Grab Your Controller & Press Play

Writing and Design by Isabella Aranda Garcia

Even if you’ve never picked up a controller, chances are you can hum the Super Mario Bros. theme without thinking twice. That iconic tune has become a cultural staple—proof that video game music has quietly embedded itself into everyday life. What began as a simple jingle, created by composer Koji Kondo, challenged developers to be wildly creative within tight limitations. And somehow, those beeps and bloops became unforgettable.

Level 1: Early influence on techno

Before video games were in homes, they were in arcades, and they could only produce slight, high-pitched sounds. The first distinct video game song was in 1975’s Gun Fight, a.k.a Western Gun; it was a monophonic (only one line of melody instead of layered melodies) excerpt of Chopin’s Funeral March, which was played whenever the gamer was killed—a fun, yet slightly creepy, addition to the game.

“Back then, game music was very basic,” explains Eliyahu Greenwald, a freelance sound designer who works on indie games. “You had your blips and bloops—sounds that reacted to actions based on code. It was all very limited, but it worked.“ Fast forward to 1978: Space Invaders becomes the first game to feature a soundtrack. Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, the song, a four-note theme, sped up as the aliens came closer to the player’s cannon. Initially the speeding up was an error from limited processing power, causing the music to process faster as fewer aliens remained. But this simple four-note soundtrack became a major influence on modern music. For example, in 1978, Yellow Magic Orchestra’s song “Computer Game: Theme from Circus” sampled Space Invaders’ sound, and in 1984, Jesse Saunders’ “On and On,” considered the first true hit house record, used musical elements from the Space Invaders theme.

Level 2: Redefining the purpose

“How do you define music?” asks Greenwald. In video games, music is more than just melodies or background scores. “The role of the sound designer is really to take the story, the visuals, the aesthetics, the action—even the actions of the environment—and put sound to it,” he explains. “You’re creating a soundscape, a world.”

Video game music is embedded into every part of the experience. From atmospheric loops to tiny audio cues, the sound design guides the player emotionally and spatially. Game music, which often mirrors the emotional weight of film scores but with added complexity, interactivity and depth because games are reactive. “In a film, you have linear sound—actors talk, explosions happen, and there’s music in the background reflecting the story, but it doesn’t react to the actors,” Greenwald explains.

This difference becomes even more apparent when you consider diegetic and non-diegetic music (terms used to distinguish whether the sound exists within the world of the characters or only for the audience). Games blur that line constantly. “Sometimes the music is just there, and other times it reacts,” Greenwald explains. The game DOOM, for example, shifts the intensity of the music based on the enemy encounters. It begins as subtle background music, but after your first kill, it kicks into a heavier rock score, escalating further as the enemies become more challenging.

Final Boss: Moving with the music

Today, video game music has officially leveled up and become a genre in its own right. From Zelda symphonies performed in concert halls to lo-fi Animal Crossing mixes designed for studying, game soundtracks are showing up everywhere. Sounds from classic games like Space Invaders or The Legend of Zelda have become instantly recognizable touchstones. The chest-opening jingle from Zelda is practically a pop culture artifact, and even Navi’s shrill “Hey, listen!” is sampled into EDM tracks and memes. You can find full Elden Ring scores streaming on Spotify, lo-fi remixes of “Pokémon” towns on YouTube and Final Fantasy battle themes reimagined as jazz ballads. What once accompanied boss fights and cutscenes is now featured on playlists made for late-night study sessions and therapy offices.

What’s more, orchestral game scores often introduce younger generations to classical music. Instead of Bach or Mozart, their first exposure might be a sweeping, emotional piece from Red Dead Redemption 2. And the academic world is catching on—video game soundtracks are now studied in musicology courses and analyzed alongside traditional film scores. Some studies even suggest that game music can improve focus and reduce anxiety.

Today, game music has become a cultural force, shaping the way gamers and non-gamers play, think and feel. It’s no longer just background noise—it’s the soundtrack of a generation.

This article was published in the July/August 2025 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.