We all know that video game music is to be swept under the aural rug, as it is neither normal nor popular. It's not really music because the medium matters. Never mind that video game systems are arguably more advanced than what people normally use to listen to music. It would be logical for me to consider music not made for video games to not be real. But I found something quite interesting recently. There is a video game called 'Rock Band' that has lots of music that is not real. This was music that used to be played on the radio and is now in a video game. This means that the throngs may no longer listen to those songs because they are from a video game. For example, if someone were to hear Green Grass & High Tides on the radio, then they should be disgusted and start convulsing horribly until their cerebral matter coats the windshield.

I was really taken by that song by the Outlaws and if it weren't for Rock Band, then I never would've heard it. I knew it was an older song and I went to amazon.com and put their greatest hits album on my wish list. I also clicked on the related albums and discovered some more songs of interest by Molly Hatchet, Edgar Winter, America, and The Animals. I never knew the names of those groups, but I was familiar with some of their songs. So because of a video game, at least 5 more CDs will be sold by amazon.com. I also recalled hearing a song I liked on a commercal for a game called 'Lost Odyssey'. I eventually tracked down the song name to White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane.

My cerebral matter will be saved because many songs are becoming normalized, or being used in video games or associated with them in some way.

My friends and I joke about songs in the GH/RB games becoming more associated with gaming and anime than actual jpop. What's happening right now is that people are hearing the songs ingame and discovering older artists that they might have missed. I got quite a few "nudges" from the games that I wouldn't have found or gotten into otherwise (Danzig, Wolfmother, Megadeth, Ratt, The Living End, Rush, Freezepop, The Police, Krokus, Faster P-u-s-s-y-c-a-t, X, Extreme)

My only gripe seems to be how hesitant the GH/RB producers seem to be to spotlight the 80's (outside of GH: Rock the 80's). Considering how widespread flashy guitar music was during the whole era, I'd expect to see a lot more of it in the games. Conversely, much of the modern rokk music that gets put in these games strikes me as garbage (both gameplay and listening-wise).

Edit: lol @ automatic edit for the group that did "Bathroom Wall". Fixed by adding dashes.

Music in Guitar Hero or Rock Band or Grand Theft Auto or Generic Gramer Game aren't game music; music from existing artists is being used in the game, as opposed to an Original Soundtrack being composed by it by someone we usually wouldn't know; stuff in Guitar Hero and Rock Band especially are groups that our fathers knew...if they were actually interested in that type of music during their time...stuff like Grateful Dead, I mean...not Aerosmith.

Post isn't in the "game music" forum.

This happens with my dad a lot. He'll be watching say, House, and suddenly jump up in notice of a song covering an episode-ending montage and jump onto the official site to find out what song it was. I guess with the Top 40 homogeny of most radio networks these days, people are expanding their horizons in other ways. But then where do the people adding music to programs and commercials get their taste from? I bet this is one of those enigmas that boils down to Some Guy Named Steve in London, or something.

House is an awesome show, but the songs they use on that show are horrible.
The intro music reminds me of Secret of Mana music, it would be a shame if someone starts singing in the full version of that song

au contraire my arachnophobia phrend...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/0 … index.html

I don't know about that, but I'd like to know where the producers for "Heroes" get their musical taste from; on the show, there're a number of spiritual, art-rock and electronica that was produced solely for the show, but when you get the "Original Soundtrack" album for the show, it's a compilation of shitty MTV music that never even played on the show! And how do they justify such a monstrosity? By saying that it was the music that inspired the producers to make the show in the first place! But, how do you get something like "Heroes" - about heroism and human existence - out of shit like "Death Cab for Cutie," or "The New Pornographers?" Their music is like they're trying to tell a joke! They essentially just made a compilation of random shitty music, and slapped the "Heroes" label on it...

It's more like Some Guy Named Steve in Hollywood or NYC. These are just co-producers who are bombarded with band members trying to network their demo up so that they can get a little hype on a TV show. If "Steve" likes it or feels it fits with the project, you're in.

I went to a seminar with girlfriend-at-the-time who had classical musical training and the only worthwhile advice the panel could give was: "Court the tv people. They'll get you exposure."

One would assume that it's because the record industry is tanking, but it's always been shrewd practice for a band or artist to tag onto as many household-name TV and movie soundtrack projects as possible. Even to a point where they'd re-release a 5-year-old song to make it onto a compilation.