Music provides an emotional connection to memories. It can trigger memories, feelings and responses. Many people associate certain pieces of music with particular times in their lives. And, depending on your interests, these pieces of music can be from a variety of sources. They could be movie soundtracks. Pieces of music you’ve played yourself. The music that was playing when something awesome or terrible happened.

Or they might be video game soundtracks. Game soundtracks are quite unique in a way in that their technology has evolved very quickly. So rather than evolving over the course of hundreds of years like classical music, they evolved very distinct identities with each new generation of hardware, roughly a decade at a time. Today, we’re in a peculiar situation where we have game soundtracks that are, at times, indistinguishable from movie soundtracks. But at the same time, we also are getting game soundtracks that deliberately hearken back to the distinctive sounds of the past. Which is confusing. But awesome.

So I thought I’d share a few pieces of music that I’ve enjoyed over the years. And, where applicable, if I can remember (and if they’re not too embarrassing) the memory that’s attached to them.

The Atari ST had a deeply, deeply terrible soundchip, especially when compared to its technically superior rival, the Commodore Amiga. That didn’t stop a variety of composers such as Alistair Brimble trying their best to compose catchy tunes. I don’t have a particular memory associated with this piece of music (besides playing Fantasy World Dizzy, that is) but this piece of music was oddly memorable. I’m not sure why, because it’s not a spectacularly good piece of music. But it had that “hook”.

Starfox/Starwing had a very distinctive soundtrack. The synth sounds used throughout coupled with the reasonably-convincing electric guitar sounds were actually far better than most of the stuff that the N64’s execrable sound chip belched out. This piece of music in particular stuck with me. I remember playing Starfox/wing with headphones on in the lounge and getting told to be quiet because I was finding it all a bit exciting and going “Whooa!” a lot. C’mon. The first time you do that corkscrew descent to the surface of Venom? That was awesome.

I’m not afraid to admit I cried like a girl when (OMG SPOILER) Aeris/th died. I bought Final Fantasy VII specifically because my brother had said it was the first time a lot of people had felt genuine emotion from a video game. I wasn’t disappointed. Aeris/th’s death may be something of a cliché now. But at the time, what happened to her was shocking.

Silent Hill 2 is a game that’s stuck with me for many years. Its powerful imagery, heartbreaking story and excellent theme song are partly to blame for this. The fact that I was so captivated by the story that I played through about 95% of it in one night is probably more to blame for this. I associate this piece of music with staying up that night, and also feel an emotional connection to it which I’m buggered if I can actually describe.

Not a game soundtrack, but Speed’s score became my job interview soundtrack for a while. It was good driving music, so I’d listen to it on the way there and, assuming it hadn’t all gone horribly wrong, on the way back too. Added a bit of drama to the commute if nothing else.

You might have forgotten about the 2204355 Dancing Chicken Man by now, but I certainly haven’t. Why? Because the music on that video is now inextricably tied to my last weeks in Southampton. I was sitting up late one night contemplating the futility of existence (as you do) when SnakeLinkSonic posted a tweet which simply read “I CAN’T STOP WATCHING” and included a link to the original Flash animation that started all this nonsense off. The animation and the music made me laugh so much at I time when I was feeling so utterly terrible that I can’t help but have it stuck in my mind. It reminds me of the days counting down until I’d have to leave and make a fresh start… a fresh start which I’m not sure has quite happened yet.

Basically, if there’s ever a game featuring me, and I have to face a boss at the end of Disc 1, I want this music to be playing.

Again, not a specific memory attached to this one, but the Split/Second score is awesome and oddly inspirational. As such, I’ve adopted it as my official Going For A Run soundtrack. And it really works.

Last of all, this piece also doesn’t have a specific memory attached to it (because I’m creating said memory right now), but it was introduced to me while I was writing this. (Thanks, Donna!) It’s a pair of Dulcimers, an instrument I knew of but don’t think I’d ever seen before. This piece is gorgeous; the sound of the instruments is full, resonant and has a sense of “purity” about it. I like it very much.

So there’s some music for you. Hmm. That post took rather longer to put together than I thought it would. Oh well! Good night. Tune in tomorrow for the next episode in the thrilling series of events that has been taking place at the top of each post. Have I really just killed myself off?