Video game music
Soundtracks that evolved from simple chips to complex compositions.
Video game music (VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips, leading to the chiptune style. With technological advances, video game music has grown to include a wider range of sounds, and is either original or licensed. Its popularity has created education and job opportunities, generated awards, and led to commercial sales and concerts.
Lore & Background
At the time video games emerged in the late 1970s, music was stored on analog media like cassette tapes and phonograph records, which were expensive and prone to breakage. A more affordable method used digital means, where a computer chip changed electrical impulses into analog sound waves.
Reader's Guide
Video game music's significance lies in its evolution from simple chip-generated sounds to complex compositions, driven by technological advances. Early limitations led to the chiptune style, which defined the sound of early video games. Composers such as Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros.), Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), and Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage) became notable for their work. Its legacy includes inspiring education and job opportunities, and it remains a vibrant part of gaming culture.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is video game music and where did it come from?
Video game music is the soundtrack composed specifically to accompany interactive gameplay. It originated in the era of programmable sound generators and FM synthesis chips, which produced the distinctive chiptune aesthetic before hardware advances unlocked far richer orchestral and synthesized arrangements.
Why is video game music culturally significant?
VGM has grown into a recognized art form that supports dedicated education programs, career paths, award ceremonies, and live concert series. Its fan base is large enough to drive commercial soundtrack sales and recurring performance events, blurring the line between interactive media and traditional music.
What's the difference between chiptune and modern video game music?
Chiptune is the retro style built from the raw waveforms of 8-bit and 16-bit sound chips, whereas modern VGM can layer full orchestras, electronic textures, and licensed recordings. The shift from chip-based limitations to near-unlimited sound design is one of the genre's defining evolutionary arcs.
Can a video game soundtrack include songs that weren't originally written for the game?
Yes—developers may pair original compositions with licensed tracks from existing artists, depending on budget and creative vision. This means a single title's audio landscape can range from a fully bespoke score to a curated playlist of pre-existing songs.
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