had more orchestral music, in the vein of Halo, I think it would've lost a lot of character.

I also think Katamari Damacy had a decent soundtrack and the original Tenchu on the PS1 had pretty interesting music.

FurryMIG:

To game developers, No. It's cheaper to licence (shitty) music made by "real" bands that the ignorant masses listen to, because it will make said ignorant masses more willing to buy "Generic crappy game for the ignroant masses" in the unlikely even they even plan to put music into it.

It's actually cheaper to pay someone who doesn't know what they're doing to fiddle around with a mixer until something resembling music appears.

And I say the best soundtrack I listen to is Chrono Cross.

I loved the music in the Project gotham games.

They where very nice.

Mass Effect has a good soundtrack I also like the music from gears of war.

I'm not sure why i like the music from GoW, it just seems to fit in to the style of gaming.

EDIT: and the music from KuF as I am a fan of all things metal.

Oh and legend of Zeld OoT

I think Grant Kirkhope with his tracks from Banjo Kazooie/Tooie / Goldeneye just a few to name and Koji Kondo from his works in Zelda which really I found beautiful.

Music is very important to the enjoyment of a game.

No game I can remember shows that as strongly as Halo 3. Unlike most games, Halo 3 has an adaptive score, where seperate parts of the score are triggered seperately as the player advances, rather than just starting the whole track on a single trigger. That means that given events are always accompanied by the same audio cues, like in a film. It's an incredibly effective use of music in an action game, and really should be setting the standard for future action game audio.

I'll go as far as saying that the music is a significant part of the impact of Halo, and explains, in part, the reputation it has. I think it's also telling that Marty O'Donnell is very involved with the production of Halo, rather than being brought into the process late with no input and just doing music. (This isn't unique, Akira Yamaoka had a lot of input into the Silent Hill games, and they're another series with very memorable audio).

Ah Nubuo Uematsu, musical genius.

Final fantasy games just wouldn't have been so epic if not for his awesome composing skills.

MacCarth:
As for Mass Effect's music, I think it gave it a rather star-trecky feel to it. Additionally, you've gotta love that cheesy elevator music that plays while you wait.

Ha! That reminds me of the music in Dead Rising. The calm shopping center cheesy... I don't even know what to call it.

Game music is a lost art. I don't mind licensed music where it fits, like in the GTA radio and similar, because it's far easier than if a single composer would have to make new rap songs (I'm guessing it would lead to hillarious results in most cases if they tried).

As mentioned at the top: Frank is at the moment the indisputable king of modern gaming music, because frankly (haha!), he's the only one really composing anymore it seems.

Oh sure, the music in The Witcher fit the atmosphere very well, but it's still only movie music. It lacks personality. Game music has lacked personality for a long time now. Only the classics like Mega Man, Castlevania and Final Fantasy (FF gets a questionmark even) seem to be trying still. Now admittedly, I haven't exactly played every game made since 1998, but the only memorable soundtrack with real personality that I can remember from western games is StarCraft and WC2 before that. Incidently, WC3 was a grave dissapointment for me as far as music goes.

Game creators nowadays have no faith in the music. It's often turned down really low, as if they're really slighly ashamed of it or that they don't want it to "interfere" with the game. In that case, why is it even there? Even in Universe at War I had to turn it way up to be able to hear it decently, and then it WAS good. Why hide it? One of the few games were the music is distinct and well-used in HL2, but it's only there for some short, select moments (which is fine!), so it's not really a complete track; not really something to put on the 'ol playlist.