Very few genres of music have affected me as much as music from video games. They were a huge part of my youth (but I still remembered to play outside and be creative) and, coupled with high school music education, became a driving force of my musical development.
There is SO much great music that has been written over the past 3o years for this dynamic and exciting medium and I really want to highlight some of its repertoire – canonical or not – on my website. Great music is meant to be shared and I want to spread some of my favourites to you.
This doesn’t necessarily mean they’re “good,” whatever that even means, but simply that they resonate with me and are beautiful in their own way and I am certainly not the only one who thinks that way…
The Video Game Music Preservation Foundation is an archive of the canon and repertoire of VGM. Some music purists may find it strange to talk about the “canon” or “repertoire” of VGM, but it’s really there and it’s important to so many people. There is a canon of all genres: Of blues, of jazz, of ’50s, of Baroque Music (or all Classical music, for that matter), pop and yes, video game music. The archive can be found at…
… and I have immeasurable respect for these folks. Granted, it’s not complete, but they’re building and I support that entirely.
Now, onto this week’s selection: “Title” from Sim City for the SNES.
Sim City (by MAXIS) was first released for PC in 1989 as a simulation where one builds their own city, manages its citizens and repels/recovers from natural disasters. It was ported to SNES in 1991 as one of the first games to land on the system and it made quite the splash.
The menu title is one that really stuck with me, where I would just listen to the music for minutes on end, feeling no need to press start and begin. When I was 8, I recorded it on an an old cassette player, putting the microphone to the TV speaker and just letting the loop run.
Two of the top comments on the YouTube link sum up my thoughts perfectly:
I love this music, reminds me of my childhood, where nothing mattered at all. Just chilling playing my SNES…ahh good times. reniisgod
What you say is so true. Somehow nobody ever mentioned it, but you are right: nothing mattered at all.
dedwArzZ
To listen to the whole score, you can find it at the VGMPF Sim City page.
To listen to more of my rantings on VGM, check out my podcast at http://www.intothescore.com!
Thanks,
Kenley
Kenley,
It’s great that no matter how silly or bizarre these tracks are, they still hold a place in nostalgia. I can safely say that, for me, playing SimCity did NOT sound like that. My city was always poor, the streets were congested, fires were everywhere and crime was over the top because I couldn’t get enough funding to afford protection… man.
As a fellow VGM advocate and composer, I hope you’ll check out my own (new) blog and give your insight on some of the stuff I write about.