Is Music in Games as Important and Great as in Films?

Jason Graves Conducting his Score of Until Dawn. Courtesy of Wikipedia

Video game composer tend to be put into an entirely different career type than film and TV composers. They're often paid much less, in many cases understandably, and receive very little credit for what they do. But should any of that actually happen? In my opinion, not at all. I understand that that statement might freak some people out, but I have my reasons why I would say that. These days, video games can tell a story just as well as a movie. Especially big budget games that are given hours of work that results in millions of followers tend to have really great stories, and sometimes really great music.

Difficulty of Game Scores vs Film Scores

It takes a lot of work to create any music, that's for sure. Writing it for film is definitely difficult, but can game scores be equally difficult to compose? My answer: yes and no. Often times, game composers are only writing a small amount of music that will be played for possible hours on end. It takes real skill and effort to make the loop of music flow and maintain the feel of music before it. I've seen games do this the easy way by their music fade out between tracks, but it just doesn't flow; making your music fade between tracks is a bandage, not a solution. Game composers that know what they're doing and want to take the time to do it will make their tracks flow into one another. It's difficult to explain, and even more difficult to do, but it's such a necessity. Making a game score truly flow is what makes game music as difficult as film music.

Are Games Scores Actually Important?

As usual: it depends. Mobile games that you only play for a few minutes without your sound on don't always need music. However, if a composer is good enough for you to want to wear your headphones so that you can listen to the music, that's a huge success, and the composer should keep doing things like that. On the other side of the argument, a game that you play for hours on end that actually has a story absolutely needs it's own music. I recently saw an article that talks about the important nostalgia that video game music provides us. In my opinion, that's a huge reason to have music in games. Anyone that's ever played a classic game like the Legend of Zelda or Super Mario understands just how great you can feel when you hear the game's music. In many cases, you might want to play the game again after you hear the music.

In general, video game music can and often is as important as a film score, and can be just as memorable as well. The day that composers stop writing music for video games is the day that, just like film, %50 of the story will vanish.