by steinaech | Posted in Music
I recently came across footage I recorded when I saw Alesana in 2008 alongside Motionless In White, Greeley Estates, Jamie’s Elsewhere, and A Static Lullaby at New Brookland Tavern in Columbia, SC. Naturally, as the year is currently 2023, I cut it all together using Windows Live Movie Maker, last released in 2012.
by steinaech | Posted in Gaming, Music
Many games have an original score as an OST, but some games, generally sports related games, feature licensed songs from performing artists, usually radio hits, sometimes DJs (you’ve probably seen the name Junkie XL a few times.)
I was playing Burnout: Paradise for the first time on my PS3 a few days ago – both of which came out 15 years ago – and Creepshow by Kerli came on and I thought, “Wow, there’s an artist I haven’t heard of in a long time.”
Burnout: Paradise features 40 licensed songs in addition to music composed for the game. As shown by the graph below 54% of the songs were released in the 5 years prior to the game’s release, counting a whole decade brings it to 69% (nice).
If you ask someone what their favorite video game soundtrack is, you’re likely the hear many people mention a Grand Theft Auto game. Beginning with GTA III and carrying onto the current installment, GTA V, Grand Theft Auto games featured a “radio” as a soundtrack. There is no ambient music except for title and transition screens. You would hear the radio anytime you entered a vehicle. As an example, San Andreas (generally regarded as the fan favorite) featured over 150 licensed songs from the 1990s (the time period that the game takes place in) spanning across 11 different stations. As each game takes place at a set period in time, the soundtracks are all made of songs you’d expect to hear on the radio if you were living at that time. The games also feature talk show segments on the radio and while these are fictitious in contrast to the licensed soundtrack, it’s worth mentioning.
Crazy Taxi was released in February 1999 and while not the first game to use a licensed soundtrack it’s mix of high octane gameplay mixed with it’s lineup of 4 pumping punk rock songs that were released just a couple years before the game (particularly The Offsprings “All I want” – ya ya ya!) lent it great popularity. Released just 7 months later on the Playstation 1 (and arguably a large audience), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater sported 10 tracks of 90s punk songs that had a lasting cultural effect. Many Millennials and Gen Z-ers will credit the Tony Hawk series and it’s use of 90s/2000s punk rock and hip hop as shaping their musical tastes.
Tony Hawk’s Underground (2003), one of my all time favorite video games, has a soundtrack of a whopping 77 songs (the most of any Tony Hawk game and 67 more songs than the first Tony Hawk game that released only 4 years prior) across Punk, Rock, and Hip Hop genre’s, the majority of which were released within the decade prior. In 2004 MTV added a new category to their music awards, Best Video Game Soundtrack, which was given to Tony Hawk’s Underground further cementing the impact that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’s use of licensed soundtracks had.
I may be remiss to not mention the Fallout games, games set in the future but stuck in in the past, that feature true pieces from the 40s and 50s of America.
Of course by the 2000s every sports and racing game were using licensed soundtracks. What’s interesting about playing these games now is that they feature so much music that was popular when released they can transport you to a time that you may not remember, or maybe weren’t even alive for.