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People who listen to video game OSTs and nothing else

Count me in as another that just listens to video game music. I'm surprised to see so many here like me.

Like other people in the thread, I prefer instrumental to vocals. I'm sure there would be lots of classic music I would like if I encountered it, but I don't really ever check out random songs. I'll only look up music that I've heard before and liked. Same goes for VG music, I don't have any interest in it if I haven't played the game associated with it.

The only non VG songs I have on my computer and Ipod are some Eminem and Metallica.
 
I listen to all kinds of music from folk to heavy metal and industrial like KMFDM and Iron Savior. But I would be fooling everyone if I said I don't have a preference for soundtracks, mostly from games and animation.

My favorite OST from this gen is actually not NieR but Gran Turismo 5, simply because of the sheer variety and quality of tracks. 197 tracks of sheer goodness!
 
holy cow this is ODD!!!!!

it must be a comfort thing because most VG music isn't all that.

If it's classically based, well shit, there is a world of stuff out there. a lot of it stellar, really brilliant.

if it's modern, then again, look around, Spotify/MOG etc have 16 - 20 million tracks and if you find a genre/song you like the software will suggest stuff.

i am really enjoying MOG because my tastes are so broad i can zoom around, have it find me stuff and basically listen to a huge range of shit. my current queue has mozart, muse, robbie williams, metallica, kylie, beethoven, tiesto, carl cox, queen, grinspoon, etc.

i can't get to listening to such a small sample, but ymmv.
 
I also pretty much listen to video game music, and there really is nothing wrong with that. It's not like that kind of music only encompasses one genre; it spreads across pretty much all of them, and I like songs from those various genres.

The only reason why I specifically pay attention to video game music is because it's what I choose to invest time in. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of songs out there that are not video game related that I'd like, but if I have no motivation to search for them due to them being outside my own interests (and it's not like there is a shortage of good video game music to listen to, either), then there really shouldn't be any problem with that.

To be honest, I'd find it even more weird if someone thinks that listening to video game music is odd. It's not the era of chiptunes anymore; that kind of thinking makes no sense in current times.

EDIT: Oh, and it's not just OSTs I listen to, obviously. Remixes and such are always a pleasure to lend an ear to as well.
 
"I don't like your music tastes so I'm gonna open a thread to criticize you in front of a crowd of strangers" Just let him be, let his ears listen to whatever he wants. I can totally see why he might prefer VG music as it's more melody/harmony oriented than any other artsy lyric-y music. He might want to listen to some progressive rock, though.
 
OP, your mate sounds a bit pretentious tbh. Variety is the spice of life. I really like VGM also. But I would never solely listen to *just* that, or I would be giving up so much. Unthinkable.
 
King_Richard said:
I love video game music and have dozens of albums. However, I also love electronic and alternative music, and I find video game music not very fitting for rides, so video game music is for studying/lounging, and electronic and alternative for driving. Right now, I'm listening to Skyrim Atmospheres
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Going into playing Skyrim, I expected mostly standard orchestral fare, but Jeremy Soule's aptitude for ambience ensured there are tracks in Skyrim I will always keep in my grey matter playlist.
 
I don't really like normal music. Video game music is always written as an accompaniment to the game itself which I always enjoy listening to isolated because it gives you a whole different perspective on the work put into it and how it was layer with sound effects and whatnot.

Basically never play video game music in front of non-gamers because they simply will not understand and I don't blame the- BLUAAAHH LAHHH LAAAAA BLUAAAHHH ARRRRR
 
Pretty much all I listen to as most music I'm exposed to is when I play games. Or watch movies. The odd "real" music here and there.

You can't beat taking in the original Pokémon anime intro theme song to a music lesson when your teachers asks the students to bring in a piece of music they like. Teacher was strangely quite into it. Obviously some of my class mates (the girls) weren't too impressed, but screw 'em! Gotta catch 'em all!
 
Nohing wrong in doing so even though it seems kind of strange to me. It's sort of like those people that refuse to listen to anything outside one or two specific genres. Why limit your exposure to music when there's so much great music to be found out there, not to mention all the great lyricists working in music?
 
It's a form of immaturity.

To a young adolescent mind, it makes sense. You love video games, so you want to immerse yourself with reminders of them at all times. Video game music is a natural extension of that. You're enjoying the music more for the nostalgia and memories than the actual quality of the tracks.

Eventually most people grow out of their crappy-music phase.
 
Quadraphonic said:
It's a form of immaturity.

To a young adolescent mind, it makes sense. You love video games, so you want to immerse yourself with reminders of them at all times. Video game music is a natural extension of that. You're enjoying the music more for the nostalgia and memories than the actual quality of the tracks.

Eventually most people grow out of their crappy-music phase.
Click to expand...

Almost sounds like you're saying playing games is immature.

I'm pretty old now, but I just like game music. Music for me tends to hold value if I have something to attach to it. This just so happens to be something exactly like that. I.e. I relate the music to the struggle of such and such boss. Drake or whoever else has nothing like that for me. That music to me "Just is". Nothing to relate back to. No memories attached to it.

Also, the compositions tend to be pretty damn great, so yeah. You can't say video game music is immature or whatever (not that you specifically said that) when regional Orchestra groups get involved...
 
Quadraphonic said:
It's a form of immaturity.

To a young adolescent mind, it makes sense. You love video games, so you want to immerse yourself with reminders of them at all times. Video game music is a natural extension of that. You're enjoying the music more for the nostalgia and memories than the actual quality of the tracks.

Eventually most people grow out of their crappy-music phase.
Click to expand...

That's a really immature way to view it. There is such a thing as well-composed VG music that is pleasant to listen to period, not simply within the context of remembering the game's experiences. For that matter you can apply the 'crappy music phase' to the current pop/rap/rock fads/whatever-genre-you-dislike.
 
I once had a friend who would only listen to Sonic soundtracks. He told me about how serious the song were in regards of character development and what they meant to him. I found it strange and somewhat disturbing given the fact that most 3D Sonic games pretty much sucked.

I like to listen to video game OSTs once in a while, like FF, SOTN or SM64. There is lot of cool stuff from the 8 and 16 bit era too, but limiting my audio experience to only this?

Hell no.
 
I mostly listen to video game music, but not exclusively. It is like 75% OST and 25% other kinds of music. Though part of this 25% are Pokémon and One Piece opening songs lol

Quadraphonic said:
It's a form of immaturity.

To a young adolescent mind, it makes sense. You love video games, so you want to immerse yourself with reminders of them at all times. Video game music is a natural extension of that. You're enjoying the music more for the nostalgia and memories than the actual quality of the tracks.

Eventually most people grow out of their crappy-music phase.
Click to expand...

What the fuck am I reading.
 
SystemBug said:
I have been taking a ride to school and back with a friend of mine who's a pretty big gamer. He has an AUX cable in the car and connects his iPod and plays the music of video games that he plays. Basically, it's music from popular games like Zelda, Persona, and Resident Evil. Now, I am not opposed to him playing video game OSTs, I know people listen to them - hell I sometimes listen to film scores. However, he pretty much only puts video game music on.

Luckily, he allows me to put up the music I listen to as well but he always criticizes the shit out of it. Which would be fine if he was a music critic or something be he isn't. I was playing the new Drake album on our ride home this evening, and started with Tuscan Leather.

"This has to be the most annoying intro I have ever heard"

and then I switched to Worst Behavior

"This is so repetitive, why does he keep saying the same shit?"

now I know using the Drake example is asking for trouble but it's not just Drake. I listen to other music to, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, and other stuff and every time I put those on he goes quite and acts like hes suffering.

So I guess the question I am asking is how many of you guys listen to video game music exclusively, but more importantly why do you prefer to artist/band based music?
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Pretty much everyone who puts themselves in a bubble reacts this way when exposed to foreign material, whether it's music, food, culture, politics...

Funny thing is that the composers of that music almost surely listened to all sorts of music.
 
1. "Video game music" isn't a genre
2. People can listen to whatever they damn well please. If one ends up gravitating to a narrow subset of music either based on genre or based on evocative association then learn to deal with it and shut up.
3. With that said, if you do love music then it would serve you to experiment with various sources and styles and see what does and doesn't work for you. And don't be discriminate. If you have an affinity for chiptunes, don't just assume that video games are your only source as there are plenty of original chiptune artists. If you like J-Pop, don't assume it has to be anime related. Not all rap or hiphop is stuff you hear on the radio. Not all instrumental orchestral music is "classical", and so on.

But most of all go back to point 2, cause seriously you aren't helping by trying to "expand their horizons" by coercion. More than likely the other person will just find you annoying. If they want to expand their musical tastes they will do so on their own terms.
 
I only listen to a game's OST if it's really good.
Some examples of what I've listened to, outside of the game:
-Chrono Trigger
-Brave Fencer Musashi
-Shadow of the Colossus
-Flower
-NieR
-Shadows of the Damned
-Dead Rising series

I also started listening to some of the songs I added to Stepmania, when I was really into that game. Some of the songs I had in my library were super catchy!
 
It really just depends on the mood.

A shitload of Falcom related CDs, Castlevania, old Motoi Sakuraba, Yuzo Koshiro, Lunar and Grandia, Okami, JAM PROJECT, Sawano, Ace Combat, some of the good Touhou remix CDs, Yuki Kajiura and some Yume Nikki remix CDs as examples on one hand

and on another hand, when I don't feel like listening to game or show-related music, there's non-Touhou Comiket releases, zts, Sound Providers, ShinSight Trio, Guru, Tipper, Massive Attack, De La Soul and some choice Venetian Snares albums on the other list.

So no, I don't listen to videogame music exclusively. I listen to it a LOT, sure, but sometimes a game's music will have actually introduced me to the genre of music it's from and I'll end up finding some good related CDs. Lately I've been on a non-Touhou original mix Comiket CD binge - I'm currently listening to syatten's Spherepolis CD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bZ7OTztsjRA#t=30
 
For me the 'problem' isn't actually the type of music (and as said before vg music is not a genre) it's that somebody is just exclusively obsessing over a particular thing. I'm an open minded person, I believe people should pretty much be able to do what they want as long as it's not hurting anyone else or too illegal, however, just playing video games and listening to soundtracks is unhealthy. How are you meant to get anywhere or do anything in life ?
 
90% what I listen to is vg, movie or series soundtracks. Rest is mainly classical, pop or melodic metal. As some have said VG and similar music is made to be played on the backround and I enjoy it mainly multitasking with whatever I am doing.
 
I have a friend like this, but he only listen music from old games (PS1>backwards).
He listen things like Megaman, Symphony of the Night, Streets of Rage.

I don't have a problem with it. I think it's a bit weird, but that's all. I even like some games music too, but they're not in my playlist. Never hehe.
Although I can't deny that there are some quality music in a lot of games.

The Last Story is one that comes to mind now.
 
Quadraphonic said:
It's a form of immaturity.

To a young adolescent mind, it makes sense. You love video games, so you want to immerse yourself with reminders of them at all times. Video game music is a natural extension of that. You're enjoying the music more for the nostalgia and memories than the actual quality of the tracks.

Eventually most people grow out of their crappy-music phase.
Click to expand...

This is BS the track I posted back there is from a game I have never played before and it's one of my favorites. You need to grow up yourself
 
I'm somewhat guilty of that, though I didn't spend much time dedicated to listening music for the last few years in general. But before that I exclusively listened to video game/movie soundtracks and to a little lesser extent classical music.

I think there are multiple reasons for that: First and most obviously, video game music is related to video games and as video games were (and are) a huge hobby of mine, it came naturally. Second, I'm mostly not into vocals and like instrumental music better, especially with a focus on melody. Also I always was an outsider in school, never really knowing or wanting to know what music or band other kids were listening to, so I didn't really come into contact with a lot of mainstream music.
 
Laughing Banana said:
It's.... a bit disheartening that me preferring to listen to Video Game OST is apparently enough to qualify me to be called names and stuff, especially in GAF :(

I mean, I do listen to other music occasionally, especially jazz and orchestrated music, but not nearly as often as I do listening to Game OSTs. It's sad that people would jeer and point fingers towards me just because of that, as if preference doesn't play a part in what music people like to hear and enjoy.
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I do think it's worth trying to listen to more stuff, but that's why you'd just find a type of music you like and hit up Pandora, iTunes radio, whatever. Either you broaden the number of artists and tracks you listen to or at least you get some variety of stuff you'd enjoy if you're properly applying likes/dislikes.

Actually, I guess that highlights how I can be with game music: I'll find some tracks I really like, but I'll rarely want to listen to, say, a radio of it. Probably partially because if I feel like listening to something specific usually a more specific station or whatever will suit me better, partially because a lot of game music IS more situational and not something you can really enjoy on its own (especially from games that went with a more movie-like score), and partially because... well, their selection usually kind of sucks, haha. Something like Pandora has a "game" music station but it's mainly just Halo, Nintendo, and Final Fantasy, you don't exactly get a wide variety of Japanese game soundtracks in those or even that many American ones.
Quadraphonic said:
It's a form of immaturity.

To a young adolescent mind, it makes sense. You love video games, so you want to immerse yourself with reminders of them at all times. Video game music is a natural extension of that. You're enjoying the music more for the nostalgia and memories than the actual quality of the tracks.

Eventually most people grow out of their crappy-music phase.
Click to expand...
Yeah, well, I tend to just listen to whatever I enjoy. I don't think I can even describe it well, maybe a game song will nail it, maybe something from a more respected band, or just some random pop song somehow has a tune I really like even if I won't really want to admit it. Though I have gotten tired of most FF music and now something like Blind Guardian bores me when I used to really like them.
 
Right now my genre breakdown in iTunes this:

242 Game Soundtracks
55 Film Soundtracks
60 Metal
30 Electronic
25 Pop
20 Rock
(Just to clarify, I don't buy individual songs so these are all full albums.)

I listen to game soundtracks way more than anything else. For me I think it's because there is a lot of meaning and nostalgia / good memories associated with them.

I think it has to do heavily with the fact that there is a lot of direction that goes into the production of a soundtrack for any kind of media. The artist is essentially being commissioned by someone to produce a soundtrack, whereas other artists might be trying to make a quick buck and drop 5 filler tracks into an album with 5 good ones.

I tend to rip my own music straight from game archive files though, most soundtracks will skip over a lot of music. For example, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's official soundtrack (the music was pretty great due to Hans Zimmer's hand in production with Lorne Balfe) is only about an hour long, but if you extract the files directly from the game, it's about 5 hours of pretty good quality music.
 
Eusis said:
Something like Pandora has a "game" music station but it's mainly just Halo, Nintendo, and Final Fantasy, you don't exactly get a wide variety of Japanese game soundtracks in those or even that many American ones.
Click to expand...

If anything, the fact that Falcom's been putting up all their music on iTunes is a great start - and not many games can rival those soundtracks.
 
Anura said:
This is BS the track I posted back there is from a game I have never played before and it's one of my favorites. You need to grow up yourself
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I agree.

Even if I hadn't played The Last Story, I would still think that Toberu Mono is a beautiful song.

It's weird that some people only listen to game music? Yeah. But it's their taste, not mine.

Sometimes I listen to movies music. I have The Lord of the Rings OST here. Although I don't listen only this, I can relate myself a little with those people.
 
I just listen to the radio when I am in the car, but when I am at work and actively choosing the music I am listening to, it is about 95% game music. I just don't really get into lyrical music at all, it simply does nothing for me most of the time. I connect much more with classical style music.
 
Cunning Stunt said:
For me the 'problem' isn't actually the type of music (and as said before vg music is not a genre) it's that somebody is just exclusively obsessing over a particular thing. I'm an open minded person, I believe people should pretty much be able to do what they want as long as it's not hurting anyone else or too illegal, however, just playing video games and listening to soundtracks is unhealthy. How are you meant to get anywhere or do anything in life ?
Click to expand...

What the fuck? It's just music. What practical difference what one listens to will have on their life?

Some people need to realize that just because music is such an important part of their lives it doesn't mean others feel the same. Some people simply don't crave music enough to go beyond what they are directly exposed to.
 
Marjar said:
There's nothing wrong with preferring it, but purely listening to it and shutting out everything else that isn't from a game? Completely different story.
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What's wrong with it? There's more than enough quantity and variety of VG music to keep a lot of people satisfied and entertained pretty much indefinitely. My grandfather just listens to country and nothing else but it never occurred that there was something "wrong" with doing that. You don't earn anything for having broad taste... personally I listen to everything under the sun, I'm a voracious consumer of media and very interested in the history of music, but that's just because that's what it takes to satisfy me, I don't do it because it's "right".
 
I mostly just listen to game music as well. I find it very hard to explain the genres of music I enjoy, but primarily they seem to be found in video games and I'm also not much of a fan of vocals in songs. I'm sure there is plenty of "normal" music out there that I could find to listen to, but to be honest it's far too hard to try and dig through the tons of popular repetitive junk, so I don't bother.

Besides, the notion that game soundtracks are somehow inferior to listening to "real" music is a poor one anyway - we are well past the point where you can just dismiss everything as being chiptunes or poor orchestral tracks. Nier's soundtrack is a perfect example, even without the context for any of those songs they remain haunting and beautiful.
 
To me, good music is good music. I listen to Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Cave etc. But then I also listen to videogame music and the occasional movie score, because there's some good shit there. I can't fathom listening to just videogame music though, that seems to be severely limiting yourself. That's like saying you only watch movies released on LaserDisc.
 
SpecialAgentZ said:
I agree.

Even if I hadn't played The Last Story, I would still think that Toberu Mono is a beautiful song.

It's weird that some people only listen to game music? Yeah. But it's their taste, not mine.

Sometimes I listen to movies music. I have The Lord of the Rings OST here. Although I don't listen only this, I can relate myself a little with those people.
Click to expand...

Yeah and Xenoblade also has some great tracks. Heck I even have the opening theme to an obscure 90's show.

Because it's just so dang good http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z22seoMxgpI&desktop_uri=/watch?v=Z22seoMxgpI
 
Music is music, regardless of where it comes from. I tend to find that a lot of soundtrack stuff doesn't really hold my attention when listened to In isolation. Most likely as it was designed to support another experience. Though I certainly find it odd that someone would only listen to video game soundtracks. There's so much music out there, why limit yourself like that if music is clearly something you enjoy?
 
I listen to a lot of movie soundtracks, I have basically every Angelo Badalamenti, Clint Mansell, Howard Shore, Nick Cave and Trent Reznor score in my playlist. That said, I can never listen to video game music outside of a game. I don't know, something about it just doesn't work for me. Well, unless it's this beautiful song by The National, but that one doesn't really count IMO.
 
Given that a good number of people posted they mostly/only listen to soundtracks, the people who insist in saying there's something wrong/unhealthy/closed-minded with them should probably take a step back and think a bit more before throwing names around.

Music is something that simply ins't that important to me. I can go for weeks without listening to anything and it doesn't bother me. Since I had tons of exposure to videogame music, it's a very convenient source for background music when I'm in the mood since I can quickly find something that'll scratch whatever musical itch I have at the moment with minimal effort: I already listened to those songs while playing the games they come from, so I already know if they'll fit my mood or not and if I relate to that music or not.

For me, the fact "there's TONS of good music out there you should listen to" is actually a barrier. It means I need to spend time and effort digging through countless songs to find stuff I like. I literally have no idea where to begin.

Also, there's the whole genre stuff: whenever you walk into a music store, either physical or digital, you're first asked which genres you'd like to browse. It asks me to know what each genre is, how it sounds like and if I like it or not, which is massively off off-putting be because I am terrible with this.

Finally, I was never a social butterfly so I was spared from being forced into music through teenager peer pressure. I don't feel any social obligation to like or dislike certain genres and the idea that I should go out of my way to listen to everything out there just for the sake of it sounds pointless.
 
I don't listen to only VG soundtracks, but soundtracks generally.

Also production/trailer music, it's a shame that a lot of it is license only. Only a few public albums here and there.
 
Reila said:
What the fuck am I reading.
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He's right.

If you obsess over video games to the point that the only music you find acceptable is from video games you haven't matured as a person. If you're fine with that, cool, but let's not pretend it's not an issue. I love video games as much as the next guy, and I can appreciate a quality song from a game as well, but you will never grow as a person if you don't step out of your little gaming bubble to experience other things.
 
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