How Video Game Soundtracks Are Influencing Modern Music Production

Video game soundtracks have evolved dramatically from simple electronic tones to fully orchestrated compositions that rival traditional media scores. This transformation includes both technological advances and a fundamental shift in how composers approach interactive audio environments.

Composers Breaking Musical Boundaries

Video game music composers increasingly serve as innovative forces in modern music production. Winifred Phillips, known for her work on games like Assassin’s Creed Liberation and Spyder, exemplifies this trend. Phillips approaches game soundtracks with careful consideration of genre expectations while ensuring each project maintains a unique sonic identity. “I’ve had to do a lot of projects where there’s an established franchise or intellectual property, and you have to balance respecting what came before while bringing something new,” Phillips explains.

Unlike film composers who craft linear experiences, game composers must create music that adapts to unpredictable player actions while maintaining emotional continuity. Tommy Tallarico, who composed for numerous games, including Caesars Palace on Sega Genesis, pioneered techniques that would influence generations of game composers. Casino games, found on platforms like Vegas Insider alongside different promos, have developed their own distinctive audio signatures, creating immersive gambling experiences through carefully crafted sound design and musical elements.

Adaptive Music Technology

The technical challenges of creating adaptive music systems have pushed composers to develop innovative approaches to composition. Vertical remixing (layering) stands as one of the most widely used adaptive music techniques in modern games. This method divides compositions into distinct musical layers that can be added or removed based on player actions or game states.

According to industry experts, vertical remixing offers significant flexibility but requires composers to conceive music as modular components rather than linear compositions. Each layer must work independently while harmonically complementing the others. This approach fundamentally changes how music is structured, often leading to innovation that influences non-interactive music production as well.

Cross-Industry Collaboration

The past few years have witnessed unprecedented collaboration between traditional musicians and gaming companies. “I’d say the start of the boom was probably around the start of COVID,” notes Marvin Resende, cultural brand partnerships lead at The Defiant Collective. “It just became a time where people were trying to find different synergies.”

High-profile partnerships like HyperX’s collaboration with renowned DJ Zedd demonstrate the growing convergence between gaming and music industries. HyperX head of influencers Dustin Illingworth observed: “With electronic music and Zedd being a massively popular DJ and producer, we do feel like there’s a significant percentage of his audience that are playing both PC games and more casual console and mobile games.”

Similarly, gaming organizations like Tundra Esports have partnered with musicians such as grime artist P Money to create original tracks that support their brand initiatives. “If you look at gamers’ top interests outside of gaming, music will be one or two, always,” explains Tundra CEO Evgeniy Roshchupkin.

Future Directions

Virtual concerts on games such as Fortnite and Roblox reveal new paths for musical performance, and procedural and algorithmic composition strategies built into game design increasingly influence commercial music production.

The sound design innovations that were introduced in video game music are a new frontier for composers and an elementary recomposition of the functionalities of music in interactive spaces.