Summary
- Many musicians draw inspiration from video games, including Grammy winner Jacob Collier, known for playing Legend of Zelda themes.
- Some producers use video game samples to create atmosphere in songs, such as Thundercat's use of Sonic the Hedgehog jump sound in "Special Stage."
- Songs like "We Are Born to Play" by Galantis sample iconic video game themes like Super Mario Bros. To add positivity and energy.
Music and video games are very often intertwined. Beyond iconic original soundtracks, as well as radio stations found in games, various musicians have often drawn inspiration from the sounds of video games themselves. For example, Grammy winning musician Jacob Collier, is known for playing themes from the Legend of Zelda series during his live performances.
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Some producers, however, will take it a step even further and use sounds from games to help create the atmosphere they want for a particular song. Certain times iconic themes will be sampled and remixed for the instrumental. However, other producers will opt to use brief vocal performances and sound effects to enhance their instrumentals. Here are five songs which utilize video game samples.
5 Special Stage by Thundercat
Samples the Jump Sound Effect from Sonic the Hedgehog
- Released
- June 23, 1991
- ESRB
- e
- Developer(s)
- Sonic Team
- Publisher(s)
- Sega
- Engine
- the hedgehog engine
WHERE TO PLAY
It's Super Sonic
Super Speed!
Bust the video game speed barrier wide open with Sonic The Hedgehog. Blaze by in a blur using the super sonic spin attack. Loop the loop by defying gravity. Plummet down tunnels. Then dash to safety with Sonic's power sneakers. All at a frenzied pace.
Super Graphics!
Help Sonic escape bubbling molten lava. Swim through turbulent waterfalls. Scale glistening green mountains. And soar past shimmering city lights. There's even a 360 [degree] rotating maze. You've never seen anything like it!
Super Attitude!
Sonic has an attitude that just won't quit. He's flip and funny, yet tough as nails as he fights to free his friends from evil. So just wait. Sonic may be the world's next SUPER hero...
- Franchise
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
Thundercat is a musician who typically performs Jazz fusion and produces for and performs alongside many well-known artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Tame Impala, and Gorillaz. He is notably open about his enjoyment of cartoons and video games, with his stage name derived from the 1985 cartoon series, Thundercats.
A recurring motif across his discography is the sampling of various sound effects from Sonic the Hedgehog. An early example of this appears on his second studio album, Apocalypse. The Flying Lotus-produced song, Special Stage, uses video games as a loose metaphor for life. Like with games, life requires focus on goals, a need to relax, and a willingness to try again when discouraged. A singular jump from Sonic the Hedgehog is used in the song as a sample.
While the Sonic series is known for its catchy music, with performers such as Thundercat collaborator, Wiz Khalifa having rapped over revised versions of instrumentals from the games, Special Stage shows some enjoy using Sonic's sound effects in another context as well.
4 Get It Back by Gucci Mane ft. 2 Chainz
Samples Tetris: A-Type
Tetris (1989)
The Soviet game sensation!
Your pulse quickens. Beans, boxes, zig-zags, and "L"-shaped building blocks drop relentlessly down a narrow passage. You quickly spin, shift, and align the shapes, then slide them in for a perfect fit.
It's challenging and the pace is demanding. But satisfaction comes as you position each block neatly into place. Start at new heights for a tougher contest. Pick the music and set your pace from 20 progressive skill levels.
In the 19th century, a Russian folk tune, Korobeiniki, which was about a peddler and a girl haggling over goods, became a popular standard. Many years later, a reworking of this song became popular internationally, due to its inclusion in the classic game, Tetris.
In 2012, hip-hop producer, Mike WiLL Made-It, put his own spin on the popular Tetris theme as part of an instrumental for his frequent collaborator Gucci Mane. The 2 Chainz-assisted trap song concerns Gucci Mane's apathy when it comes to spending money, influenced in part by his confidence that he will always be able to make back the amount he spent.
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Get It Back is not the only time Hirokazu Tanaka's take on the folk song was sampled. It has also been used in songs by artists around the world, such as MC Lars, Salmo, and Culcha Candela.
3 We Are Born to Play by Galantis ft. Charli XCX
Samples Super Mario Bros. Theme
Super Mario Bros.
Do you have what it takes to save the Mushroom Princess?
You'll have to think fast and move even faster to complete this quest! The Mushroom Princess is being held captive by the evil Koopa tribe of turtles. It's up to you to rescue her from the clutches of the Koopa King before time runs out. But it won't be easy. To get to the Princess, you'll have to climb mountains, cross seas, avoid bottomless pits, fight off turtle soldiers and a host of black magic traps that only Bowser, the Koopa King, can devise. It's another non-stop adventure as the Mario Bros. Become "Super"!
- Released
- November 17, 1985
- Franchise
- Super Mario
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Entertainment System
Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Theme is fairly recognizable, often being reworked in many games in which the characters are featured. Its upbeat sound adds an infectiously positive energy to anything, especially the corresponding games. This is reflected in We Are Born to Play, which while not directly about the game, has some lyrics vaguely alluding to Mario (such as Charli XCX wanting to "burn like fire" and "feeling [her] heartbeat jump twice") as well as a similarly positive energy.
Like many songs by the Swedish electronic duo, Galantis, this song's lyrics are less the focal point and more background sound to help communicate the song's intended feeling. Unlike many songs which sample video games, this one was created in direct partnership with the game's company, as Nintendo and Universal used it to help promote Super Nintendo World.
Outside promotional works, other musicians have also derived inspiration from the theme, such as New York rapper, Saigon, who rapped over the Canei Finch-produced reworking of the theme for his song, Get Busy.
2 Dead Man's Tetris by Flying Lotus ft. Snoop Dogg and Captain Murphy
Samples Street Fighter 2 KO Sound Effect
Street Fighter 2
Eight fighters from around the world compete to get the chance to take on the evil dictator M. Bison. Choose a character and engage your opponents in one-on-one close-quarter street combat in a series of best-two-out-of-three matches.
- Released
- March 7, 1991
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Franchise
- Street Fighter
Street Fighter 2 helped set the standard for what fighting games are today. It has spread so much that even simple soundbites from the game find themselves in music, such as the sound a male fighter utters when knocked out. Flying Lotus, a multi-talented LA-based producer sampled the aforementioned sound for his own song, along with many other bits and pieces from works such as Another One Bites The Dust by Queen. He also serves as one of his own features alongside Snoop Dogg, with "Captain Murphy" being his rapper persona.
Despite the song's name, it has little to actually do with Tetris, with the abbreviation serving as an alias for Dimethyltryptamine, an organic compound that exists in our bodies and causes massive hallucinations. The song is meant to simulate a DMT trip after death; the echoing KO sound is added, presumably to relate to an event before "death," which a game over is in a metaphorical sense.
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Flying Lotus is far from the only artist to nod to Street Fighter 2, with other songs such as The Lady of Rage's Afro Puffs, which is notably featured on the GTA V soundtrack, referencing the Shoryuken attack.
1 Pac-Man Fever by Buckner and Garcia
Samples The Pac-Man Theme
Pac-Man
- Released
- July, 1980
- Developer(s)
- Namco
- Franchise
- Pac-Man
The novelty song by the Ohio-based musical duo, Buckner and Garcia , is notable for not just sampling but also being directly about the beloved arcade game, Pac-Man. Jerry Buckner and the late Gary Garcia were a pair of performers, who typically worked on jingles, inspired to create their hit after spending a long time playing the game at a restaurant's arcade machine.
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It is also the title track of an 8-track album where every song is inspired in part by a classic arcade game, including Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Asteroids. A reworked version of the song was later featured in the Adam Sandler film, Pixels. Buckner and Garcia also released Found Me the Bomb, a song dedicated to the gaming website, Giant Bomb. Buckner also co-wrote Wreck-It, Wreck-It Ralph, for the video game-focused Disney movie, Wreck-It Ralph. Despite being credited to the pair, Garcia did not perform on the song, presumably due to recently passing away at the time of recording.
Pac-Man Fever is far from the only song to sample the game. Toshio Kai's iconic theme is also sampled on songs such as the similarly named Game Over by Lil' Flip and The Game is Over by NSYNC, among others.
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