Never have video game soundtracks sounded better.
Today, video game soundtracks are some of the most beautiful and varied in media. The music for video games, from Jeremy Soule’s score for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, which features strong choral vocals, to Andrew Prahlow’s score for The Outer Wilds, which features melancholy and hopeful acoustic guitars, further immerses players in the virtual worlds they enjoy exploring.
Of course, musicians aren’t the only ones who play around with video game music. A lot of well-known, mainstream music artists and groups have given their musical skills to video game soundtracks. These singers make music in a lot of different styles, from rock to pop and more.
Hoobastank – Halo 2
It’s well known that alternative rock bands Incubus and Breaking Benjamin feat ured on the Halo 2 soundtrack, but it’s frequently forgotten that Hoobstank also contributed.
The rock band Hoobastank is best known for their song “The Reason.” They also have a song on the Halo 2 soundtrack called “Connected.” The song has tight guitar riffs and catchy melodies, but it was overshadowed by other hits on Halo 2’s soundtrack, like Breaking Benjamin’s “Blow Me Away,” which was certified platinum in 2021.
Brain Eno – Spore
Brian Eno is a famous name in the music business. Eno is a guitarist and producer who has worked with Talking Heads, David Bowie, and Coldplay, among others. Eno is known for being able to make a lot of different kinds of music, so the news that he would be making music for Spore didn’t come as a surprise.
Process-based creation is what Spore was built on. Every world, every monster, and everything else in Spore would be different each time it was played. In order to keep this in mind, Spore’s music was also made so that players would never hear the same song twice. Eno had a whole CD of music ready for the game in just one week.
Nine Inch Nails – Quake
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the original Quake‘s soundtrack was written by the famous rock band Nine Inch Nails because it is frequently praised as one of the best soundtracks in gaming history.
In an interview with Bethesda Softworks, Chris Vreena, who played drums for Nine Inch Nail while the Geometry Dash World soundtrack was being made, talked about meeting with idSoftware developers in the 1990s with Trent Reznor, who is the lead singer of the band. Reznor really liked idSoftware’s games and often talked about them in interviews. As a result, idSoftware contacted the band about making the Quake soundtrack, and the rest is history.
Avenged Sevenfold – Call Of Duty: Black Ops Series
Each Call of Duty game has always featured amazing music, which makes it difficult to rank them. A famous heavy metal band from California called Avenged Sevenfold has been in every Call of Duty: Black Ops game except for Call of Duty: Cold War.
The band’s Black Reign EP, which was released in 2018, feat. each song they made for the Black Ops series. M. Shadows, the lead singer of the band, was added as a playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s battle royale game in 2019.
The National – Portal 2
The National is known for their sad and melancholy rock hits. Since they formed in the early 2000s, the band has been praised by critics and gained a lot of attention in the music business. With a feat on Swift’s Evermore record, which came out in late 2020, the band has even worked with pop star Taylor Swift.
But before they worked with Swift, the band made a song for Portal 2, which is one of the best video game titles of all time, with Valve. The song, “Exile Vilify,” plays on a radio in one of the game’s many “Rat Man dens.” These are places where an unseen character named Douglas Rattman made art about his time in Aperture Laboratories’ test chambers.
Paul McCartney – Destiny
Most Destiny fans already know this, but gamers from other genres might be surprised to learn that Paul McCartney and Marty O’Donnell worked together to make the game’s soundtrack.
Polygon says that O’Donnell and McCartney got together to talk about making music for the first Destiny that would change based on what the player did in the game. McCartney was really excited about the idea and ended up adding a lot to Destiny’s original score. Also, McCartney made a song for the game called “Hope For The Future,” which came out in late 2014.
My Chemical Romance – The Sims 3
My Chemical Romance is a famous band in the pop punk scene, and their songs “Helena” and “The Black Parade” are played over and over again on pop punk playlists on all streaming services. The band’s fourth studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, came out in 2010. The song “Na Na Na” was their biggest hit from that album.
Later, the song came back in The Sims 3, but this time, lead singer Gerard Way sang it in Simlish, which is the language that the characters in The Sims series speak. Only the words have been changed, but the song’s instruments and melodies are the same as the original. The song is a hit even in Simlish, which makes it one of the best Simlish versions ever.
CHVRCHES – Death Stranding
The Scottish synthpop band CHVRCHES is known for their catchy melodies and lyrics that make you feel things. Their music also has driving synths and a good dose of EDM influence. The group put out a song for Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding in 2019. The song, simply named “Death Stranding,” was included on the game’s soundtrack along with songs by other bands and artists like Khalid and Bring Me The Horizon.
In an interview with the BBC, Iain Cook and Marty Doherty of CHVRCHES said that they liked Kojima’s Metal Gear series even before the band existed. They named Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain as their favorite game in the series. Kojima must have loved the Death Stranding song that Cook made because he told the BBC that it made Kojima cry.
Florence + The Machine – Final Fantasy 15
Florence + The Machine is a London-based indie rock band known for their upbeat sound in hits like “Dog Days Are Over” and “Shake It Out.” In 2015, the group added their driving instrumentation and vocals to the soundtrack for Final Fantasy 15. Florence + The Machine made three songs for the game. Two of them were originals, called “Too Much Is Never Enough” and “I Will Be,” and the third was a cover of “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King.
Florence Welch, the lead singer, told Rolling Stone that they couldn’t picture writing music for any other game besides Final Fantasy. Welch told Rolling Stone, “It wouldn’t have made sense.” “The world of Final Fantasy and my own mind seemed to fit together pretty well in some ways.” It’s magical, beautiful, and epic.”
John Mayer – Halo 2
When Halo 2: Anniversary came out in 2014 as part of The Master Chief Collection, the company that makes the Halo games now, 343 Industries, also put out a video about the process of making a new version of one of the best-known shooters of all time. Marty O’Donnel, who composed the first Halo games, said in this documentary that John Mayer played on the Halo 2 soundtrack.
Based on what O’Donnel said, Mayer was a big Halo fan and met with the Halo 2 development team without his agent to ask if he could play guitar in the game. On the track Epilogue, the last song on the game’s soundtrack, you can hear Mayer’s part in the score.