How video game music waltzed its way on to Classic FM

Once regarded as inferior to film and TV soundtracks, games scores are gaining recognition and awards as a valid form of contemporary classical music

In early 2018, Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker was a guest on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, for which one of his chosen recordings was Jonathan Dunn's theme for the 1988 Game Boy game RoboCop. In May, the Royal Albert Hall hosted PlayStation in Concert, at which the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played music from games made for PlayStation consoles from the original in the 1990s through to the current generation. The event was hosted by Jessica Curry, composer for games such as Dear Esther, which recently had its own series of concerts in which a narrator and musicians performed to cues triggered by someone playing the game live on stage.

Video game players love music. Even a track not made for a game can get a boost from association with one; Eminem's 2002 song Till I Collapse re-entered the UK charts in 2009 after it was used in an advert for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. And music that is composed especially for games finds other outlets, too; a television show called Rich House, Poor House, in which families from opposing ends of the wealth spectrum swap homes for a week, has used music from The Sims, a series of life sim games about the capitalist fantasy of happiness through financial gain.