The Reasons why Background Music in Video Games is Essential

Background music has become an essential element in the creation of video games. While not many players pay attention to the music playing in the background when gaming online or offline, the truth is that it adds to the overall game atmosphere and ambience. It’s no surprise that most of the games featured on online gaming contain background music because it enhances the gaming experiences of different players.

In that case, this write-up discusses the reasons why background music in online games is essential and the musicians who have had their music featured in video games. Read on!

1.   Music Creates a More Immersive Gaming Atmosphere

Many gamers will tell you that background music helps them focus more when playing their favorite video games. Usually, the background music in these games tends to synchronize with the characters’ actions and events displayed on the player’s screen.

For instance, the tones of background music in adventure games change based on the events taking place at that particular moment. It’s like in movies where music is used to dramatize intense scenes to reinforce viewers’ emotions.

2.   Music As a Soundscape Element

Music also helps keep players’ creativity flowing. It stimulates their appetite for adventure and action in video games, which adds to their mood for gaming.

You can view it as an instrument of emotional engagement. You see, emotions like excitement and tension can be created using specific musical instruments and sounds to add an extra layer of realism to video games.

For instance, in games like “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, traditional instruments from Eastern Europe are used to bring out the mediaeval and mythical atmosphere depicted in this game.

3.   Music Helps Tell Stories in Video Games

As a storytelling tool in video games, music themes rely on meticulously designed composition techniques to produce soundtracks that can guide players through their gaming environments. This is another way music creates an emotional connection among players because when they pay attention to the background music, they know what happens next, even before images appear.

For instance, most fighting games play certain music based on what’s about to happen, and as soon as you leave that particular playing field, the music stops or fades away. These types of music patterns are called leitmotifs. They are recurrent musical themes or melodies associated with certain events, playing fields, or video game characters.

4.   Music Acts as Memorisation Element in Video Games

Psychology experts believe music can help improve memorization because it creates emotional lines with what’s being memorized. As such, unlike in a silent background, melodies and musical patterns present in video games play a huge role in improving short memories among players since they can categories the information being memorized. This allows them to remember important gaming information, including characters, commands, maps, and objects.

Essentially, the moment a player hears familiar sound patterns when gaming, they can associate it with certain information in their favorite video games. Whether it’s a certain playing field, allies, or enemies in fighting games, background music ensures you have a seamless gaming experience.

5 Iconic Musicians Whose Music is Featured in Video Games

Developers are not the only people helping improve how we interact with video games. Musicians have played a huge part in ensuring video games are more immersive. They include:

1. Eminem: Eminem collaborated with Liz Rodrigues to produce “Survival” for the multiplayer game Call of Duty: Ghosts. He has also worked with Pink on the song “Won’t Back Down”, a remixed version of the ESPN trailer of Call of Duty: Black Ops.
2. Avicii: According to Wikipedia, 25 Avicii songs are featured in Avicii Invector, a multiplayer music video game released in 2019 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows.
3. Pharrell Williams: The voice judge and “Happy” hit-maker was responsible for curating The NBA 2K15 soundtrack. Among the 25 songs featured in this soundtrack, three are by Pharrel. They include Hunter, Can I Have it Like That, and How Does It Fee.
4. Paul McCartney: The Beatles’ songwriter and lead vocalist created a track called Hope for the Future for the first-shooter video game Destiny. The game was released by Bungle in 2014 for Xbox One, PlayStation3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 4.
5. Katy Perry and Ariana Grande: Both of these iconic musicians have provided tracks for Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Katy provided “Immortal Flame” and Ariana “Touch It”. Moreover, both musicians had their in-game playable characters featured in this game.

Final Thought

Video game developers and gaming companies understand the power of music in captivating the hearts of players. As such, the future of music in gaming is very bright, especially if you view it based on the current technological advancements.

The advent of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is an excellent opportunity for key players in the video game industry to utilize music in more immersive ways in future.