Video game music

Lore & Background

Early video game technology and computer chip music: At the time video games had emerged as a popular form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical media in analog waveforms such as cassette tapes and phonograph records. Such components were expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use, making them less than ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases such as Journey, they were used. A more affordable method of having music in a video game was to use digital means, where a specific computer chip would change electrical impulses from computer code into analog sound waves on the fly for output on a speaker.

Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion. While this allowed for the inclusion of music in early arcade video games, it was usually monophonic, looped or used sparingly between stages or at the start of a new game, such as the Namco titles Pac-Man (1980) composed by Toshio Kai or Pole Position (1982) composed by Nobuyuki Ohnogi. The first such game to use a continuous background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikado's Space Invaders, released by Taito in 1978.

It had four descending chromatic bass notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and interacted with the player, increasing pace as the enemies descended on the player. The first video game to feature continuous, melodic background music was Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980, featuring a simple tune that repeats continuously during gameplay. The decision to include any music into a video game meant that at some point it would have to be transcribed into computer code. Some music was original, some was public domain music such as folk songs.

Sound capabilities were limited; the popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, was capable of generating only two tones at a time. As advances were made in silicon technology and costs fell, a definitively new generation of arcade machines and home consoles allowed for great changes in accompanying music. In arcades, machines based on the Motorola 68000 CPU and accompanying various Yamaha YM programmable sound generator sound chips allowed for several more tones or 'channels' of sound, sometimes eight or more.

A Functional Category Within a Vast Taxonomy

Video game music occupies a specific but modest position within the enormous landscape of musical classification. Rather than standing as a standalone genre in its own right, it is grouped under the broader heading of incidental music—music composed for stage and screen. In this category, it shares company with film scores, theatrical music, musical theater compositions, music hall songs, and showtunes. This placement reflects its purpose: music written to serve another medium rather than to exist as a purely autonomous art form.

The surrounding taxonomy is staggering in scope. A single music platform, Gracenote, has catalogued more than two thousand distinct genres, a number that includes labels coined by ordinary listeners rather than industry professionals. The overarching structure branches into classical traditions, popular styles, regional and national forms, religious music, and traditional folk expressions. Yet even this expansive list is explicitly described as not exhaustive, leaving room for countless additional categories that continue to emerge as musical culture evolves.

The Fluidity of Musical Boundaries

One of the most important things to understand about where video game music sits in the classification system is that the system itself is far from rigid. Musical genres and styles are, by their nature, difficult to pin down. Classifications are frequently described as arbitrary, and the boundaries between closely related forms tend to blur and overlap. A larger genre might contain numerous sub-categories, each with its own identity, yet the dividing lines between them are often matters of opinion rather than objective fact.

This fluidity extends to the concept of folksonomy—taxonomies created not by scholars or industry experts but by ordinary music lovers who simply want to describe what they hear. For video game music specifically, this means it resists neat categorization. A single game's soundtrack might draw on electronic production techniques, classical orchestration, folk melodies, or hip-hop rhythms, making any single genre label feel reductive. The classification exists less to define the music precisely and more to help listeners navigate an otherwise overwhelming sea of sound.

Commercial Origins and Practical Discovery

The existence of genre labels, including the one that places video game music under incidental or screen-based scoring, is largely a product of commercial necessity. Most musical genres were originally created by record labels and industry stakeholders as a way to target specific audiences and market their products. The practical purpose of classification is to make music easier to find and to distribute it to the right listeners. In a landscape where a single platform can list over two thousand genres, the ability to sort and search becomes essential.

Video game music, as a functional descriptor, serves this same practical role: it tells a listener that the music was composed to accompany an interactive experience rather than to stand alone as a concert piece. This is distinct from, say, a symphony or a pop single, even though the underlying musical techniques might be identical. The label is a tool for navigation, not a judgment of quality or artistic merit. It exists to help people locate the sound they are looking for within an increasingly vast and fragmented musical ecosystem.

A Soundtrack Drawn From Every Tradition

Because video game music is classified as incidental music written for a medium rather than as a fixed genre, it is not limited to any single musical tradition. The broader taxonomy from which it can draw is remarkably diverse. Classical traditions span Andalusian, Indian, Korean court, Persian, Kurdish, Turkish, and Western forms, with the Western branch alone stretching from Renaissance and Baroque through Romantic and into experimental and minimalist modernism. Popular styles encompass blues, country, electronic, folk, hip-hop, jazz, pop, R&B and soul, and rock, each with its own sub-genres.

Regional categories cover African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Australasian, European, Latin and South American, and North American traditions. Religious music spans Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, and many other faiths. Traditional folk forms include fado, huayno, polka, ragtime, and numerous others. A video game composer, in principle, can reach into any of these wells, making the medium one of the most genre-fluid spaces in all of music.

Reader's Guide

Video game music can be one of two kinds: original or licensed. Early video game music was limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as PSG or FM synthesis chips, leading to the chiptune style. Game soundtracks can change depending on a player's actions or situation, as seen in Frogger (1981) which used at least eleven different gameplay tracks that change according to the player's actions, and Dig Dug (1982) where the music stopped when the player stopped moving. The first game to use a continuous background soundtrack was Space Invaders (1978), with four descending chromatic bass notes that increased pace as enemies descended.

The first game to feature continuous, melodic background music was Rally-X (1980). The first known game to use a DAC for sampled tones was Rally-X (1980). The first known game to feature speech synthesis was Stratovox (1980).