http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/05/opinion_whats_wrong_with_game.php

I agree with this opinion. Game music nowadays is even more generic than movie soundtracks.

I can notice that a lot of games have a lot of orchestral pieces or it's just a LOT of orchestra, just orchestra.
Not saying that i do not like orchestral music, but like she (or he) said "Most game music these days is boring. I'm sorry, but it's true."

Some orchetral soundtracks of games are really boring, and I feel like I'm making a sacrifice to hear it. for an example, what about those soundtracks with 4 or 5 cds of soundtrack... where you feel you can see the end of it.
Some soundtracks I hear I'M WAITING TO GET IT OVER. I spent more time listening good megadrive soundtracks or other even more oldschool then nowadays stuff.
Game soundtracks are starting to be almost like those big orchestral score of Hollywood. And it seems that they want rivalized. I may be wrong though. :)
And in a lot of games you have no main tittle. you know?
That song that is the main tittle and sometimes you hear it on final battle a very addultered version very cool? That song which is the theme of the game, the image, the follow us through the game?
I miss that.
like it says "So rare is actual melody in games "

It's a big evolution on gamming soundtracks, I admit. But a lot of GOODS were lost. And some soundtracks look more like we are watching a movie and not playing a game by it's Incredible Quality. A LOT OF MONEY does that.

Why is so much video game music so consistently generic? There are so many hungry musicians out there looking to get into games at cut rates, and yet I keep hearing the same flaccid John Williams-inspired scores, uninspired breakbeats, and generic guitar solos.

1) Games are big business, as we all know. That means a lot more investors are overseeing a game's development, as compared to 20 years ago. Additionally, a lot more focus testing happens with games. So producers and composers go with what works and what's familiar.


The fact is, these days it's quite difficult to identify one game soundtrack from another, and it didn't used to be so.

2) The author mentions melody as a salient element that has been removed. Structurally, the music is different, too. In the early days, video game music often had to be looped and consequently was structured along the lines of a rock song: verse/chorus/verse/chorus. In other words, the focus used to be on immediacy. Since you only have two or three sections to work with, and you only have, say, eight measures to produce the theme (which produces the mood), then you gotta work hard to make those few seconds count. Composers these days have a lot more time and a lot more action to cover, which leads me to...


Another reason may be that there's a lot more going on in games now. When Mario was just jumping on the heads of Goombas and breaking blocks, he could only perform two or three actions at a time, and everything was clearly represented visually.

3) Right, and the actions were often separated. To walk on-stage in Kung Fu, you had an entrance theme. To walk across the stage, you had a walking theme. And to climb the stairs at the end, you had climbing music. Now all of those actions are interwoven into a single scene, and the characters can do a lot more, making the gaming experience more fluid but also making it harder to create mood-appropriate music for every action.


A lot of music is licensed now, which could be a contributing factor, but if you consider a game like Fallout 3, which has licensed tracks from the days of yore, when you’re out of range of the in-game radio, an atmospheric and entirely appropriate post-apocalyptic soundtrack kicks in, hammering home the desolate and lonely nature of the harsh environment.

4) Or Grand Theft Auto, in which the radio music still draws you into the world.


This doesn’t happen in nearly enough games. Music is so powerful and emotive that simply recreating an operatic chorus with the same notes you hear everywhere is a terrible waste of aural space.

5) Although it works in God of War. Why? Because many of the compositions still have strong themes and unconventional instrumentation.


But if you consider player responses, you'll often hear things about how great the graphics are, or how the environments are destructible -- but you hardly ever hear about how great the music is. That's because it's so often generic that it can't stand out as interesting. Too much “dramatic” music ruins the drama.

6) This is a great point. Look at how much emotional territory is covered in Okami. Or Final Fantasy IV, where the "Main Theme" and "Lunarians" appear on the same soundtrack and contrast with each other meaningfully.


And isn't standing out what we all want our games to do?

7) Yes. The greatest advantage of video game music has always been that it has no definition. The borders have always been open to any style. So cutting across the grain is easily done. Look at Shadow of the Colossus. Or Earthbound. Those were great soundtracks because they were surprising, immediate, consistent with the game, and nuanced. Technology doesn't determine the quality of music, although in any art form limitations can result in a higher frequency of innovation. This has historically been the case for video game music, but doesn't have to hold true now that we have extraordinary technology in the hands of many composers.