How Gaming Has Influenced Our Taste in Music (with Ryan Juengling - List Off! and Jon Haig)

Jon 00:36

Hey, thanks for having me, how's it going Dave. Sir. Good to be here man. Thanks for having me.

Dave 00:55

Yeah, of course and we're also joined today by 1 of the hosts of listoff podcast returning after a little while but many time guest on the show Ryan Juengling Ryan welcome back.

Ryan 01:05

Hey thanks Dave good to be here as always I always appreciate you having me on hi John my arch nemesis over there. No I'm kidding we have. We've met in irl. That's right.

Jon 01:13

Um, hey Ryan hey we've met in person. We're friends now, we're real friends. Yeah.

Dave 01:16

Yeah, you guys took your rivalry to the next level.

Ryan 01:23

I said meet me outside. I did not think he would.

Dave 01:26

Yeah, so it's good to have ah the both of you on today we were talking this conversation sprung up out of a conversation in the Discord server I think maybe it was either me or maybe it was you John I don't remember someone brought up like. Top 3 songs from rock band that you then went on to like love the band or something like that and this ah topic just sprung out of that as we all kind of were doing our top threes and realized hey ah playing video games is kind of changed.

Jon 01:48

Yeah.

Dave 02:00

The way that I listened to music or at least influenced a little bit so that's what we're going to talk about Today. We're going to talk about how video games have shaped our taste in music with regards to of course licensed like quote real music from Tony Hawk and rock band and stuff like that. But also you know video game soundtracks are. A big staple of the stuff that I listen to outside of playing games. So I'm excited to dig into this and try and first of all talk about the stuff that we like of course the stuff that influenced us but also try and drill down into why why did video games just kind of.

Jon 02:22

Yeah.

Dave 02:38

Connect straight into my brain and make me love some of this music. So I thought we could get started by just before we talk about the games that influence our music taste. We talk about our music taste in general. So ah Ryan I'll kick to you first I swear to god Ryan if you say I like a little bit of everything. I mean to shut this fucking thing down. But what kind of music. Do you like got god damn it god damn it Ryan yeah yep, all right? Thanks for listening, go to Patreon everybody.

Ryan 03:03

I listened to a little bit of everything Dave all right shows over yep I know I'm ah so I'm a child of the eighty's I do flock towards a lot of 80 s music I like the cure.

Jon 03:04

Have a good have a good 1 guys.

Ryan 03:19

But I love 80s pop too, Tears for Fears, things like that was big into punk rock for a very long time. I grew up in the California bay area and um, yeah was into the punk scene there. A lot of hip hop. As well. Underground hip-hop in my youth like living legends hieroglyphics atmosphere. Basically if it was considered counterculture I was pretty much on board with it I thought I was ah a rebel from ah from the jump and ah yeah, ah currently I I listen to a lot of.

Pop radio music because that's what my son's really into and other when he's not in the car I'm listening to podcasts So when I do listen to music it tends to be whatever my son wants to listen to.

Dave 03:58

That's true. Gotcha gotcha good father all right John how about you I swear to god ah.

Jon 04:05

I Also listen to a little bit of everything.

Ryan 04:08

God Damn it. We just went through this.

Jon 04:14

Um, unlike Ryan I force my kid to listen to what I want to which is good because he actually likes a lot of the same stuff I do no but I grew up with my parents were really big into classic rock things like. Ah, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi ah O.G. Metallica um Hendrix, anything Clapton, I shifted very much towards blues once I heard ah pride and joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan and he's my. I'm going to say it. He's on my Mount Rushmore of guitar players. He's that damn good. Um, it's very rare. You see a guitar player like play guitar every time and afterwards that guitar needs a damn cigarette. Um, and that's what Stevie Ray Vaughan does. I'm serious. Um, yeah, and then.

Dave 05:00

Ah, agreed.

Jon 05:05

Once I kind of got into my my you know adolescent you know teenage years. It was a lot of stuff like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, um you know, kind of the grunge rock stuff. Um, so yeah I do listen to a little bit. Everything I also had a hip hop and r&b phase as well. Um, I'll listen to just about anything really.

Dave 05:28

Yeah, you know what now that you guys say it I guess I kind of no I don't listen to everything but um I I definitely would say that some of my favorites are metal Im ae I'm a real metalhead um pop punk. Like that like mid 90’s to like mid 2000's era of pop punk was like that was the shit when I was in high school and like I think we'll talk about it later but like stuff that comes out or that you're surrounded by when you're at that age when you're like really receptive to new stuff and just open to.

Jon 05:51

Yeah.

Dave 06:07

Everything catches on a little bit easier but like I still go back to that like when I listen to music on Spotify which I don't all the time anymore because I have so many podcasts to listen to it's we can fill up all of our spare stuff listening time. With just the podcast that people in our community are making, just the indie video game podcast scene will fill up more than the time that you have available but when I do listen to music I would say Punk Pop Punk metal Those are probably the biggest things and hip hop to like kind of.

Jon 06:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan 06:33

Yeah.

Dave 06:44

Absorbed a lot of that through the years. I would say those are the biggest things and I think when we get into our examples here. That's going to be very well represented in the games that we talk about that introduced or like ah introduced a lot of that music but also just brought. Maybe you were familiar with some of like the the stuff that was on the radio but a lot of the stuff we'll talk about brought up those more obscure bands that you had never heard to that point. So let's ah, let's dive right into one of the most common ones that we as we're making the notes here I noticed like come up.

Separately in just about everybody's notes and it's one of those ones that I think people click on this episode and say okay well they're going to talk about guitar hero and rock band. So let's talk about guitar hero and rock band. Um I got on with guitar hero 1 did you guys start right? from the beginning of that.

Jon 07:31

Yeah.

Ryan 07:42

Not me I really didn't get on till they started introducing the other peripherals you know like the drums and the mics when you could really it became much more of a party game at that point and that's kind of when I was exposed to it.

Dave 07:42

That whole phase. M. Yeah.

Jon 07:54

Yeah, yeah, dude I was playing guitar here one and 2 in college like in the dorm . It was those 2 games and then this was still the PS2 era so we were doing something related but we were also doing a Tekken tournament

Dave 07:59

Yeah.

Jon 08:11

Like the 4 player like multitap. So if it wasn't guitar hero it was us beating the shit out of 1 another in Tekken but it was mostly a guitar hero and sometimes beating the shit out of 1 another with the guitars.

Ryan 08:12

Oh yeah, oh.

Dave 08:20

Ah, nice. That's right Yeah, of course. Yeah, um, yeah, guitar hero one came out in 2005 guitar hero 2 came out in 2006 and then in 2007 rock band came out and then I think for the next five years there were like. 30 guitar hero and or rock band games. It was ah a thing. Yeah, so like this is where I think a lot of my introduction to metal came in is like before this I was a big fan of like.

Ryan 08:39

Yeah, yeah, it seemed that.

Jon 08:40

Um, oh my god and don't forget Rock Smith too

Dave 08:56

Black sabbath and Ozzy Osborn and um Metallica like 1 of my college roommates was a big Metallica fan so I was introduced to that through like you know various things and then like guitar hero came in and kind of eased me into a lot of other stuff that I would not have gotten into.

Jon 08:57

Yeah.

Dave 09:16

Just generally right like I for a while I was one of those people that was like I like metal but they have to be like singing it has to be clean vocals for me to to do it and then I played Guitar Hero I think it was in Guitar Hero too that lamb of God Song was on there and I was like oh this fucks This is awesome.

Jon 09:29

Yeah.

Dave 09:34

Okay I like lamb of God now and because I like lamb of God here's these other thousand bands that are now available to me. You know.

Jon 09:43

Yeah, hundred percent yeah guitar hero one and 2 were games that like um. I may have heard songs from some of the bands that were in the set list but it also opened the door for additional songs from bands that I already knew like I had. I had only at the time that a guitar hero came out like I knew a little bit of Alice and chains. But I had never heard of the song them bones and that song.

Dave 10:13

Um, yeah.

Jon 10:14

Rocks and I loved it in Guitar Hero one um guitar Tiro Guitar Hero Two had a couple other ones like I knew a foo fighters but like when Monkey Wrench came on I was like damn this song's pretty cool I Love I Love this song. It's pretty cool. So having an avenue to further expand like you know. How many songs are in your like set list that you know from bands that you kind of maybe already knew a song or 2 or an album or 2 was pretty fun. So.

Ryan 10:42

Yeah, it kind of had that effect on me in the later games I have to say like Paramore is a band I probably would not have listened to but I played their song so many times a guitar here that I was like damn this kind of slaps you know maybe I should start listening to more paramore so I did and ah.

Dave 10:48

Oh yeah.

Jon 10:49

Yeah.

Dave 10:54

Um, yeah, they rock. Yeah.

Ryan 10:59

Similar effect with ah guitar hero three and like queens of the stone age. Um, really that was kind of my first intro into that band and I ended up listening to them and then got into them crooked vultures because 2 of the members formed that band and so it kind of does set you down this path where.

Jon 11:01

Yeah.

Ryan 11:16

Like you said you know Lama god right? opened you up to a whole new genre of music and it's like you discover that 1 band in 1 of these games and all of a sudden it just takes you down that rabbit hole.

Dave 11:27

Yeah, absolutely ah funny story I Guess connected with rock bands. Um, when I was in high school I had a big afro. It was ah it was something to behold. Yeah I've shared it in the Discord server before so I had this big afro.

Ryan 11:38

I've seen this.

Jon 11:40

We have seen this. Ah yeah.

Dave 11:45

Ah, me and Aaron 1 of the co-hosts on top 3 he had a big afro too. We were very cool, very cool. Um, people always told me I looked like the singer from Coheed & Cambria and I first I was like 17 so I was like now fuck that guy. I had the look first or something like that I was like no I'm never listening to Coheed & Cambria ever fuck that band. No and then I played a favor house Atlantic on rock band and I was like oh this is the best song I've ever heard. This song is incredible. Ah, that guy with the afro. He's cool now . I'm not mad at him anymore. So it's I don't know there's a lot of things that just like it, especially because I was 17 when rock band or guitar hero came out and 18 when guitar hero 2 came out. And I was still in that age where like I just make up dumb reasons to not like stuff you know, just being a shitty teenager and guitar hero and rock band were so instrumental just because those walls you build up are super flimsy so they just busted those things right down. It's like oh no, Coheed. They're great.

Ryan 12:39

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah, this guy could totally steal my look.

Jon 12:54

Yeah.

Dave 12:55

What was I thinking about what was wrong with me and there's like yeah exactly you know what? Maybe I did inadvertently look kind of like him. It's not his fault. But yeah, there's a lot of stuff that just like it just you know you play it with a.

Ryan 13:04

Right.

Dave 13:12

Ah, a group of friends when you're drinking or something and you're like you know what? yeah Paramore is all right I don't know why I was ever like you know I'll never listen to Paramore. They're great.

Ryan 13:21

For sure for sure I have to say um I really liked muse because a guitar hero and then for a while they they were known as you know the twilight band right? because that song like their song was used in the twilight movie I was like.

Dave 13:24

Yeah.

Jon 13:25

Yeah. Right? right.

Dave 13:31

Oh.

Ryan 13:34

I Kind of formed the opposite wall where I was like well I don't care I knew him before twilight like I still liked Muse you know like that won't ruin it for me. Yeah yeah.

Dave 13:37

Oh yeah, yeah.

Jon 13:45

Do do you guys remember an internet like um, it was It was a website that's kind of like um, ah oh my God I'm blanking on the name Anyway I digress it was It was a website where you'd like punch in goofy shit and a guy would like say shit back to you and it was called strong bad and he had a.

Ryan 14:01

Yes, yeah, no are yeah of course. Yeah, of course you draw this you draw another s.

Dave 14:02

Um, oh yeah, yeah yeah course Oh yeah, yeah, that was fun when Guitar Hero started to bring in stuff like that like trogdor. Ah.

Jon 14:03

Um, yeah, remember strong bad and his song trogdor on Guitar Hero two. Oh I got yeah.

Dave 14:19

They brought in dragon force which I think like dragon force was kind of like a novelty before they went into guitar hero I think it was guitar hero 3 and then when they went on there they exploded because everyone was like what this song is so it was cool I like.

Jon 14:19

Yes.

Ryan 14:33

Yeah, yeah.

Jon 14:33

Yeah, who.

Dave 14:39

I think um I was I was doing some research through there and I think there were like lots and lots of bands who like you know, semi popular maybe like got a major record deal or something but they're not like big time or anything and then you get a song on guitar hero especially in those like first 3 or 4 games are on rock band and like.

Jon 14:58

Yeah.

Dave 14:59

It just popped off.

Ryan 15:01

Ah, hundred percent I mean I think dragon force is probably the best example of that like millions of people knew that song just because seeing people play it on the early days of the internet and like being in awe of it. Even if you weren't able to unlock it yourself like you still knew it existed.

Dave 15:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jon 15:14

Yeah.

Ryan 15:19

And it was next to impossible to play.

Dave 15:19

Yeah, people are still streaming like they're doing wild shit now it's like I got 100% on expert on through the fire and flames at like 3 times speed or something like people are doing that shit. Yeah yeah.

Jon 15:25

Yeah. Um, yeah, you can mod the speed Now it's crazy.

Ryan 15:30

On a potato right? Yeah I played it on a potato.

Dave 15:39

Yeah, what are some? Ah what are some other bands or songs that guitar Hero or rock bands introduce? You guys too.

Jon 15:47

Ah, ah, guitar hero introduced me to a band called the exes and their song hey you was just like 1 of my favorite songs off guitar hero one like I had never heard it before it. It was it was a it was a fucking banger man it was.

Ryan 15:49

I'll let you go first. John.

Dave 15:54

Yeah.

Jon 16:04

It was one of those ones where I would play the game and like I'm head banging I don't care if I'm like by myself but like from there I just dovetailed into other exy stuff and other bands like it was. It was fun. That was a goodass song.

Dave 16:16

Yeah, it was I remember that one one of those for me was um, was it called Carry me home by the living end. It starts out with like this just wild guitar Solo intro and then ah the living end was kind of like this like.

Jon 16:25

Yeah.

Dave 16:35

Like Punk Rock rockabilly mix up and it was like nothing I'd ever heard before but it was still like very much into like that Punk Rock feels so it was easy for me to to slide right into it but I was in college and so like that that would be the the time when I was like okay ah I heard this song on guitar hero. It's awesome. So I downloaded all their albums and listened to that for like a month straight and yeah, definitely got me into that band.

Ryan 16:58

Yeah I mean obviously the other ones I named prior paramore muse queens of the stone age but also it just kind of gave credibility to those exact things you were saying Dave like the band you kind of pushed to the side I was into like.

Jon 17:15

Yeah.

Ryan 17:15

Punk Rock right so there were bands like blink 83 in this more poppy punk where I was just kind of like no like that's not as cool as the stuff I listen to you know what? I mean ah, but then yeah you open yourself up to playing those songs and interacting with it in a new way.

Dave 17:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jon 17:24

Yeah.

Ryan 17:34

And all of a sudden. It's like you know like maybe I was too hard on blink 83 yeah yeah

Dave 17:37

Yeah, yeah.

Jon 17:40

Ah I know for me Guitar Hero won like at the time that that game came out I had only known of incubus through their morning view album and. Song stellar is on guitar hero one. So I actually was able to go back and listen to older Incubus stuff and I was like fuck. Yeah, this stuff rocks dude.

Ryan 17:56

Do you guys want to feel old? Incubus just released a new recording of morning view to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Yeah yeah.

Jon 18:02

20 year yeah Yeah, yeah,

Dave 18:06

Ah, nice morning view Taylor's version hell yeah ah those ah those games were really fun like I think that's that's part of it is like I don't know I think that was for a lot of people maybe like your first rhythm game.

Jon 18:25

Yeah.

Dave 18:25

Or something like it was probably the first one I played. Yeah if you're if you're an o g yeah, but but but I'm not I never played that so I think that that was like the first rhythm game I played and not only like opening me up to ah.

Ryan 18:26

I mean parappa the rapper for me. But yeah.

Jon 18:31

Um, yeah.

Dave 18:42

All the music because it's like it's a really good rhythm game and I played ah I played Bass Guitar I mean I technically I guess I still know how to play but I played a lot back then and so just taking something I already liked making it into a video game and then exposing me.

Jon 18:58

Yeah.

Dave 19:01

To all of these other bands like the first time I heard mega death was on guitar hero I had previously only known of me mega death because of Dave Mustain formerly being in Metallica that was all I knew and then it was like you play hangar eighteen you're like oh this this fucks like I kind of listen to meade death now this is great.

Jon 19:12

Right.

Dave 19:21

Now that album rust in Peace is one of my favorites ever and it's I mean maybe I would have found it later but Guitar Hero got me there much sooner.

Ryan 19:25

Right.

Jon 19:28

Yeah, the social aspect of just guitar hero too where I mean Guitar Hero also is okay, you and a buddy or a bunch of people can just switch off depending on the set list or songs or whatever so it became a communal thing like you know.

Dave 19:35

Um, yeah.

Jon 19:48

I can remember I'm old enough to remember back in the day when you'd get like ah 16 computers all hooked up and do like you know land parties and shit like that where you know you could get 8 or 10 or 12 people at least we used 2 in the dorm and just swap out. You know who was playing guitar you know, depending on how they you know. Loser You know has to give up the guitar or something like that was kind of how we did it so it was fun.

Ryan 20:05

Yeah I think that's really why these songs stick with us right? I mean how many years later was the last time you played a guitar hero and you still know these songs you still think of it. It's because you had these memories of with your friends like playing it and it just really cemented that as a time and place.

Jon 20:14

Exactly yeah.

Dave 20:15

Yeah, yeah.

Jon 20:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan 20:24

For everyone. Probably everyone here just from listening to you guys I could comfortably say that right.

Dave 20:27

Oh yeah, absolutely that was um, 2006 was my freshman year in College. So like right when Guitar Heroes exploding we move into the dorm rooms and everyone's like you know, maybe you are a little bit nervous about making friends at college or whatever and so they they. Told us at orientation like leave your dorm door open so people can come hang out if you know you're watching something or doing something they like just leave your door open. It's much easier to meet people and immediately it was like oh people's doors are open and there's a guitar hero happening and then it's like you know you take a peek in you're like.

Jon 21:00

Yeah.

Dave 21:05

Ah shit what is that let me ah let me are you playing Nirvana like let me get a let me get a try on that and then boom like decades long friendships are born from that. That's my experience with it. So the social aspect was super strong and then rock band became the party game that was our party game.

Jon 21:08

Yes.

Ryan 21:15

Yeah.

Jon 21:15

There. Exactly Yeah, when you could when they introduced the microphone and then you'd have people singing like most of the time it was questionably singing and you know most of the time it was like drunk karaoke. But yeah, that.

Dave 21:24

That was like. Yeah.

Ryan 21:30

Ah, questionably yeah.

Jon 21:37

That definitely became the party game. You'd have a guy who doesn't have any rhythm trying to do the drums which was hard as shit those drums are hard but the guitars were fun and I like the buttons better on the guitar on the um rock Band guitar. There were square buttons.

Dave 21:54

Um I was like the Guitar Hero Guitar Better I always felt like the rock Band One was a little less forgiving.

Jon 22:00

Yeah.

Ryan 22:01

Yeah, yeah, this is where I'm a bit out of my league. I'm not sure I ever played in a rock band when I did get into the other instruments. It's when guitar hero introduced him because maybe guitar hero you know gave these pop punk bands a second chance.

Dave 22:11

Right.

Jon 22:16

Yeah, what you're holding there Ryan what you're holding and it even says and it says Gibson on it.

Ryan 22:18

But they didn't give rock Band a chance I planted my flag with this bad boy right here? Yeah yeah, the Les Paul I got the Les Paul man for the we. Yeah.

Dave 22:18

No oh shit Ryan so that shit's worth hundreds of dollars now Ryan Ryan's got one of those guitars damn that's a collector's item.

Jon 22:34

The rock band guitars were square and they were kind of like more like a real guitar fret and that's why I kind of liked that better as someone who has had a guitar for 20 years I haven't played for 20 years I've just had 1 for that long.

Dave 22:42

Yeah. Um, yeah.

Ryan 22:50

As somebody who has no musical inclination when it comes to playing an instrument I Really appreciate Guitar Hero's guitar.

Dave 22:57

Yeah, yeah, good stuff. We've got a community response. We have a lot of community responses for this episode. A lot of people feel strongly about this. But when there's one that like directly fits into this these sections here. We split them up.

Jon 22:57

Yeah.

Dave 23:16

So the one community response about guitar hero and rock band is from Thrak. One of our friends from the 3DO experience podcast, former guest on this show. Thrak says the 2 series that influenced my music taste were sonic and guitar hero three. Before that I was kind of getting into music but didn't have too much guidance guitar hero three setlist got me into classic rock in such a big way. Yeah, for sure I feel like guitar hero one and two had a lot more like.

Jon 23:42

Yeah, hell yeah, Thrak knows what's up.

Dave 23:53

Had like some really famous stuff but a lot more like kind of experimental or like stuff on the edges and then guitar hero three was like oh this is really popular now. Okay, we're getting like Aerosmith and Ac Dc and all of these like big bands and then eventually they had their own games.

Ryan 24:03

Um, yeah.

Jon 24:04

Um, yeah, but they yeah they also got slash ah Tom Tom Morello and um Brett Michaels to do motion capture for the game. Yeah.

Dave 24:12

Yeah. That's right.

Ryan 24:21

Ah, also so speaking of Sonic soundtracks. It's the best part of any sonic game. So yeah, well yeah, good pick there thrak. Yeah.

Dave 24:25

Agreed? Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah and we'll leave it at that. But thank you thrack. We appreciate that. So yeah, it's easy to say that guitar hero and Rock Band had a big influence. Let's move on to another set of games.

Jon 24:26

Yeah, yeah.

Dave 24:43

That had a big influence on us. We'll get some music here so the next grouping of games that I wanted to talk about because again it came up in just about everybody's individual notes are sports games and we're still in like that licensed music conversation here. But. I think that we cannot start the sports games section talking about anything other than Tony Hawk so let's talk Tony Hawk I was in on Tony Hawk from the first game I played it on n sixty four again. It was like one of those things that just hit at the.

Jon 25:09

Yeah, yeah.

Dave 25:21

Perfect time. The absolute perfect time like for the age I was at the consoles I had everything I was primed and I was also again ready to just have my ears blown out by all that sweet sweet punk rock. In the the first Tony Hawk game especially

Jon 25:42

Yeah, um, Tony Hawk is god amazing games. I actually started with Tony Hawk 2 as a buddy of mine had it and then I went back and played Tony Hawk 1 prior to the release of Tony Hawk 3 but Tony Hawk man killer soundtracks on both of those first 2 games for me. Ah, my go-to song was blood brothers by Papa Roach and like I knew you know everyone knows last resort you know the cut my life into pieces blah bla blah um, but like Blood Brothers was on that first album and got me to actually go buy that Cd. It was like 1 of the first cds I bought with my own money. You know at the tender age of 14 or something. But um, there was ah ah like an r and b slash raptrack on there called the high and mighty by bboy document 99 featuring mos def that has like the most killer r&b beat I love it and like that was.

Dave 26:32

Nice.

Jon 26:35

Those were the 2 songs I played on ah Tony Hawk too and then going back and playing Tony Hawk One euro -barged by the vandals was a banger I love that song and then police truck police truck by the dead Kennedys man oh my god.

Ryan 26:43

Yeah, the vandals rock man for sure.

Dave 26:44

Um, yeah, oh yeah I have such a strong memory of police truck playing because I had the n64 version of Tony Hawk won which for those who don't know the difference.

Ryan 26:54

Shit.

Jon 26:55

Oh got you.

Dave 27:01

N sixty four had less memory to work with so the songs were cut so you got like a 30 or 45 second like cut of the song so it would be like 1 verse 1 chorus the guitar solo from police truck and then it would just loop to the beginning again. Yeah so.

Jon 27:01

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Ryan 27:18

That's too funny. I had no idea of it.

Dave 27:20

That it's still even to this day I've listened to that song hundreds of times and I'm still expecting it to go the way it went in Tony Hawk but I'm like oh right there's a second verse and every there's all this other stuff in the song. But yeah, that's one of my big memories and of course Superman by Goldfinger and um. Jerry was a race car driver that introduced me to primus at like the age of 11 or whatever exactly? Yeah yeah.

Ryan 27:42

Primus. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's the perfect age for privacy and what is known as a big brown beaver. Anyway, yeah, no, this is like so I'm kind of with you I like I was the age and I was like.

Jon 27:45

Great age for primus.

Ryan 28:00

Ah, skater. Not a very good 1 but you know many of my friends were much better than I was but um, this was like the perfect game at the perfect moment for me for a Tony Hawk's pro skater and it's also. I already listened to a lot of this music so it just cemented that it was like oh no like you do love punk rock and you do listen to good music and now other people knew about it. So when I got to talk about the vandals like people would actually know who the heck I was talking about now because they played Tony Hawk so um yeah I love.

Jon 28:16

Yeah.

Ryan 28:33

The soundtracks on on Tony Hawk’s Pro skater 1 and 2 and maybe not as influential when it comes to finding like new music for me, but it was definitely influential in that like it's almost like a video game saying like no, you're on a good path when it comes to music you know.

Jon 28:48

Yeah I think 1 thing that those soundtracks don't get enough credit for is how eclectic they are like those soundtracks have like a good mixture of like 1 of my examples was an r&b song there was like a grunge rock kind of a classic rock song like.

Dave 28:48

Yeah.

Jon 29:06

They really started to incorporate songs from different genres not so much like country but like there were a couple of different you know genres represented that you could be like okay cool I dig this one song and stuff like that. So it was really cool.

Ryan 29:18

Yeah, yeah, they definitely like hard songs you would hear on the radio mixed with songs. You would never hear on the radio right? and I think that's that's really cool that it kind of even if it was you know you listened to Goldfinger.

Dave 29:25

Yeah.

Jon 29:25

Yeah.

Ryan 29:34

Like stuff was there for you for your enjoyment and then if you listen to like these lesser known bands. You know stuff was there for you. Also, So yeah.

Jon 29:40

Yeah.

Dave 29:43

Yeah, it was like Tony was it 2 or 3 that had public enemy on it because the the first um, the first game was just all punk rock basically and then it was like and primus of course because how the fuck do you categorize Primus. But.

Jon 29:53

Yeah.

Dave 30:01

Um, even within yeah even within that it was like you had the more like radio friendly like goldfinger and then you had some of those other songs on there like ah, there's a song called Screamer that is like you would never hear that on the radio and it's like.

Jon 30:01

Yeah.

Dave 30:21

I'm 11 listening to that and being like oh music can sound like this okay I had no idea. Yeah super cool like I think that that's one of those things where it's like I was young enough that everything on the Tony Hawk won soundtrack I was hearing for the first time.

Ryan 30:23

Um, that's cool.

Jon 30:37

Yeah.

Dave 30:39

And ah it was like immediately like oh the skateboarding is really fun. The game is really fun and those songs just warm their way into your head because you love the game so much. It's in my case.

Ryan 30:50

Man That's really cool to hear. I enjoy hearing that like I'm a little older, like not to age myself here but hearing that it helped build your taste in music is just rad dude like I love I Love to hear stuff like that. What a cool game.

Dave 31:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely I think the only other things that I was consciously choosing to listen to at that age was that was the same time that eminem got big and I liked Eminem but.

Jon 31:17

Yeah.

Ryan 31:19

Um, oh yeah.

Dave 31:22

And like blink 182 I like the 2 of them but they were on the radio and like will Smith I suppose like stuff like that. It was just like you kind of just pick up stuff. Yeah I was in fifth grade. Yeah, but then like yet.

Jon 31:28

Gettin Jiggy with it

Ryan 31:31

Dave was get Jiggy with it. Heck yeah, they know no hate here man that's cool.

Jon 31:33

With his fro.

Dave 31:41

Then like Tony Hawk comes out and it's just like oh there's this entire other thing and because I like the game so much I like basically all of those songs where if you would have presented. Like the dead Kennedys to me outside of the context of that game at that age. Very little chance I would have liked it. You know there's something magical about it. Yeah exactly? yeah.

Jon 31:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan 32:02

Yeah, the game forces you to listen to it if you like the game and you like what you're playing. Eventually it will worm its way into your mind. Yeah.

Jon 32:14

Yeah, a little little anecdote on um tony Hawk’s pro skater 3 There's a song on there. Um, that is called 96 Quite Bitter Beings by CKY, the band CKY

Dave 32:27

Aha.

Jon 32:31

Stands for camp' kill yourself which was the precursor to jackass the the tv show like Bam Margera’s like thing and so that that got me to dovetail into doing stupid shit as a teenager like we created our own little jackass troope for a little while that did stupid shit it was.

Dave 32:41

Oh yeah, yeah, it's pretty unfortunate that my brain works this way. But I'm sure someone should or is doing a podcast where they just interview people about.

Jon 32:49

It was fun. It was fun.

Dave 33:01

All the times they tried to copy Jackass when they were teenagers and just people telling stories about the dumb stunts they tried exactly because everyone did it. Everyone tried something. Yeah.

Jon 33:02

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, everyone did.

Ryan 33:07

There are endless guests for that show I'm sure. But yeah, yeah.

Dave 33:16

Ah, so yeah, there's the Tony Hawk section super influential. Ah Ryan you got some other sports games that you brought. What did you bring?

Jon 33:19

Push. Yeah.

Ryan 33:24

Yeah I just felt like they should be brought up just because ah they meant something to me Ssx tricky had a pretty cool soundtrack. A lot of the majority of it was like techno, a lot of drum and bass and stuff like that. But um.

Dave 33:28

Oh yeah.

Jon 33:30

Yeah.

Ryan 33:38

Was never even if I listened to hip hop I was never big on run dmc like I knew they did that song with Aerosmith you know, but for some reason I never went back to them right when I got into hip hop. It was like the 90's and never really went back to them and and then every time you bust off.

Jon 33:44

Well this way.

Ryan 33:56

Like the tricky combo right? They kick in that. Ah, it's tricky by Run Dmc and I was like dang this kind of sounds great like maybe I should go back and listen to this so I did it actually sent me down like a run Dmc Rabbit hole. So thanks to that. But I'm also a big fan of chip tunes and I feel like.

Dave 33:58

Yeah, it's cool. Yeah.

Jon 33:59

Yeah, yeah.

Ryan 34:15

Ah, huge reason is many 80s video games but I do want to shout out punch out because I think punch out has some some bangers on it and it's it's you know soundtracks like that and and countless other retro games that I can attribute to you know me being into chiptunes now and and really enjoying those.

Dave 34:31

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, let's.

Jon 34:36

Yeah I'm I'm I'm too young for chiptunes I'm kidding I'm kidding I'm kidding.

Ryan 34:42

You're never too young for chip tins.

Dave 34:45

Ah, yeah, um I definitely have chip tune stuff that I would like to talk about a little bit later but let's ah, let's finish up the sports game section. We'll swing around back to chip tunes and yeah.

Ryan 34:55

Yeah, well, that's why I mean I brought a punch out. You know it's a sports game. It's a sports game. Yeah yeah.

Dave 35:02

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah I've only played like very limited amounts of punch out and I'm very bad at it. I heard it's good, especially the we version always looked cool but ever tried it.

Jon 35:02

That's a sports game. Yeah.

Ryan 35:12

Yeah, the we version's good. The Wii version is definitely good, but the NES one for me is where it's at.

Jon 35:18

Nice.

Dave 35:19

Nice, nice. Um John and I both wrote down in the notes that we picked up a lot of stuff from Madden and Mlb the show for you. So.

Jon 35:29

Yeah.

Dave 35:32

John tell me about some stuff from those games that you got introduced to.

Jon 35:35

Um, yeah, Mlb the show started and I think it was zero. Six was the first one but there were some banger songs on some of the later um releases like 2009 had a song called safe to say by a band called Valencia which was just like this punk kind of like. Rocky song that was not necessarily their cover song but it was one that was like high up on the set list that was always like second or third to play but not a song I would normally listen to but after hearing it so many times in the road to show road to the show mode I was like actually you know what this is kind of a banger.

And one of the things that I love about and Mlb the show is um when you're doing like the created player modes. Um, and you're doing like batting practice or pitching practice or something they play the soundtrack of the game but they they um. Sound design actually has it so that you hear it as if it were playing through the stadium speakers and so when you're when you're taking like batting practice or something you'll hear the soundtrack but it's as if you know you're at the ballpark or something so hearing it over and over again trying to hit you know Ninety Eight mile an hour fastballs like it was it was a cool song.

Dave 36:30

Oh that's cool.

Jon 36:48

Um, yeah, and again, especially again in these later ones like I go back to saying they're really eclectic. It's a lot of different genres especially in the more recent like I'd say the last like seven or eight years of and Mlb the show have.

Dave 36:56

Um, yeah.

Jon 37:03

Literally a song for almost every genre like there's a techno. There's There's R&B there's rock different kinds of rock like it's a lot of stuff and it's really really good. It's all really good.

Dave 37:14

That's cool. I never played any of the shows. I never had a playstation like during the years when I wanted to play it and then like now that I have a playstation I don't really want to play sports games very often like when I play when I play sports games. They're not.

Jon 37:19

Yeah.

Dave 37:31

The like the big licensed ones like I play super mega baseball and stuff like that like fucking love super mega baseball. But yeah, maybe I should try. I don't know if the show's good like ah maybe I just assumed because like Madden is not great anymore that the other ones suck too.

Jon 37:33

Yeah.

Ryan 37:34

My man for sure.

Dave 37:49

I Don't know.

Ryan 37:52

The show is typically well reviewed and pretty well regarded. But ah I'm kind of like you like if I'm going to sit down and play a video game. It's probably not going to be a sports game right? for sure.

Jon 37:54

Yeah.

Dave 37:55

That's good. Yeah, unfortunately I mean and you know stuff like rocket league rocket league has some good songs in it. But it's always changing. It's hard to keep up with it. But um Madden was really big for me because I started playing Madden back.

Jon 38:15

Um, yeah.

Dave 38:18

With Madden ‘02 the one with Eddie George on the cover I think Ray Lewis was o 2 Eddie George was maybe the year the year before okay so is oh one? Yeah and then.

Jon 38:21

That was no Eddie George was ‘01. Yeah yeah.

Dave 38:34

Madden got me to go further than Tony Hawk did so like Tony Hawk was a couple years before that and it introduced me to all those punk bands but I didn't ask my parents for a dead Kennedy's Cd for Christmas or so or anything like that. But Madden pushed me to actually like actually go start buying these.

Jon 38:44

Yeah.

Dave 38:53

So Madden I think I looked it up. It's madden ‘04 yeah, the one with Mike Vick on the cover. Yeah, the greatest athlete in the history of the Madden franchise is o 4 Mike Vick and that soundtrack had a bunch of stuff that really spoke to me.

Jon 38:56

Yeah, my Mike Vick baby yeah

Ryan 39:02

Right.

Dave 39:10

Ah, that was when are you gonna to be my girl by jet popped off was it was on that soundtrack. There was stuff by outcast and the roots there was blink 83 like after they got sad and then they had on that soundtrack the song was way away by yellowcard and.

Jon 39:11

Yeah. Um, a way away a way away.

Dave 39:28

That song blew me away when I heard it and way away. It blew me way away way away away from here in fact, um, so I love that song so much when we went on a trip. We went to New York city and we went to the tower records store.

Ryan 39:31

Um, like way away. Wow.

Dave 39:46

And I bought 2 cds at the store I still remember this I bought the blizzard the blizzard of ozz by Ozzy Osborne because I had just book in my english class about Ozzy and I picked up that yellow card cd because I love that song so much I was like I need to hear other things by this band.

Jon 39:51

Nice.

Dave 40:05

And then there is this cute girl that rode the bus with me and she liked yellowcard so that just got you know? yeah that goes yellow card was my favorite band for a while there and so yeah, so that was the thing that actually got me to like.

Ryan 40:12

Yeah, yeah, oh I Love I Love Yellowcard too.

Jon 40:17

Um, panty melters.

Dave 40:22

Start buying cds of the bands instead of just being like oh that song was in Tony Hawk and then when I stopped playing Tony Hawk I stopped listening to that song even though I like them all I picked them all back up later but that I that like. Got me to start buying Cds and exploring and then it would be like you go to the store and they're like oh you like this yellow card cd try this green day cd and that I love green day and again this is stuff that would have happened at some point but it started with Madden O four because I loved Madden so much back then a lot of those songs. Just became a big part of my life too.

Ryan 41:00

That's cool hearing and both you guys talk about it I think it's really cool because ah Madden is not a game that people would typically you know attribute to their musical taste like I feel like it gets pushed to the side in a lot of ways, especially from people who are you know as deep into gaming as we are and.

Jon 41:01

Gotcha.

Dave 41:08

Right? yeah.

Jon 41:08

Yeah, hundred percent

Ryan 41:18

Um, yeah, it deserves some credit. Ah sometimes right like it did it did some good things for sure.

Jon 41:21

Yeah, those early aughts of maddens when they were actually still trying to change the game each year and it was still good like but mad no six for me had a real banger and like.

Dave 41:29

Yeah, yeah.

Ryan 41:30

Um, yeah.

Jon 41:37

Piggybacking off of what Dave said I actually went out and got the Cd um mado six had a song by disturbed called 10000 fists that is a fucking banger. Dude you want to get hyped playing madden go listen to ten thousand Fist man that's a good ah song.

Dave 41:45

Um, ah that was another one of those bands that I thought I was too cool for disturbed because I had discovered like. I was like oh I like megadeth now I don't need to listen to disturbed and then like they had a song on guitar hero three and I was like wait. No, this song rules. What's wrong with me like come on Dave get your shit together.

Jon 42:04

Um, oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, those middle like the ‘03 I would say to like ‘08, ‘09 madden really all those soundtracks just absolutely slap. They're so good and the games actually were good to play too.

Dave 42:21

Yeah, yeah, and it does. I was just going to say that and it doesn't hurt that I feel like that's the golden age for Madden and I've been thinking about this because I feel very strongly that that was the best era of Madden.

Jon 42:29

Yeah.

Dave 42:40

But do I feel that because the games were actually better than they are now or was it because I was you know 14 to 22 during that time and that because of that and I was really into football like way more than I am now even though I'm I'm into football but I was like big into football back then. I don't know if it's like something changing about me over time or if that actually was the golden age of Madden you know.

Ryan 43:06

I mean I'd probably agree with it being the golden age of matted but it's a similar situation right? like so I might have the same bias like it just was that time in my life for me and I think that's valid I think that can completely be what it was like.

Jon 43:11

Yeah.

Ryan 43:22

I Don't want to play a madden now I have no interest in it. It could be too because they were trying back then they were innovating every year they were trying new things and but it could also very well be that just like football was a bigger part of my life back then.

Jon 43:27

They were.

Dave 43:30

Um, yeah. Yeah, I tried the new Madden Madden 23 I guess or 24 what somewhat so one of them went on game pass a while ago and I tried it out and I don't think it's very fun.

Jon 43:37

Yeah.

Dave 43:53

But there is a lot of really impressive stuff in there. It's just not what I want. It's the same reason I don't play Nba 2k anymore like they went so far on the side of realism that the games became too difficult to really enjoy.

Jon 43:59

Yeah, fuck 2k. Yeah.

Dave 44:10

And especially with 2k, 2K fucked itself over in my opinion. But yeah, the.

Jon 44:12

Yeah, dude Mba live for life Nba live was the shit and the early aughts man. Yeah yeah.

Dave 44:19

Ah, that's I mean that's part of the problem right? There's no Nba live anymore. There's no nfl two k anymore. It's just you know one company controls the whole damn thing and they just don't have to innovate because why would they? yeah.

Ryan 44:23

Right? right.

Jon 44:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan 44:32

You want to play a football game. You're going to buy our football game. Yeah.

Dave 44:37

You're going to buy our game or you're going to play just some I don't know some knockoff like I'm sure some indie developers are making a football game with that's that's good, but Blitz is.

Jon 44:45

Bring back Blitz Man Blitz was fucking. Awesome.

Ryan 44:48

Yeah, but that's the thing there wasn't that big of a gap between I mean there was a gap but it wasn't huge between Blitz and Madden because Madden was a little more arcadey right? like it wasn't you could rip off ninety Yard runs or you know these seventy yard passes and like I haven't played a modern madden.

Dave 44:55

Um, yeah.

Jon 44:57

Yeah.

Ryan 45:07

But I can guarantee you, you're probably not pulling that off with the frequency that you used to be able to do in Madden right.

Jon 45:13

He'd be surprised though. Yeah like I don't know Madden's just been a roster update for the last fifteen years you're paying seventy bucks for purchase just updated rosters. It's really all the all there is yeah.

Dave 45:14

It's tougher. It's ah it's also microtransaction hell in Madden these days. Yeah yep, so yeah, that's ah you know I I think one of the common things here at least with my list is stuff that I played.

Ryan 45:27

Ah, that's a bummer.

Dave 45:41

That had this type of licensed music between the ages of, you know, 11 to 18 and so you're taking in music I think from other sources of course like stuff your friends like maybe stuff your parents like stuff you hear on the radio.

Jon 45:46

Yeah.

Dave 46:00

Ah, during that time was when napster like became big so it was just like ooh ahh, we go to this website they have 30 m p three files I'll just download all of them and listen to them I don't know what they are but it's free music so I'm just going to try it. Ah, but.

Jon 46:01

Yeah, lime wire. Yeah.

Dave 46:17

I think like if you're playing a bunch of video games and they have that licensed music in it I think something about like that age makes you just more open to you hearing it whereas like now I'll listen to Rocket League you know music when I'm sitting in the lobby or something. And I like it. It sounds good. I'll never listen to it outside of the game or anything like that. But back then I just felt like you're more open to it.

Jon 46:37

Yeah. I think that 11 to like 18 is like those are impressionable years like those are formative years where you're just a sponge. You're just going to soak up whatever is around you. Um.

Dave 46:54

Um, yeah.

Jon 47:04

Ah, Dave let me ask you this as you alluded to earlier that you kind of played bass or used to play bass as I'm just thinking about this now. Um I also found that like these games Madden they will be the show Tony Hawk I was I was drawn to some of these songs too because I also.

Dave 47:08

Um, yeah.

Jon 47:23

This was you know the early so years of the internet zero four zero five zero six somewhere in there I started to try to learn how to play some of these on guitar like you know, not like dragon force get fucked Herman Lee um

Dave 47:33

Her.

Jon 47:38

But like trying to play some of these songs was kind of fun too and got me to like further drawn into these did you have any of that like being a bass player.

Dave 47:47

Probably not until probably not until Guitar Hero that was when it kind of got like more serious I I started to play more I guess than to. But yeah I mean I learned how to play the songs on that yellow card album and.

Jon 47:58

Sure.

Dave 48:05

Other stuff that I owe the are you going to be my girl by Jet has like a really catchy bassline in it. I definitely learned how to play that. So actually yeah I think you're right like I don't know that it was like I like this song I like these songs from Madden so I'm going to learn all of them. But it was like that. First got a bass in maybe like 2004 and that was around the time I was playing that game. I was like well this song has a really great bassline. I bet I could learn that in a month or so. So yeah I think so yeah.

Jon 48:35

Yeah, right? um.

Dave 48:40

We've got a bunch of responses from the community here about sports games. So let's run through them with your help If you guys are willing.

Jon 48:50

Yes, sir.

Dave 48:53

And ah I'll get us started with Dave C who's one of the patrons of the show. Thank you Dave Dave says Madden title screen music were always bangers correct. That's the thing about the madden songs too like you get little clips during games. But it's mostly when you're just in menus or in the old.

Ryan 49:08

Yeah, yeah.

Dave 49:13

Like ‘04, ‘05 era of madden they had training camp and you like do drills and shit they play the music during that too. Ah, but yeah, so Dave says yeah Madden title screen music was always a a banger and halo ods t soundtrack turned me onto jazz.

Jon 49:17

Yeah.

Dave 49:31

And never played Halo Odst I didn't know there was. I didn't know it was jazzy.

Ryan 49:32

Yeah I know I wouldn't have considered it being jazzy but I'm also not familiar with it. So that's pretty cool. All right I'll take the next one this is from Chris and thank you so much for your patronage Chris Tony Hawk and he goes out to say.

Jon 49:33

Neither did I.

Dave 49:39

Yeah, that's cool.

Ryan 49:51

Tony Hawk for sure shape my musical taste in middle school high school. Yes, definitely that's me saying that he goes on to say really got me into punk rock police truck dead Kennedy's bad religion you Superman Goldffinger the suicide machine's new girl.

Dave 50:10

Yeah I love that suicide machine song. That's great.

Ryan 50:11

All good picks all good picks for sure. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Jon 50:15

Yeah, next is the best name and discord snacktaku who is a patron thank you for your patronage. Ah I discovered a lot of cool bands like foes Kasabian, Keane muse Etc. through Fifa that's another great sports game.

Dave 50:33

Yeah, another one where I feel like a lot of people would probably agree the golden age of Fifa was about fifteen years ago but

Ryan 50:33

Ah, interesting. Yeah yeah. Yeah.

Jon 50:41

Yeah, yeah, no doubt.

Dave 50:45

I never played Fifa myself. My roommates liked to play it but I tried it a couple times. I was like this is way harder than Madden. I'm not playing this anymore. But I don't doubt that it had great music just like the rest of the sports games of that era next is DarthEgg 1 of our patrons. Thank you Darthegg. They say smackdown versus raw games got me into early two thousand rock and got me listening to bands like three days Grace Chevelle, Nonpoint rise against and disturbed just to name a few hell yeah.

Jon 51:09

Hell yeah. Yeah dude Smackdown vs Raw was an incredible series especially like mid to late aughts like really good games and really stellar soundtracks I'm I'm with start a on this one? yeah.

Dave 51:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah, just the concept of it. Yeah.

Ryan 51:26

Really got me into the walkout music from wrestlers Some of them have some really good walkout music I'll say that either. It's really catchy stuff Man I'll take the next one it is from Jake a patron.

Jon 51:37

Yeah.

Ryan 51:45

Thank you Jake and a host of the pre-order bonus podcast he says THPS 2 which of course is Tony Hawk’s pro skater to Superman by goldfinger, Can I kick it. Yes, you can by a tribe called quest very good picks for sure.

Dave 51:59

Um, yeah, good song to just skate around to for sure. Yeah.

Jon 52:03

Yeah, hundred percent next is Chris R he says I found loads of new music through games mostly sports skate games or racing games like need for speed series Tony Hawk and forza. There was one song that immediately came to mind though.

Ryan 52:04

Oh absolutely. Yeah.

Jon 52:22

There is an old Xbox game called juice that had the song between us and them by moving units. He says I love that track in that album and eventually really came to love that style of garage rock and that's never really changed. That's awesome.

Dave 52:36

Nice I'm not ah, not familiar with that game or that song but reading that reminded me of I think it was need for speed underground 2 had had this ah this doors and Snoop dogg remix of riders on the storm.

Jon 52:47

Dude yeah riders on the storm. Hell yeah dude.

Ryan 52:51

Yeah.

Dave 52:54

And that that got me into both Snoop dogg and the doors separately just because that song was so good I love that game too.

Jon 52:57

Yeah, the need for speed to underground two was a God Banger game. Absolutely amazing.

Dave 53:08

And the last one is from Adam Aka Dezba Adam says Megaman got me leaning toward rock and metal as a kid Tony Hawk pro skater pretty much solidified me as a rocker slash hip hop hip hopper for life.

Ryan 53:19

Um, myself. So I think it's probably because a metal man and rock man for me Magnet I Think that's probably why? Yeah yeah and snake. Ah.

Dave 53:30

That's probably true. Yeah yeah, other people played those games and got real big into grass or wood. Yeah, ah. Ah, so thank you everyone for those ah submissions. We've got a lot more. We just had a lot that directly fit into the sports games category. So we're gonna take a little music break when we come back, we'll talk about some other stuff. Non-sports games. Maybe some are non-licensed. Music all right? So we talked about sports games. We talked Tony Hawk. We talked about rock band. We got a lot of that licensed music out of the way but the licensed music the quote the real music the pop music the stuff you might hear on the radio. The stuff on Spotify. That's not all that makes up at least my music taste and that definitely not all that video games are kind of informed as far as that goes so let's ah, let's talk about some other games that don't include licensed music. There are original soundtracks. For these games that still influenced our music taste.

Jon 54:41

Go ahead? Ryan.

Ryan 54:42

Okay, I'll go first. So I have on here gta because I do think it deserves a shout out. We kind of talked about sports games and Guitar Hero and Rock Band specifically. But I think gta I know it's licensed but it deserves to be mentioned in this space talking about.

Dave 54:49

Um, yeah. Yeah.

Jon 55:01

Yeah.

Ryan 55:02

Game of soundtracks I mean if you want to talk about variety and just good tracks all around especially like the first gta trilogy right? GTA three vice city san andreas they all rocked big time. Ah, as for non-license games I know. John you're going to echo this but it's definitely the last of us. I love Gustavo Santaolalla um and hades for me is 1 of probably my most listened to soundtracks. It's just full of good music and really good vocals and lyrics.

Jon 55:21

Yeah, yeah, hell yea.

Ryan 55:39

Um, another one that is probably 1 of my most listened to is doom the soundtrack for doom I just think that is like if you ever want to get pumped. It's my it's definitely the thing I listen to when I work out like it's my go to that doom soundtrack. It's.

Dave 55:44

Okay, oh yeah.

Ryan 55:57

I Can't think of anything better than that.

Dave 55:57

Yeah I listen when I work out. If I listen to it, I usually listen to podcasts. But if I'm listening to music. It's very often. The metal gear rising revengeance soundtrack because it's similar to doom. It's super upbeat.

Ryan 56:09

Nice.

Dave 56:15

It's very intense and it's very corny and for some reason I love that. But yeah Hades and Doom are good. Ah good shouts like soundtracks that are original for the games. But.

Ryan 56:19

It's a good mix.

Jon 56:21

Yeah.

Dave 56:29

Really easy to map on to like my general music taste right? like I Love rock and metal and so Hades and doom just slot right in there. It's just you know a lot of those songs. You know they just don't have vocals. That's the biggest difference for most of them. But the music is easy.

Jon 56:43

Yeah.

Ryan 56:47

Yeah, absolutely and also dezba kind of mentioned Mega Man and Mega man's another big Retro game that I can attribute to my my you know, ah liking towards chiptunes right? like this. By the way, Bionic commando had a good soundtrack for that too. I got really into soundtracks around the time of the last of the Mohicans actually. I felt like that soundtrack was just so good and ah outside of that I hadn't really listened to a ton of them right. And then all of a sudden I started listening to a lot of video game soundtracks and it kind of brought back that love for orchestrated music that I didn't have for a really long time. Um I Think final fantasy is a big series for that I Also think there are games out there like.

Jon 57:24

Yeah.

Ryan 57:36

Ah, the horizon games. I really like the soundtracks of 0 dawn and forbidden west both have really good soundtracks and um I mean if you want to talk about living in a golden age for gaming I think the orchestrated soundtracks that we are getting.

Jon 57:39

I'll do yeah.

Ryan 57:51

Currently are up there on par with what you see in films if not better than what you get in a lot of films.

Jon 57:54

Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, um yeah, the final fantasy games for sure. Dave will probably echo this but final fantasy ten has a killer fucking soundtrack and like To Zanarkand is like that piano intro is just.

Dave 58:09

Ah, yeah.

Jon 58:11

Oh my god chef's kiss is so good. Um, all that orchestrated music you mentioned last of us like Gustavo I'll shout out because my wife's also from Argentina Gustavo's from Argentina um, like those. Both of those soundtracks and he also did the tv show as well. Just fucking phenomenal the way that that music is composed that it can just elicit so many different types of feelings whether you're sad or what you you are a lot in the last of us but also like there's there's happy music. There's like oh shit we're.

Just got caught music like it's a bunch of cool stuff I'll also shout out bear mccreary um, the god of war soundtracks are amazing. His stuff outside of video games like he's done. He did the walking dead. He did um. Ah, black sails outlander battle star Galactica like he has done some other shit. That's just really cool outside of video games and I'll listen to a lot of his soundtracks because he's just a phenomenal composer. I love pretty much everything that he's done.

Dave 59:10

Ah.

Jon 59:17

And I also shout out I didn't write him in my notes but Austin Wintory is another guy. Um, he did um, Assassin’s creed syndicate and journey and um, Abzu and a bunch other like he's phenomenal. He's so good. Yeah.

Dave 59:21

Um, yeah.

Ryan 59:30

Good shout with journey. Yeah gosh. Yeah.

Dave 59:30

Yeah,, there's a yeah, there's a lot of talent working in video game music these days I mean not that there hasn't always been a lot of talent. But yeah, it seems like. I Don't know it seems like basically every game that I play has an incredible soundtrack now and I don't know if it's just like the technologies there for people to fully realize their vision for what they want a soundtrack to sound like but yeah, it's always Great. Um.

Ryan 59:49

Yeah, yeah.

Jon 59:49

Yeah.

Dave 1:00:04

Kind of got me thinking like how many times I've listened to the final fantasy 7 remake soundtrack on Spotify and like I love the lord of the rings soundtrack. But I don't listen to that in my spare time. I don't listen to Star Wars OSTs, you know in my spare time.

Jon 1:00:09

Oh.

Dave 1:00:24

Despite you know I love those and like you catch me at the right moment and just hearing one of those songs will make me cry because I have just so many memories associated with star wars and lord of the rings. But I think at least. For a lot of retro games and then like final fantasy 7 remake is ah a remake of an older game an older kind of philosophy of making video game soundtracks I think like the the focus on having like big catchy melodies or like very prominent melodies in it like. As opposed to something like a bear mccreary god of war soundtrack where it's maybe reusing that that one motif over and over again in different ways. But.

Jon 1:01:07

Um, yeah.

Dave 1:01:12

It's not like in final fantasy seven where every character has their own theme and then those themes are all used in a bunch of different ways where just like the battle music is really you know it's got a very strong melody to it whereas a lot of those. I think Ryan you and I talked about it in the the god of war ragnarok episode we did where it's like a lot of those soundtracks are good and they suit the game really well and then I put the game down and I can't remember what anything sounds like from them whereas you know a final fantasy or a megaman.

Ryan 1:01:40

Um, right? yeah.

Dave 1:01:49

Like you were talking about with punch out or something like those basically had to have really strong melodies to them because I don't think the technology could do a whole lot else. You know? yeah right.

Ryan 1:02:00

Yeah, yeah, absolutely I mean legend of zelda right? Like Koji Kondo let's go if we were shouting out specific composers. I want to give 1 to Grant Kirkhope who did the Banjo Kazooie games. I think he has a special taste. But I think that also falls into love.

Jon 1:02:12

How nice, yeah.

Ryan 1:02:18

What you get right? and I do agree if I listen to something outside of the media itself. Um I do tend to lean into those more repetitive melodies right? Which is interesting. I'm not sure why but like I would listen to a legend of Zelda soundtrack.

Dave 1:02:30

Um, yeah.

Ryan 1:02:37

Ah, an earlier 1 right before I would go out and listen to bear mccreary's god of war those are good songs front to back. But I think there is a benefit to having a theme or a melody that repeats.

Dave 1:02:41

Right.

Ryan 1:02:52

Because it gets more ingrained with the emotion as you're playing the game right? yeah.

Dave 1:02:55

Yeah, that's definitely part of it, like I think that just me listening to something like that or like listening to the mega man 2 soundtrack while I'm driving in the car that would have never happened when I was in high school. You know I was.

Jon 1:02:56

No.

Ryan 1:03:13

Um, yeah.

Dave 1:03:14

Like that sort of thing was just not part of my music taste but having those memories associated with it whether it's you know, playing through a level over and over again struggling to get through a difficult part or in the case of final fantasy like you have a. A song associated with a story moment or a character that you really love like to zanarkand or the opera scene in final fantasy six like I've I've listened to that opera song in my car many times and like that's probably 1 of 2 opera songs that I could name off the top of my head. But.

Jon 1:03:34

Nothing.

Ryan 1:03:39

Oh yeah, yeah.

Dave 1:03:52

You know, video games just push through it's like you know I'm going to watch a movie and they have an opera scene I'll probably check out but final fantasy 6 like straight to my heart. You know? Yeah, especially in that one. Yeah.

Ryan 1:03:58

For sure. Yeah, it's interactive too. Maybe that's why yeah yeah, but I I think some games even if they don't necessarily have that repetitive melody. They.

Jon 1:04:00

Yeah, yeah.

Ryan 1:04:17

Benefit from having a unique sound and I think the last of us is a really good example of that like Gustavo uses the Ron Roco and it's like a very unique sound to it right? as an instrument.

Dave 1:04:20

Yeah, for sure.

Jon 1:04:21

Yeah. Run Roco yeah. Yeah, it's an 8 string guitar. That's basically ah it's a mandolin but the strings are in reverse I've done research I'm sorry I'm a nerd. No and yeah.

Ryan 1:04:36

Yeah, that's so crazy. But it's like even if you're not getting the same melody right? You're getting the same sound so it kind of burns into your mind a little more.

Dave 1:04:38

Ah, ah, nice. Nice.

Jon 1:04:49

Yeah I'll shout out another one. The recent semi-recent like tomb raider reboot trilogy like they did a lot of stuff with experimenting with different instruments things that you wouldn't necessarily find. Um, like in a regular orchestral you know set um that that sound those soundtracks are actually really good Too. There's different themes and different styles within those games that are really really good

Dave 1:05:22

Um, you kind of mentioned Ryan like soundtracks that you would listen to outside of the context of the game but not necessarily like that super hooky melody driven thing and I immediately thought of tunics soundtrack which is like a.

Ryan 1:05:35

Oh yeah.

Jon 1:05:37

Dude I was gonna say tunic. Yeah.

Dave 1:05:39

Really good like electronic like it's got a melody but it repeats so much that it just kind of fades into the background of whatever you're doing like I listen to it at work all the time. It's a perfect thing for that. That's probably part of this too as I found that if I need to concentrate at work. But I want to listen to something because I can't be alone with my own thoughts. Video game music fills that void really well because it's basically built to be background music and so you know do that enough times and that becomes part of your taste. It becomes part of what you like.

Ryan 1:06:00

Right.

Jon 1:06:01

Yeah.

Ryan 1:06:15

Yeah, there's nothing like having to focus at work with a podcast on and then you're like I caught nothing. You're the last half hour of that podcast right? exactly.

Jon 1:06:15

Yeah.

Dave 1:06:20

Yeah, exactly I caught nothing of that podcast and my work is an absolute mess.

Jon 1:06:21

Yeah, yeah. Yeah Tunics a great one like the different themes for each area are are really distinct and they're They're really good I'll shout out a game that has minimal like orchestral music and it's a lot of music with lyrics and it's mostly acapella. But um. Assassins creed for black flag. All of the sea shanties are fucking awesome and I've listened to them just about all of them in my car multiple times they're really fun.

Ryan 1:06:46

Oh yeah, yeah for sure.

Dave 1:06:47

Oh yeah. Nice, yeah. Yeah I didn't know how like you know these? It's easy to say like oh well of course I played Tony Hawk and then I was like oh Primus. Okay I understand Primus I can go listen to Primus now because you need something to get you in the door. With Primus or stuff like that or with in my case with lamb of god or something you need something to help you get your foot in the door but I was I was wondering how these other things connect you know like the final fantasies and the mega man and you know the the last of us is another great shout.

Ah, if that becomes stuff that you like to listen to outside of the context of the game then I think it's fair to say that that game has influenced what music you like so it was interesting like I knew the first part of this episode would be easy to dig into why. Because you know it's not so different from just hearing something on the radio and you know liking it but a lot of this other Stuff. You know like the opera where else I'm going to have to like any other situation I'm going to have to make the conscious decision to.

Ryan 1:08:08

Right.

Dave 1:08:17

Either sit down and listen to some opera or go to an opera or something like that but video games make that connection a lot easier and I think um like our connection with those interactive experiences I think makes it easier. It makes it easier for me to. Internalize a story and like get emotion out of a story that way and the music just kind of slides right in there too. You know it's all part of that experience as much as the visuals are.

Jon 1:08:42

And Yeah, yeah.

Dave 1:08:52

So um, we have kind of answered this question a couple of times throughout the episode in specific ways but I wanted to just kind of summarize our thoughts before we talk about. Before we run through the rest of the miscellaneous community submissions. Um, why is it? Do we think that video games have this power because if I were to you know, think about all the movies I've watched that have music in them but they didn't influence me as much as video Games. Do. You know I don't want to speak for you guys. But that's definitely the case with me, especially now you know I can watch a movie and be like Wow. The score was great and then I'll never think about it again after I'm home from the movie theater but video games have more of a lasting impact for me so we wanted to just kind of.

Ryan 1:09:36

Right.

Dave 1:09:46

Maybe summarize some thoughts about why so I will turn to 1 of you guys if you want to go first. Otherwise I can go ahead.

Ryan 1:09:52

Sure I'll go first I do want to say I was personally offended when you said that the lord of the ring soundtrack is not something that you listen to outside of it and it didn't resonate with you and you never think about it again and all of those things.

Dave 1:10:01

Yeah I mean I love it with my whole heart. Yeah yeah, I love it with my whole heart. The lord of the ring soundtrack. It's just you know I don't listen to it in the car. Yeah I know.

Jon 1:10:10

I mean I was offended when he said he doesn't listen to Star Wars. I mean who doesn't listen to duel of the fates when they take a shit but but but but but but.

Ryan 1:10:11

No I get you I get you. John Williams man I mean me yeah, exactly exactly. But um I mean Dave you've kind of been saying this throughout the episode. But I think one of the reasons video games.

Dave 1:10:20

Ah, only when I need a little help. Yeah.

Ryan 1:10:32

Have this power is it has a lot to do with when you experience it right? You talk when we were talking about Matt and you said it was that time in your life when we were talking about Tony Hawk you know you said it was you were 11 right? And um I think it just really depends when these games enter your life and I think they. And I I think specifically for license music too. Video games can be more effective because you are experiencing it as you would listen to the music. I think of very few film soundtracks that have licensed music where I go. Oh man, I'm going to buy that Cd like that.

Even when it's licensed music right? And even if there's a song or 2 that gets me into it. It's rare that like the whole thing just gets me but when you're playing Tony Hawk's pro skater as a teenager for forty freaking hours right 70 hours dude right a hundred something hours

Dave 1:11:19

Yeah, so.

Jon 1:11:21

And yeah.

Ryan 1:11:25

Like these songs become a part of your life at that point they're not just something you're listening to while you're watching a 2 hour movie they're like a part of who you are and I just think especially being young being a teenager. You're more impressionable. You have a more open mind to different types of music. Um.

Jon 1:11:39

Yeah.

Ryan 1:11:45

It's the right song at the right time for a lot of these you know for every new song or Band I picked up from a gta game too. There's a lot that I didn't pick up so it's not always effective. It doesn't always. Have that effect but sometimes it's that tune that you're looking for that makes you feel a certain way and I don't. I don't think it's just because it was Tony Hawk or because it was guitar hero. I do think it's because we were all of a certain age when these games came out. Um I don't know Tony Hawk’s pro skater wanted to just re-released a few years ago. I don't know if it had that effect on people. You know that didn't experience the first game they probably didn't go into it and like have this oh I'm going to take all these bands out of it and go hunt them down and buy their cds.

Jon 1:12:36

Right.

Dave 1:12:37

Um, yeah.

Ryan 1:12:38

If they were a 35 year old band playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and 2 for the first time you know? Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I mean I definitely think.

Dave 1:12:40

Right? They're like Wow Suicidal tendencies. Awesome.

Jon 1:12:44

Yeah, make yeah.

Ryan 1:12:51

Video games as a medium aside from all, this can also be more effective than any other because it's interactive. So when you're playing an experience and you know the music swells and it's an emotional scene and the music is just highlighting that. To a thousand times what you'd be experiencing if there was no music it just like it burns into your memory. It has a greater effect than when you're watching an actor play out a story that you had no part in right.

Jon 1:13:20

Yeah, no.

Dave 1:13:24

Yeah for us for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my experience too that ah amount of time you spend with it is good. A good note Also like you know.

Ryan 1:13:25

For us. Yeah for me. Yes, this is all my personal experience. Yeah for sure. Yeah.

Jon 1:13:34

Yeah.

Dave 1:13:40

It would take like I'm trying to do the math. It would take like 4 complete watches of the lord of the rings extended trilogy to equal 1 final fantasy 7 you know or more so the yeah yeah.

Ryan 1:13:50

Right? That's funny when you say the time you spent with it. The first thing I thought of was the final fantasy 7 battle music. Yeah.

Jon 1:13:51

Yeah.

Dave 1:14:00

The amount of times you're going to hear that song compared to the amount of times you're going to hear concerning hobbits or something like that. So the amount of time definitely helps in the amount of times I heard the first or that 45 second supercut of police truck playing Tony Hawk1 I'm sure that I'm sure that helped. Yeah John what would you say.

Jon 1:14:26

Ah, just a ginormous ditto Ryan pretty much said everything in a more immaculate way than I could have um I guess really all I can. That's what she said? um.

Ryan 1:14:36

I've been called inaccurate. It's not 1 of them till today. Yeah.

Dave 1:14:37

Not until now.

Jon 1:14:44

Um I think for me, it's like I would argue that um maybe I'm the only weirdo that did this but I would say after like the first three months of playing Tony Hawk 3 or even like Madden any of these games like. The ability to turn down all of the in-game audio to 0 and then turn the sound effects and the music up or maybe just the music up I started doing that like I don't need to hear myself falling off a skateboard or grinding or whatever and Tony Hawk like I just wanted to to vibe with the music and and that.

Music could elicit a variety of emotions. Um, and I could just know vibe with it. However I wanted to in these games. Um, I think it's like adrenaline testosterone. All these things kind of play a part in it. So like I spent a lot of time playing sports as a kid and. Nothing was cooler than getting hyped up before the game in the locker room you know playing you know Metallica or whatever the hell you know was was the the song of the day or whatever just to get you pumped get you you know like let's fucking. Go you know like you know I don't know those songs at those times. Um.

Dave 1:15:38

This is.

Jon 1:15:55

We're just having fun. You know and it's the way that they can elicit you know emotions like Ryan was saying he is a powerful man and like I said earlier, you're just a sponge you soak all that stuff in you know? yeah.

Dave 1:16:05

Yeah, yeah I Wonder like I think one of the things I'm taking away from this because I think it was going to be a really obvious conclusion that like the time and the age you are when you play these games affects. How easily you take that stuff in. But I think one of the things I'm coming away from this with is I think that if you really love video games. There's something about the connection that you can make with a video game that other media just can't.

Jon 1:16:25

Yeah.

Dave 1:16:43

Provide through no real faults of their own. It's just you know interactivity versus non-interactivity and I think that that like time to form that connection gets lowered once you're a part of the process whether it's you know playing Tony Hawk or you know doing training camp in Madden or.

Jon 1:16:58

Yeah.

Dave 1:17:03

Playing the last of us and you hear those you know those accompaniments and those just become a part of you quicker and then video games are so much longer than other media you spend more time with those songs. Also so they know it's like a double like a.

Jon 1:17:14

Yeah, yeah.

Dave 1:17:22

Ah, pincer attack on your music taste just you know we're we're going to worm our way in there and it's going to become a part of you from now On. So I think that you guys covered a lot of the the stuff the takeaways but I think that video games if you really love them or in the. Very special case of Guitar Hero and Rock Band or other you know, very low barrier to entry games like the the block you would have had to like accept new music gets lowered even further when you can just you know when you can play it.

Jon 1:17:55

Yeah.

Dave 1:18:00

In the the thing you might not be. You might not have been predisposed to love disturbed or something like that or or slipknot in my case slipknot was another one I got introduced to because they were in Guitar Hero three and before that I was like slip knot No no fucking way. But.

Jon 1:18:12

Yeah.

Dave 1:18:18

I played that one song and guitar hero and again I was like oh Dave you were wrong. You were so wrong and all it took was like playing that song a couple times as ah, a person who plays an instrument and d be like wow they're really good at this look at that and then it's it's history from there. So. Lots of ways that I think video games can break down the barrier or at least get it down faster than other media is I think where I'm going to land on this.

Jon 1:18:45

Yeah, it's it's the audio and visual plus the interactivity like it's it's all 3

Dave 1:18:49

Yeah, yeah I think if we did a podcast about how, why can you connect to a video game story more than a movie if that's how you guys feel. That's how I feel the takeaway would be the same as what you just said.

Jon 1:19:02

Yeah.

Dave 1:19:07

John so yeah, no surprise that music is part of that too. Yeah, so let's ah, let's clean up the rest of the community responses. We've got a bunch of miscellaneous ones that didn't fit neatly into the categories. So we'll run through these and there's a lot of good music here too. So I'll get us started once again with Bryan who's a patron from the pixelated playgrounds podcast, lots of plosives in that. Thank you Brian ah former guest on the show. Brian says not only learned what japanese city pop was but also learned that I quite enjoyed it during my playthrough of paradise killer which is another awesome soundtrack. That's another game where it's like the game itself is fine. The soundtrack is really fucking good and I did take that. Outside of the game and listen to it on my own time.

Ryan 1:20:00

Nice all right I'll take Doug who's a patron. Thank you Doug from the nostalgium arcanum podcast. Did I say that right? I'm so bad. Okay see look at that nailed it. This is a broad answer.

Dave 1:20:12

Um, yeah, so so.

Ryan 1:20:18

But I know coming up in the 80's and the 8 and 16 bit eras have given me an outsized appreciation for chip tunes. Let's go dog and synth. Oh this guy is my man. It also means I put a premium on catchy melodies. Over just about any other aspect of music. Yeah yeah, this guy gets it for sure.

Dave 1:20:38

Absolutely yeah, the.

Jon 1:20:44

Um, next we have Jake. He is a patron from the preorder bonus podcast he says Alan wake 1 and 2 poets of the fall old gods of asgard. good good picks

Ryan 1:20:53

Yeah, oh there's some moments in Alan Wake 2 with old gods of asgard that are just good music. It's very good music. It hits right? Is that right? yeah.

Dave 1:20:53

Yeah. Yeah, and control the same ah same band. Yeah, next we have Matt Aka stormageddon who's a patron from the fun and games podcast among many other podcasts.

Ryan 1:21:17

Yes.

Dave 1:21:20

Thank you Matt Matt says well shit I have no idea where to even begin with this music in video games has been absolutely influential to my taste. I am a huge music nerd to start my love of acid jazz is for sure connected to persona 5 royal I've gotten into countless bands and genres. Just from their appearances in games like Guitar Hero Rock Band and fusor. That's another one I heard is a really fun fuser. While I loved heavy metal from a pretty young age, games like doom absolutely expanded that for sure as far as specific bands. Go. Most recent example I can think of is the incredible soundtrack from life is strange true colors introducing me to musicians like novo amor Cyrus Reynolds and Bell Saint in all caps. So I had to emphasize Bell Saint. I'm sure there's much more but this is what came. At the top of my mind. Thank you Matt ah yeah, the persona 5 soundtrack was an instant like oh you're going to listen to this like all day for a while. That's great.

Ryan 1:22:25

Yeah, so kind of ah, tangentially related to life is strange true colors. Um, it made me for some reason think of ah death stranding. It's a game I didn't expect to enjoy the soundtrack. It only has like a few bands highlighted and multiple songs from those bands but man.

Dave 1:22:36

Um, yeah. Um, yeah, because that's a game with no music for most of it and then like when you like.

Ryan 1:22:43

Like it hits at the right time. It's for the most part.

Dave 1:22:52

Crest over a Hills unless a song will come in and it's like ah it's a moment when music enters in that game. Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan 1:22:57

And yeah, and the music fits the vibe. So well, every time it's really well done. Yeah, yeah, definitely so ah the next? Ah entry here comes from dog nozzle who's a patron Thank you dog nozzle. I remember being a teenager in hearing classic seventy s prague rock for the first time in thinking whoa this sounds like video game music in retrospect I was probably thinking of uematsu but I didn't know who he was at the time.

Dave 1:23:24

Yeah, dancing mad does some stuff, it goes some places.

Ryan 1:23:29

Yeah.

Jon 1:23:30

Next we have this chimera from the game over hell on Youtube um, he echoes kind of some of Matt Aka stormageddon's stuff he says I can say I can safely say persona five got me into acid jazz.

Dave 1:23:47

Um, yeah, yeah I think this is something that we like and we may be touched on like Guitar Hero and Rock band. But there's a lot of video games that do not like orchestrations.

Jon 1:23:48

Which is great.

Dave 1:24:04

But it's also not licensed music. It's like you know established genres but it's just using that to accompany the game like persona like persona 5 and other persona soundtracks I've I've dabbled into so mm.

Jon 1:24:07

No. Jedi Fall in order had the Mongolian Band called the who did that like throat singing song at the beginning you remember that was pretty fun.

Ryan 1:24:21

Um, oh yeah, um.

Dave 1:24:24

Yeah, yeah, so like giving you an entry point into whole genres but like not like chip tunes or you know orchestrated soundtracks such like existing genres of music that maybe you wouldn't have heard before.

Jon 1:24:40

Yeah.

Dave 1:24:43

Super cool. Next up is Ozzy Ozzy is part of the ongoing king of games 1996 project over on retro hangover by the time you hear this episode that will be coming soon to their public feed which is a tournament where they pit. The best games from 1996 up against each other. I'm also a part of that tournament so you can go check that out and hear who's going to be crowned the king of games in 1996. So once again, Ozzy's a part of that great guy Ozzie says great topic. There are many instances where.

Jon 1:25:12

Crash bad to Co.

Dave 1:25:18

Of game music shaping my interest. Vice city got me to appreciate the 80's and its music. The licensed soundtracks in many games got me to listen to new songs that I would have otherwise not listened to. Games serve as a great gateway to genres and I hope it continues to be the case. But a good balance between original music and license soundtracks that perfectly accompany the title. Thank you Ozzie that's right, you we we could have just had Ozzy record 15 seconds

Ryan 1:25:43

Yeah, Ozzy just summed up this entire episode. I think that was great right? So the next response comes from Dre from the fine time podcast. What's up Dre. He says.

Jon 1:25:43

Pretty much. Yeah, pretty much do this ad read for us.

Dave 1:25:51

Yeah.

Ryan 1:26:00

I Don't think video games really shape my taste so much as confirmed them . I already pretty much liked all genres of music as it was and video games were an extension of that because you're liable to hear any type of music in a game. Maybe it's a bit different from me coming from the chip Tune era. Where it was much harder to depict the type of music you were going for but that didn't stop early eighty s arcade games from pulling a lot from Blues and Ragtime for instance, but video games haven't made me like the few genres I already don't enjoy such as country or orchestrated movie score types of soundtracks.

Jon 1:26:24

Yeah.

Ryan 1:26:36

That stuff I will always pass on in real life or in games. Yeah, for sure I mean you know what you like he does. He absolutely does.

Dave 1:26:42

That's fair enough. Yeah hundred percent if I know anything about dray. He knows what he likes. Yeah.

Jon 1:26:43

Yeah, yeah. Next we have Michael from bits of time, a more recent development getting into a bit of j-pop because the world ends with you and persona four and 5 I wouldn't normally tune into anything of the sort but I'm more open to the idea now. And another one the ending of mass effect 1 plays a song from fonts I've listened to their work many times since then and that somehow through algorithms led me to find the awesome ep in silence we yearn by oh hiroshima, great freaking album I know what I'm listening to tonight.

Dave 1:27:27

Hell? Yeah, yeah, just ah, maybe sometimes broadening your horizons but sometimes just as a discovery tool for a new band that you never heard of you end up loving and yeah, maybe some catchy j-pop songs too like ah. I Just played Final fantasy 10-2 and I've had some of those songs stuck in my head for a while. Yeah, what can I do for you all right? and the last one here is artful scruff. They say No I.

Jon 1:27:46

Oh my God Yuna’s first song on there I know I know.

Ryan 1:27:50

I'm sorry.

Dave 1:28:01

Don't think video games have influenced my musical taste. I certainly don't recall ever getting into a band or artist specifically because they were featured in a video game. Not off the top of my head anyway. But perhaps certain things like final fantasy 10 s other world spring to mind they kind of gave me in a nudge. Kind of gave me a nudge in a direction I was already leaning which is true. Yeah, other world is a very special song. But yeah, if you are already kind of like yeah know I kind of like this thing and then a song in a game you like or just a song you like.

Pushes you over the edge like you said.

Jon 1:28:39

Artful Scruff gets like an extra bonus point from me for naming the name dropping the best final fantasy game which is ten I said it.

Dave 1:28:45

Ah, like handshake alright cool. Well that is all of the that is all of the listener submissions for this episode I Appreciate everybody who did that if you're listening to this and you're thinking hey how can I get in on this action.

Ryan 1:28:48

No comment.

Dave 1:29:04

You can do that by joining the Discord server where I always put out the call for submissions for topic episodes in the tales from the back row tales from the backlog collaboration channel. So. There's an invite link down in the show notes where you can join the discord server in addition to being a place where you can participate in episodes. It's also a fantastic community that I'm very proud of with a bunch of cool people with good conversations about games, movies, life pets , food and all kinds of stuff.

So again, there's an invite link down in the episode description feel free to join. We would love to have you so when we wrap up this episode here I want to first give you guys the chance to do some plugs so Ryan I will kick it to you tell the fine folks about. List off.

Ryan 1:29:56

Sure hi guys I'm Ryan and I'm historically bad at plugging my show. Ah, it's a podcast and we used to do lists hence the name. Now we just do gaming news on a weekly basis and it's kind of we talk about the bigger news stories and what we've been playing and we delve into news stories that interest us. So um, yeah, you know how to find podcasts. I'm sure you could find a List Off with Brian and Ryan and I hope you do end up giving us a chance.

Dave 1:30:24

Yeah, absolutely yeah, definitely recommended Brian was on this show before I got a rare Brian guest appearance on here with Brian and Ryan we did the deaths door episode together and then Ryan's been on the show many times before about Catherine.

Jon 1:30:27

It's a great show.

Ryan 1:30:28

Hey Thanks guys. Very rare. Yeah.

Dave 1:30:44

About ah god of war ragnarok and Elden ring the number 1 most downloaded episode of tales from the backlog all because of Ryan here. Yeah yeah, absolutely yeah.

Ryan 1:30:46

The blockbusters. Yeah because of it. Yeah because you could hear it. Yeah.

Jon 1:30:54

Well, it's the beard. Yeah they can hear that guy's got an awesome beard.

Dave 1:31:01

People listen, they're like I bet that guy's got a great beard. Fantastic yeah and I was a guest on list off way back when back in the list era of the show we did top Metroidvanias and that was a good. Ah good fun time.

Ryan 1:31:09

The list there. Yeah, we did. We did. It's one of those lists I would love a chance to redo Actually yeah.

Dave 1:31:19

Oh yeah, every year we get like 5 to ten great new metroidvanias so yeah, absolutely. Wait hold on sorry let me ask that in a way that doesn't sound like I don't care. Yeah, yeah, we could know because at the beginning. Yeah, you know yeah, all right. And ah John video game lounge is ah has has ridden off into the sunset. But as I did for Ryan when we thought list off was over, tell everybody about the show and what they can expect if they go looking for it.

Jon 1:32:02

Yeah.

Ryan 1:32:07

That's true.

Jon 1:32:10

Yeah, so so video game lunch podcast was a podcast that started with a couple buddies of mine. Um, the idea behind it our little tagline I came up with was the show. Not here for notes and news but to talk games and drink brews. So. We ask 2 questions every episode what you're playing and what you're drinkin um and ah it was good. We. We had a good run but ah sadly the doors of the lounge have closed. Um, we won't have a miraculous comeback like listoff. But ah.

There may or may not be another project slowly in the works. Um, we'll see if I have fear of failure so we'll see what happens? Um, but yeah, you can go find our old show um video game lounge Ryan was on. Ah.

Ryan 1:32:58

Yeah.

Jon 1:32:59

My ah my show a couple of times we also did God of War ragnarok spoiler cast and ah we did uncharted lost legacy The best uncharted game which was a fun episode. Yeah, so yeah.

Ryan 1:33:06

Absolutely.

Dave 1:33:06

It's a very good one. yeah awesome well yeah I recommend that people check out both shows and they can find links down in the show notes for both of them and keep your eyes peeled. Maybe John's got something on the horizon. I'm looking forward to it. If ah, if it comes together.

Jon 1:33:25

Yeah, yeah, we'll see we'll see that's all I can say we'll see.

Dave 1:33:29

Yeah, okay, all right, fair enough. So for this show I already talked about the Discord server. We'd love to have you join. I would also love it if people left a rating and or review on Apple Podcasts Spotify or podcast addict. That's very helpful. I'm not sure what search terms people are searching for that would lead them to find this episode but it would help them find the game specific episodes for sure so that would be great. Also if you leave a rating and review I'll give my dog a blueberry. He loves blueberries. So don't let Roki down. He's a good boy and. I also do another podcast called a top 3 podcast where we do top 3 lists and we recently started drafting weird stuff that has been a very chaotic and fun time. So you can. Thank you. Thank you! We have a lot of fun doing those so there's also a link down in the show notes for a top three podcast.

Jon 1:34:14

Great episodes.

Dave 1:34:24

And then finally if you would like to support the show monetarily you can do that at patreon.com/realdavejackson where you can get some treats you can vote for what games I do on the show. There's bonus episodes and other perks as the tiers increase. So. With all of that being said Ryan and John thank you guys for coming on. This has been awesome. I was looking forward to this discussion. I didn't really know where it would take us but this has been great.

Ryan 1:34:52

Yeah, thank you so much for having me man and John you're still my nemesis but I appreciate you a lot more now. No I can't, you guys are both great. Um I abstain in character John don't blow it.

Jon 1:35:00

Why am I here nervous about this? Yeah oh sorry sorry get fucked Ryan um, no, ah, no this that he had yeah again ditto I echo Ryan's thoughts here. Um, thanks for having me on Dave this was great. I'm glad.

Ryan 1:35:07

No, this has been great. Thank you, Thank you.

Jon 1:35:17

You know this started as a conversation on discord really like Dave and I were going back and forth for what felt like half an hour and he was like you know what? this should be a podcast episode I was like well fuck it I'm down and um, yeah, it was it was great so yeah thanks again.

Dave 1:35:17

Yeah. Yeah, exactly? Yeah yeah, exactly Awesome. Yeah, thank you guys again and we'll we'll sign off now. Thank you everybody for listening and appreciate everyone who listens to the end. And Tune in next week for the next game to come out of the backlog.