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If people play more varied games than the typical big ones, than yes. The bigger western ones like CoD or Sony games are just mimicking movies, so it's not really a good place. But other genres do a lot, specially japanese games where you can fight hearing jazz, metal, classical, etc.

I believe the track I am thinking of is called "The Light of Nibel". It is the end sequence song for the game, and, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever found in a game. It is sad, scary, and hopeful all at once, and I know this video was made a year ago, but if you ever get back to this game I really hope you listen to that track!

Emojis everybody!

music that is released for public is different. because different people has to like it. this version attracts professionals because he is pushing the limit, he is showing off combination of different tones but keep it under one theme, its like using different colours but keep it under one emotional state

Even outside of video game music, people always say my music playlists are all over the place.

My taste in music was always quite diverse, due to my parents, relatives, and friends. From opera, classical music, jazz to later pop, electronic music, rock and metal. I collect OSTs of games and films since the 1990s. This and my growing consumption of anime has broadened my musical horizon significantly and shifted it to Japan. Now I find new music through games and YT-reaction/analysis channels. I find it interesting and great that older content creators on YT experience new music through games and anime, while young creators find musicians and bands they never heard of from the 1960s to 90s.

Heavy as hell is right. Legendary song.

I'm 40 years old, I've been playing games my whole life. I was thinking about my favourite groups and genres, and I realized I got introduced to them through gaming. Specifically, as a teen in the 90s, I fell in love with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's OST, which was a selection of some of the best punk rock music of the previous 2 decades. I probably would have never been exposed to that style of music if I didn't play that game. But other than that, through gaming, I've heard all sorts of music and I have learned to appreciate different styles. For example, I remember playing a game called Loom as a kid, and admiring the intro music/main theme, which I later discovered was actually a section of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. I've listened to jazzy OSTs, metal, in RPGs I heard OSTs inspired by medieval music, the list goes on and on. So yes, to answer the question, in my case it's totally true that playing games introduced me to a huge variety of musical styles and I can now enjoy a lot of them. I think that having an open mind and appreciation of music definitely helps, going through different types of games and, consequentially, different types of OSTs

my main 1500 tracks playlist is nothing like my "core" preferences thanks to all those games, anime and movies and tv shows soundtracks.

Please listen to intro to L.A. Noire, very jazzy

I'm still here! You're absolutely right. I think I started gaming so young that it was the first "genre" to influence my music taste. To this day I would describe my music taste as wide.

I've been primarily a metal head since I was about fifteen, but my taste has definitely been influenced by video games. Especially more emotional games have permanently added genres to my general musical spectrum, notable exampled being acoustic indie pop from Life is Strange, and a whole spectrum of electronic music from Cyberpunk.

I do believe video games has an influence on the music the player is listening to. And it does expand our experience. That said, i also believe that personal taste takes priority. There has been some games i have stopped playing, because the music broke my immersion instead of enhance it. But have games affected my taste in music? Absolutely.

I'd probably have never heard any Japanese music if it weren't for games. But now I've heard countless tracks. That goes for any other non English music

It's funny you say that. I did indeed notice a lot of old coots, you excluded of course, who kept going on about music slowly dying, being dumbed down, turning into brainrot. The thing is, usually those people focus on the big moneymakers, the pop tracks, the top charters. The reason they're focused there is that in the past, this was a very good, if not THE only method to really find worthwhile music, other than film. So go figure, when greatly composed, high quality music was no longer the top charters, they kept using top charters as a metric of how music is doing, when it's just no longer relevant considering the way algorithms handle popularity and the spread of contet. At this point, you're more likely to find good music through memes, videogames, or adjacent to them. You need to dig a bit. But it's all there. High quality music, composition, novel ideas, it's all still there. They're just not looking in the right place anymore. I've also found that it is now easier to get music to people by having that music be linked to something they love, such as videogames, or movies, things like that. Because it enhances the experience, the experience is linked to the song, so people go back to the song to reminisce. I've made soundtrack that are currently in the game Veloren, along with many other composers. What I've found is that a lot of people become a lot more interested in my music when it comes from Veloren, because they can realize its value in completely alterring or enhancing the mood of the game. It's all quite interesting.

Need to check out "A Speech from Earth"

Without a doubt. I'll listen to classical music thanks to games like Victoria 2 or i'll listen to snythwave/heavy metal for mechwarrior. Then a general mix of pop, jazz, rap, country, swing, metal, rock, bossbeat, epicore. Genre definitely doesn't matter to me, just if I like the song, i'll save it. I attribute most of this to games but i think it might just be the internet in general.

Yes

Interesting to consider. I would tend to say "yes" because they're hobbies with a strong musical component that one normally wouldn't get exposed to otherwise, and the same individuals wouldn't generally seek out or create connections to that kind of music otherwise, even if they did "random into it" as you can do with streaming services these days, or getting recommended by your friends. Meanwhile, your "conventional" tastes and exposures are still going to happen: through your parents, your friends at school, TV and movies, the culture you're raised in... You'll have the same exposure as most of your peers, but if your hobbies add to outside that, it will "become more diverse" by default, especially since it tends to include unique sounds and soundtracks only games or anime would deliver, and can tie to an Eastern music experience (J-pop, J-rock, K-pop, K-rock...) Kids of this generation are probably going to be a lot more diverse in music pickup just for merit of the internet. Certainly compared to what I could get to, it's night and day. But anyone whose hobbies extend places that deliver "outside the norm" strong musical elements... diversity by default. Even if someone grows up getting "really into music" I suspect it wouldn't add a lot of "diversity" in the way most would think about it. More depth into what their preferences have been, surely. If you got really into metal and want to play, you get REALLY into metal and its history and influences... When I got into band and jazz band I certainly sought out a lot of early 1900's music my non-band-inclined friends wouldn't have. Sometimes that comes at the expense of caring about other popular things...? But that's a tendency everyone has once they've got "interested enough" into the things they like. They seek out more of same, and may pull away from other music they don't otherwise care enough about. That, to be fair, may be the "downside" of video games and anime inclination; that it pulls you away from the less-eclectic to focus on the more-eclectic. I wouldn't say it did that for me. I mean, I didn't follow much pop or rock of the 80's and 90's, but that was well before I got really into the hobby-side exposures. There was a finite amount of time, and money I had to buy CDs, so I definitely fed the SonMay beast with more dollars that would otherwise have gone into jazz or classical purchases, or Broadway and movie soundtracks... But I didn't stop appreciating any of what I had. I gained new fixations, and shifted focus. Would I have gotten more into pop or hard rock or metal if I wasn't J-poppin' about due to my anime-chasing and Chinatown visits? I suspect not. (Heck, I probably gained exposure into there, too, from things like anime music videos. So many AMV songs I did not know in their original form, but now had a connection point due to a well-timed and imaginative AMV, that I would look into those songs and those bands.) Of course as with all "what ifs" there's no way to rewind and retry! But them's my take on it.

I never would have been exposed to so many different genres if it wasn't for the wide variety of games I play. I play lots of games and the music of the game is half of the experience for me

Yes to an extent. On one hand, anime and gamer music fans will have OSTs of their fav anime and game music- and those will be from a wider range of musics than the average none anime and game fan. But on the other hand- how many fans of that music will then go on to check out music from said genres that are NOT from a game or anime series? Some- but I think that might be in the 20% ish range.. I feel most wont listen to that diversity outside the actual music osts from games and anime. But even then - they will at least be aware and have had some exposure to those new genres.

I'm still here! I've never said it on the streams, because I'd possibly be reamed lol, but the first thing I usually do when I'm playing a game is to turn the music volume down so I can listen to my playlists. In saying that however, I love hearing the game music on your streams, but I'm not likely to go and listen to it separately. I do appreciate the work that has gone into composing those works and I have shared the compositions with others because I know they'll appreciate them more than me, but I think it's taken me a long time to settle into what I like to hear, right now. It doesn't mean that my music likes are static, but currently they are quite specific. Growing up I listened to a lot of classical and jazz as I thought I might have been a musician, and my taste has certainly been quite eclectic over the years, but in the last few years and most certainly at the moment, I get the most enjoyment from a specific genre. It's highly likely that will change again at some point, and I will not rule out any genre of music for the future, including gaming music. Like you, I've come to playing games later in my life's journey. Perhaps out of curiosity, I'll go turn the music up on a couple of games, just to see what they're like.

I can only talk from my experience: I have 10.412 songs saved on Spotify. Until my early teens, I only listened to what was popular and comercial. After that, when I started to really get into anime and videogames, my music taste has expanded and changed vastly. And I always thank the videogames/anime for that. I'm an actor, and what eventually became my method of studying and portraying characters, was through music as well. "What song would this character love? What song could be this character's theme? What genre does this character enjoy? What background music would be playing when a character does this action?" Are some of the questions I make myself, and my palette is enormous thanks to the geek media that people take for granted

Oh absolutely! My love for Drum n Bass, Jungle and Neurofunk etc. stems back heavily to the racing games I played as a kid. Even some of the bands I picked up on like Static-X and all sorts! But here's the saddest part! I missed a great decade of Drum n Bass music because I didn't KNOW for many years that it was a real genre of music. What I heard on Need For Speed growing up I thought was "video game music" and I never bothered looking any further into it! It wasn't until somebody introduced me to Dubstep, I had a phase with that, then found UK music and felt right at home! (I'm from Indiana lol)

I think at the very least, old chiptune music helps you enjoy classical music, if you don't already. It's impossible not to. And of course, techno, it's gonna lead into techno pretty well. But otherwise, I feel like, if anything, videogames get your mind OFF of genres. Into just pure expressive music that doesn't have to fit a genre. Kinda like how the Beatles became over time. Anime theme songs do have a big variety, but in terms of genres, I still prefer the rock and pop ones, or again genre-less stuff that could probably be appreciated in any era of history.. some rap or screaming _might_ show up, and I might sit through it if it's "Ringo Mogire Beam" quality, but I'm still gonna wish it was normal singing, and wait for the musical part to start up again. And when it comes to the soundtrack of episodes (rather than the theme song), it's a funny thing, because I grew up on cheap (frequently Canadian) dubs that often replaced the soundtrack with fun synths... and when I heard the ORIGINAL soundtracks of those shows, I was disappointed it tended to just be rather generic orchestra stuff that could have fit in any 30s through 70s movie, y'know? that doesn't do it for me the same way.

I'm 45 years old right now. When I was a kid growing up during the 80's and 90's, I was exposed to a few genres of music. Mostly stuff you hear between what is played on the radio and MTV(The Real MTV-Music Television). From my mother playing a lot of folk and easy listening music like Dolly Parton, Jim Croce, Ann Murray, and classic radio from the 50's to 70's. And then my older sister listening to MTV and getting into Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi. Metallica, Madonna, and so on. So I grew up between those things. I'm also a movie kid, getting into Star Wars, Godzilla, and some other iconic movies as I grew up. Indiana Jones, Robocop, Rambo, Disney Movies, Halloween, Transformers Movie - 2007. All had an iconic theme scores or soundtracks. I started to learn you can get Cassette Tapes and then CD's with some of those Iconic musics and sounds. And some of them were rare and Hard to find. It wasn't till the Digital Age of MP3's when I was able to get a hold of some of the hard to find tunes and soundtracks. I was also a video game kid and to this day, still am at heart. As Video games evolved, so has their music and sounds. Soundtracks to Videogames were becoming popular as well. I think my first official Game Soundtrack was Castlevania, Symphony of the Night. With tracks like "Dracula's Castle" The rocking guitar sound from "The Tragic Prince" and To a nice peaceful Track called "Lost Painting" Then Came what is considered my favorite Video Game Soundtrack, 'Metal Gear Solid" Especially when "MGS 2-Sons Of Liberty" came out. The soundtrack was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. Whos' work stems from movie soundtracks Like, The Rock, Shrek, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe. It was probably one of the first game soundtracks that was composed by someone who has worked on movie soundtracks. One the Tracks in the Game is called "Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday" By Carla White. It has this Slow Jazz sound. Like something you would here in a soundtrack to a romantic movie set in a City Like New York City. And so many others when it comes to Scores that are too many to list. Now on the soundtrack end Games like Grand Theft Auto Vice City to the recent Grand Theft Auto 5, You get other music that you might have heard on the radio that maybe you weren't into at the time. But now you are since it's now in the game and you hear it all the time. To finally games like the Fallout Series. Especially Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. Where it plays a lot of classic songs you would not hear a lot of on the radio today. Mostly stuff that maybe date back to the early years of Radio. From 1920's music all the way to 60's maybe 70's. Today I've even started my own playlist of some of those classical musics, that back in the day when I was a kid, I wouldn't be caught dead listening too. I know I haven't talked about Anime a whole lot. Mostly because I'm on and off with that one. Some songs I like. I was big into the Ranma 1/2 series. I've watched Sailor Moon with my sister. And i've watched a few others here and there. But nothing too memorable for me to talk about Soundtracks. I am a Huge Godzilla Fan so I love the soundtracks to those films. I love the Songs from ones that feature Mothra that includes her Theme from the 2 small twins called the Peanuts or Cosmic Fairies, depending on which series you watch. One good example from them is called "The sacred Springs" (or Fountain). So in conclusion to my long comment here, Yes, I believe we gamers can become more diverse to different genres and styles of music from Games, Anime, and even Movies when we become more frequently exposed to them

Your streams on Twitch have been SO GOOD over the last year. AND I'm still here :)

In my experience this rings VERY true for my entire life (I'm Gen-X). We might have our own tastes but we're usually open because you get so many genres of music just looking at 1 type of game. etc.

Beat anime soundtrack out right now goes to JJK and in earlier years all the death note themes. Most anime intros are worthy checking out just because that's supposed to be the hook to get you into the show!

Dear God PLEASE listen to the bloodborne ost

Absolutely. I personally went from an unabashed metalhead-still my favorite genre-to an eclectic taste in music primarily due to Video Games. I've been reviewing Video Game Soundtracks for over a decade now and I never tire from it. Mediocre compositions here and there, sure. But most are worth listening through. Every time I come across a unique gem that surprises me and blends music like I've never heard before. I'm always reminded why this medium is so important, It's a creative outlet for artists to challenge themselves and experiment.

If were talking about anime music, thats a whole new list of absolute bangers..

Probably? I think it's the internet pulling the weight really, with how easy it is to be exposed to various types of music and media in general, and I guess it gets compounded by being able to find music even when you're looking for a different type of entertainment (game, anime) Although now that I think about it, my music taste was still fairly one dimensional for like 6-7 years into using the internet, and at the time I also didn't watch many shows, or play games in a way where I'd encounter unique songs, or ones that I'd be intrigued by anyways. Dunno. I just saw someone mention tony hawk and I do remember a few songs from it still like almost 20 years later. Definitely interesting to think about

I'm still here. I feel VERY much this way about the incredibly diverse musical offerings found in Final Fantasy 14!

I definitely do. My music ranges from jazz, to country, to pop, to metal, to synth. Hell, I even have some Gregorian chanting tracks. If it weren't for games and anime I'd probably be listening to the same 2000s era pop on loop

People talking about music dumbing down but progressive rock is in a better place than it's been since the 70s.

Games and anime got me into prog. Musically branched out from there.

Im not boasting about it but ive been playing games from my early memories. 8bit game music to modern game music, music from movies, music from anime, music from radio, and music from people in the internet and just people from the street and of course the music of mother nature. Of course I have preferred genres over the others. If we ever change the way we communicate verbally, I think musical notes would be a nice replacement. I'm still here. Thanks for the nice words, Geebster.

Im still here and i whole heartly agree. Im a goth at heart since my late tean years, i was open minded befor, listening to music in the radio watching MTV and Viva. But i also liked the game boy music, the music of may oarents wasnt really mine but through games like Fallout i encountered Swing, Barbershop, Classic Rock etc. Games like Cyberpunk with the diverse soubdtrack just opened the flood gates and i am now a stark enjoyer of Synthwave, for the person tgat grew up with Europop and Twchno i wven enjoy classic music now from time to time.

I feel for musicians in particular it does, I know my taste has expanded due to video game music, but I'm not sure how the regular "normie" feels with it considering some of my gaming friends will openly admit to not even realizing there's music in games because they don't pay any attention to it. I'm still here btw 😏

Yes, i got deep into jazz thanks to Cowboy Bebop, for example

You can check all my playlists and see that I'm all over the place as it comes to music

I have never been a big anime guy. There are certain classics and a few newer things I do enjoy, (Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Fist of the North Star, Urotsukidoji, Blue Eye Samurai, Cowboy Bebop, to name a few). But I've been some sort of gamer, almost my entire life. Starting with Pong, Atari 2600 & Intellivision...moving on through all the Nintendo & Sony consoles, up to present where I now mostly play on PC. That said...I have not associated too often with people who were not into either one of those things, so I'm not sure I have much comparison for people's playlists. My own playlist has been influenced of course by games, tv, movies and other media...but also a big part came from my Mom. She was very into listening to albums and going to live shows when she had me at 16, and it didn't stop when I was born. The majority of my early music education and love came from her playing various albums all the time and taking me to shows as soon as I could walk. Everything from Hendrix to Sabbath to Joan Baez to Warren Zevon to KISS to Johnny Cash...she loved a lot of different things and influenced me to do the same.

I'm still here and really appreciate the intersting video and topic. I can only speak for myself of course but video games have exposed me to so many genres of music that I don't think any other medium I consume would have. The type of music that it has led to me discovering and honestly becoming some of my favourites are just not played on the usual car radio stations where I live. I find video game music also does an amazing job of instantly teleporting me back to the great memories associated with it, for example every course's music from Mario Kart always reminds me of specific moments with my siblings playing those games. It probably has led to a different way to consume music or discover music for the younger generations but honestly I think it is a good thing. Because of video games I listen to genres ranging from jazz, to metal, to classical, to funk and who knows how many others. Without that exposure I would probably only listen to what my family played in the house growing up, or what the radio stations put on. I also find that video game music has made me appreciate what music can add to a moment or experience. So many games I think of wouldn't be half the game they are without the music in them, from Donkey Kong (the greatest video game music IMO), Zelda, Fighting games especially, so many games really if they didn't have the music they have would be much lesser for it.

I watch a lot of music reaction videos, and I can't count the number of times a younger reactor said that they knew of the particular song because they played Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

I’ve been playing Dance Dance Revolution for over 20 years and no joke my playlist is a lot of DDR songs and other dance music. It’s no exaggeration that video games play a huge part in what I listen to.

I would agree with that statement. Anime has 100% exposed me to different music I probably wouldn't be into. It's funny because in terms of societal outlook, anime is still considered a "young persons thing". To see it's impact in real life is pretty astonishing.

I'm still here!