07-16-2010, 06:00 PM
Regarding the original topic, I do think that, at some level, game music has certainly become mainstream. Perhaps the most clear example of that, to me, was when I was in college playing for the University of Washington Husky Marching Band and we would perform at a band day where a huge number of elementary/junior high school-ish age kids would come fill up an auditorium with the goal of getting people interested in music (and band, in particular). As part of that event, each instrument section was tasked with giving a short overview of their instrument and then demonstrate what the instrument could do. The goal for the various instruments was to figure out a song that the kids could relate to and inspire them to consider playing that instrument. We, in the trombone section, had one of the more popular instrument demos: a 4 part trombone choir arrangement of the Super Mario Brothers theme songs. The only more well-received demo was the tuba (which played the Rubber Ducky song). I think the fact that an arrangement of a video game sound track can be so well received certainly indicates that video game music has become mainstream, to some extent.
As far as classical music in video games, in particular, I am not sure I really see anything special about how it attracts people to its genre compared to other genres of music in video games. If people like the music in the game, it might be because they like the game and have come to like the music, or perhaps they like the music and that helps them to like the game. I can see it go either way. Certainly there are people who played the old Final Fantasy games, loved the music and that drove them to explore classical/orchestral music a bit more than they may have, otherwise. However, I'd also say the same thing probably goes for any number of other genres, too, and recent video games seem to be moving toward a very wide variety of music being incorporated into games. So there is certainly classical music, but there's also rock, pop, country, and many types of music from around the globe.
As far as classical music in video games, in particular, I am not sure I really see anything special about how it attracts people to its genre compared to other genres of music in video games. If people like the music in the game, it might be because they like the game and have come to like the music, or perhaps they like the music and that helps them to like the game. I can see it go either way. Certainly there are people who played the old Final Fantasy games, loved the music and that drove them to explore classical/orchestral music a bit more than they may have, otherwise. However, I'd also say the same thing probably goes for any number of other genres, too, and recent video games seem to be moving toward a very wide variety of music being incorporated into games. So there is certainly classical music, but there's also rock, pop, country, and many types of music from around the globe.
-TheDragoon