Random J Pop playlist: Video Game Music

I had zero intention of posting anything of this here. But discussions of Kingdom Hearts III in these here comments and with some of you on Twitter made me remember that I have followers of this blog who are also gamers. Plus, I can do what the fuck I want. So here it is. My Spotify Video game music playlist, which of course features songs from Hikaru Utada (Kingdom Hearts) and Kumi Koda (Final Fantasy X-2).

As a kid I kinda (well, not kinda...basically, flat out) fell out of music. Something which shocked my family to its core because I REALLY fucking loved music as a kid, then seemed to just completely disregard it. That was all because of video games. But video games actually helped me find my way back to music, as I became a fan of what I'd hear when playing them.

Whilst it's been really cool to see the look of video games evolve over the years, with consoles becoming crazy powerful and giving us in-game graphics of a level that we used to only get in animated CGI cinematic - it's been equally amazing for me to see the music evolve alongside it. Video game music has gone from 5 sound channels of blips and bloops to full blown pop songs with vocals and orchestral pieces.

Video game music is no lesser than mainstream chart music to me. I listen to it the same way I listen to anything else. So I was glad to see that video game companies were putting their soundtracks up on streaming platforms to save my ass from hitting up KHInsider. However, there's still not enough video game soundtracks available for my liking. Capcom did a big OLD soundtrack dump last week. Finally making many of its popular game series' soundtracks available to its fans worldwide. (Japan low key already had them). Literally every Mega man game, a bunch of Phoenix Wright games, Street Fighter III: 3rd strike (amazing soundtrack), Devil may cry, Resident evil. It's all there bitch. Let it be known however, that SEGA had thrown the gauntlet down long before, unbeknownst to many, by flinging Shenmue, Virtua Fighter, OutRun, a tonne of Sonic games, Jet Set Radio (chile, this classic...) and many of their miscellaneous Japan exclusive game series' soundtracks up on Spotify. 

I'mma need Nintendo to get their shit together and give streaming platforms some Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda soundtracks.

🎧 Listen on Spotify: Video Game Music