DOOM‘s soundtrack has already been mentioned in a couple of blogs this week, but hopefully before the week ends I’ll be able to say my piece on the music as well. The gist of it is, the music of DOOM both contributed heavily to the game’s target audience and grew into its own thing as the game became popular and a series followed.
To start, DOOM‘s target audience, as we discussed in class, was pubescent boys, to whom Id Software pitched this dark, gritty, pretty gory for its time, demon-shooting action game. The game was aided by the fact that nothing like it had really existed up to that point–Wolfenstein 3D was still pretty new by DOOM‘s release, and the two were different enough that DOOM was its own separate thing–but I’ll argue the game’s soundtrack was a factor in DOOM‘s popularity as well.
The soundtrack of the first game could be best described as bit-crushed thrash metal, because that’s exactly what it is. But metal, while being a popular genre at this point in the world of music, had yet to be used consistently in a video game soundtrack. DOOM, being a first-person-shooter where the premise is one guy against a massive army of demons, was the perfect game to try an all-metal soundtrack on, and it worked.
“E1M1,” the first level’s song, while being heavily inspired by Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” (so to speak; composer Mick Gordon really couldn’t have drawn much more inspiration from it without risking a cease-and-desist…), has become an iconic song in its own right, and the music of the first DOOM evolved as the game became a series, eventually culminating in a type of metal distinct enough to be considered its own official subgenre. Someone who knows any song from the DOOM series has a good chance of recognizing other songs from the series due to how strong the branding is, which has to be good for the game’s popularity. I don’t think DOOM gets this big without its soundtrack.
I strongly agree with your point here. A lot of the time when you think of what makes a game successful, the music takes a backseat in the conversation. However, I have seen music have a huge role in making certain games iconic. Particularly when music becomes recognizable outside of the gaming bubble, music can serve as the medium by which people discover a game. The biggest example that I have personally experienced is the song Megalovonia. The song became very popular in internet culture, and without it, I would never have known about the game to which it belonged, Undertale.
You’re exactly right, though I do find it very funny that the example you gave is Megalovania for Undertale; it’s a perfect example, as the two are very strongly associated thanks to the meteoric ascents of the game, the song, and the character connecting the two, but Megalovania isn’t originally from Undertale. Toby Fox composed the song for another game he made, and then touched it up a bit for Undertale, where it caught on like fire.
I agree with your post. I have also found music and background soundtracks to be a crucial element in video games for they bring new excitement. I feel that that this is most evident in horror games like Outlast. Jump scares and chase scenes are all appropriately partnered by intense string music. I have also found that some songs, music, and background soundtracks even help me remember games. For example, whenever I hear Run This Town by Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West, I immediately think “This is the song I used to always vibe to on NBA 2K13!” Another example could be songs from League of Legends. Whenever I hear songs from League of Legends, I suddenly think to myself “I want to play League of Legends right now.” Like so, I completely agree with you on the fact that music contributes to, or, in fact, enhances, the gaming experience.
Speaking as someone whose taste in music was very much shaped by playing Madden 2007 daily for years growing up, I completely get your point about music reminding you of games.
Music in horror games I’ve found to be the most oddly varied, from the minimalist to the orchestral to whatever “My Heaven” from Silent Hill [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMIvMdCL2H4] could be considered.
Great post! I can definitely agree with this personally, as I certainly would not have loved DOOM 2016 as much as I did had the game’s music not turned out the way it did. I would never, ever consider myself a metal fan in any capacity. But, the context of the game, what with all the demon slaying and ripping and tearing, combined with how visceral and novel the music was made me keep going and wanting to hear more. And, in a way, the desire to hear more of the DOOM 2016 soundtrack actually became a large motivator for me continuing to play the game. I wanted to see – or rather, HEAR – what Mick Gordon had in store next.
I think another really cool thing to acknowledge is adaptive music in games, something that DOOM 2016 has. When you add in the fact that the music adapts to what you’re doing in the game at certain moments – like becoming more intense and high pitched when you’re performing a “Glory Kill,” the music becomes almost part of the gameplay itself, almost as a reward. It’s no longer its own separate entity. DOOM 2016’s music is core to the game’s identity, and it would definitely not be the same game it was without it, at least for me and many other fans. Even with DOOM Eternal out now, which can be argued to have much more engaging and fast-paced combat mechanics, I still revisit DOOM 2016 from time to time, if only to experience hearing the music while slaying demons, since 2016’s tracks are different from Eternal’s. Even now, I don’t really listen to metal or the DOOM soundtracks during my everyday life. But, I absolutely relish getting to hear the music and turn it up high while I play the games. The music is just intrinsically tied to the core gameplay experience.