Video Game Music Changed my Life
Video games were my childhood escape, turning loneliness into connection through music and storytelling, shaping my passion for the arts.
When I was a kid, I was lonely a lot. I grew up as an only child in a family of immigrants. It's not that I didn't have friends, but I had trouble connecting. The first thing I received when we immigrated from Italy to the United States was a Super Nintendo. I'll never forget that night because we were playing Super Mario World. At that time, I didn't speak English, and the only connection I was able to have with my cousins and second cousins, who spoke fluent English and had lived here their whole lives, was through this Italian plumber on a screen and the bright greens and browns of World 1-1, where you first meet Yoshi. The Super Nintendo changed my life.
While I did have other pursuits, it was my mother who pushed me into the arts in sixth grade. I remember sitting there playing Final Fantasy 8, and she insisted, "You've got to get out of the house. I can't have you be in the house doing nothing all day." So, she forced me to go to theater school and theater camp. I remember thinking, "This is not a place I want to be; I want to be at home." I was particularly drawn to the Fisherman's Horizon area in Final Fantasy 8, which was interesting because that was the corner where my life changed. At that time, I was also really into Pokemon and Digimon, especially, and I had a desire to be an actor, to be a voice actor. I remember sitting with my mom as she asked me, "Okay, well, what would you sound like if you were screaming?"
The point here is that my entire childhood is filled with video games. The strongest memories I have from my infancy and childhood are tied to video games. There was a period when I thought that was really kind of sad. For other people, it was about spending time watching sports or going on adventures or hiking, but for me, it was truly about sitting around, discovering stories, reading, and being immersed in music. Final Fantasy 7's music, in particular, had a profound impact on me, even though I'm not the biggest fan of Final Fantasy 7 these days. I feel like I've done everything I wanted to do in that game and have little desire to re-experience it. However, that music, along with composers like Nobuo Uematsu and Kondo, changed my life.
The point of all this is that video game music has evolved in so many different ways. There is so much more to video game music now than there was 30 years ago, which is madness! You can hop onto Persona and hear acid jazz, or jump into Genshin Impact and experience orchestral music. When you listen to Sumeru or Natlan, you get musical representations of cultures you may never even know about, exposing you to a new world. Or, when you're playing Halo, you feel the sense of loss and defeat as you're fighting for your life.
I used to think that games were just games and that gameplay was the standout feature for me. However, as time has gone on, I find myself gravitating more towards the musical and artistic experience of playing a video game. Gameplay, of course, is always going to be the most important part, but the music written for games is always crafted to tell a story and enhance that story. Without that music, what do we have? We have a very nice experience that feels somewhat shallow.
Because of Nobuo Uematsu, I subconsciously decided to go into music. It wasn't a conscious realization like, "Oh, Uematsu, you're the reason I love music." Rather, it was more about being exposed to the rich sound quality, the MIDI sound quality, and the orchestral MIDI experience of playing through the Final Fantasy series.
Music is the heartbeat of gaming; it transforms mere gameplay into an emotional journey that resonates deeply within us.
Playing a video game, gameplay of course, is always going to be the most important part. The music that's written for games is always created for the sake of telling a story and enhancing that story. Without that music, what do we have? We have a very nice experience that feels somewhat shallow.
Because of Nobuo Uematsu, I decided to go into music subconsciously. Now, it wasn't like, "Oh, Uematsu, you're the reason I love music." No, it wasn't like that. It was more like, "Oh, I've been exposed to the rich sound quality, the MIDI sound quality, the orchestral MIDI experience of playing through the Final Fantasy series. Of course, I'm going to go into music because it naturally just connected me to that part—the storytelling aspect of who I am intrinsically."
When people say, "I turn off the music in games," or "music in games isn't as deep as the classical world," I get kind of incensed. It's like, live your life; who cares what you choose to do? But the reality is that music is everything. It is a fundamental part of the experience. While you may be connecting to music passively, imagine if you're able to engage in it through the video game storytelling experience and how meaningful that could be for your life. This could manifest in small microcosmic ways, like just paying attention a little bit better, or in enormous ways, like going to school for music or picking up the piano because you love some random piece that you heard in a video game. You might think, "Oh, I'm 45 years old now; it's as good a time as any to pick up the piano."
I think that’s also something we need to talk about. Music is a vessel for truth, for love, and for expression. Sometimes, people come on the channel and leave comments that are really just self-projecting onto the fact that things can be challenging for them. They want to feel that their music is being represented, and they feel validated by listening to their music. But it’s actually deeper than that. Your experience with that music is more important than whether or not it’s featured on a channel like this. Connecting to feeling and being moved by music is an enormous and powerful thing.
I just wanted to talk in circles about this because I feel like we dismiss it. Very infrequently are sound, music, and voice brought up. One of my favorite YouTubers, ACG, always has a section about the power of music and how the music changes the experience. What I do on this channel is not special; anybody can feel and connect to music more deeply through active listening. By really fine-tuning and focusing on the elements of a piece of music that move them, you can isolate your ears. You can hear the bass, you can hear the flutes up top. You may not know what the instrument names are, but you can say, "Oh, the higher instrument up here—that's really bright; that makes me feel XYZ."
Music challenges us and requires us to connect to ourselves and to the experience we’re watching on the screen. That is really the crux of all of it: embracing music as a vital component of the storytelling and gameplay experience. Without it, I really don't think you have the experience that you think you might have. You may love the gameplay, and don't get me wrong, there are plenty of games where it's like, "Oh, quiet moment—how nice!" But in general, music changes everything.
Music changed my life. When I was seven, I received a Super Nintendo for the first time, and I woke up to the magical sounds of music. It can transport me to a bright, scary, funny, silly, sad, and all sorts of different emotional places. That’s the video. Sometimes, you just have to say what you feel and feel what you say. Stay tuned to the channel for more. See you later!