When we talk about video game music, you tend to think the Super Mario Bros. theme, or the Halo intro, etc., but what about the mainstream music dedicated to our favorite past time, video games.
I recently came across this song called Pacman Fever by Buckner and Garcia. It was one of eight songs recorded for their 1981 album of the same name. The Pacman Fever album actually managed to make the Billboard Top 100 with two songs, Pacman Fever and Do the Donkey Kong.
Song List from Pacman Fever
1. Pacman Fever
2. FroggysLament
3. Do The Donkey Kong
4. Centipede
5. Mousetrap
6. Berzerk
7. Hyperspace
8. Defender
After seeing this album I decided to find more music inspired by or taken from video games and these are the lists I came up with.
If you're looking for more songs that talk about video games to add to your ipod, check out these:
1. Throw the Covers - Start Trouble
2. My Console - Eiffel 65
3. PlayStation Generation - Smut Peddlers
4. Flavor of the Weak - American Hi-Fi
5. Anyone Else but You - Moldy Peaches
6. Oh My God - The Kaiser Chiefs
7. Has it come to this - The Streets
8. Hasbeen - William Shatner
9. Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left Right, B, A, Start - The Ataris
10. Put Your Quarter Up - Moleman, Featuring Slug, MF Doom, and Aesop Rock.
11. Whatever Happened to Pong - Frank Black
12. Proto Culture - Del Tha Funky Homosapien
13. I am not your Game Boy - Freezepop
14. Juicy - Notorious BIG
15. Nintendo 89 - Audio Karate
17. Forgot about Timmy - Dr Dre
18. Birdo - HORSE the Band
19. Big Mouth Strikes Again - Placebo (changed lyrics to reflect the times)
20. Jump Around - House of Pain
21. My Favorite Game - The Cardigans (Album: Gran Turismo)
Note: Songs are either linked to a sample of the song or the lyrics.
If you're looking for bands with video game music remakes or video game inspired music, check these bands or songs out:
1. Totally Radd - Uses video games noises in their songs and does a wicked version of Mike Tyson's Punch Out.
2. Final Fantasy - Arcade Fire violinist Owen Pallett's music inspired by Final Fantasy VI
3. 14 Year Old Girls - 8 Bit, ADD punk rock. Former known as Link and The Zeldas, they have whole albums full of video game inspired songs.
4. The Protomen - Mega Man music redone
Samples of their work:
Hope Rides Alone
Unrest in the house of light
Will of One
5. Futuristic Sex Robotz - Hip Hop video game music that gets stuck in your head on loop.
6. Cinemechanica - Uses video game themes in their own music.
7. The Rabbit Joint - Remake of The Legend of Zelda theme *Thanks Retropants*
8. Phish - The Super Mario Bros. theme
If you're a huge RPG fan, then there is always the Japanese pop theme songs that are made for role playing games like:
1. Utada Hikara - Music from Kingdom Hearts I and II
2. Music from Final Fantasy X-2
And there's always a techno version of a video game theme too.
Finally there's my favorite - The Cheezy 80s rap song from the Super Mario Bros Super Show!
If you have any more video game songs or bands like these, add them in the comments field.
3 comments:
don't forget the entire album "nerdrap entertainment system" by ytcracker, or a number of other nerdcore artists. samples (whole albums, actually) can be accessed at rhymetorrents.com. also, you missed the legend of zelda theme song by system of a down... which is hella classic.
as long as you're including remixes of songs, you shouldn't forget OCremix.org, a site dedicated basically nothing but music game interpretation. Some are pretty inline with the original (the Chrono Symphonic Album), and some deviates wildly (Zelda, Music of My Groin).
minibosses
NESkimos
The Advantage
all do nintendo remixs
Post a Comment