Mid-Week Question: What great song or musician did you first discover on a game's soundtrack?

[McStabStab]

The Hotline Miami soundtracks introduced me to a lot of awesome "New Retro Wave" / "Psychedelic Electro" music by artists like M|0|0|N, Jasper Byrne, Light Club, Scattle, Magic Sword, and Carpenter Brut.

It all is very reminiscent of the Drive movie soundtrack.

 

[Frindis]

While playing Need For Speed Underground 2 I noticed an awesome song called: Black Betty by SpiderBait. I checked the song online and found another version of it by Ram Jam and while digging a little more I found out that nobody really knows where the song lyrics originate from, though It was first recorded from a Central State Farm Penitentiary in Sugarland, Texas in 1933 by James "iron Head Baker and a group of inmate singers in acapella. This made me listen to some more songs by Mr. Baker and at the same time getting enriched by a little slice of history.

 

[Johnway]

The one that sticks out immediately is James Paddock. i would encounter a lot of his music on some of the best Doom 2 Wads and every so often list to back to saturn x soundtrack.

EDIT: just remembered the other person. Andrew hulshult i listened to some of the stuff from the rise of the triad remake and went sniffing out his awesome music. Should make one of this tracks as my ringtone. I should also probably include Lee Jackson i guess, as i listen to the classic ROTT OST.

 

[Lutfij]

First? Hard to say. I was introduced to Jesper Kyd and Lorne Balfe who have since moved on to massive projects in the entertainment industry. Both scoring for movies.

I was a huge fan of BT, Paul van Dyk and other artists in the electronic music field before their titles were featured on the NFS series but it was a pleasant surprise to hear a version, edit or remix that wasn't featured anywhere else.

 

[Mazer]

I probably heard a lot of bands for the first time on the various Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtracks. Motorhead, Judas Priest, Social Distortion, The Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, Primus, so many more.

I think I'd already heard Nine Inch Nails when Quake came out as I remember recognising their logo on the nail boxes in-game, but it definitely made me more keen on Trent Reznor's work.

 

[SWard]

The animation and music team at Riot are amazing, and this stands on it's own as art and a gorgeous track

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AvWV6Mk374

 

[jpishgar]

Crypt of the Necrodancer!
Danny Baranowsky kills it with Necrodancer's soundtrack.

Something incredibly important to note about Crypt of the Necrodancer music - under no circumstances should you listen to it while preparing anything in the kitchen. Sharp cutlery and beat-timed music for a game you've played does not go well.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

Not really an "OST guy", I don't listen to music from games outside of well, games. On top of that I listen to wide range of metal, mostly extreme subgenres and that isn't something you find in your everyday vidyagames. Thus I really don't discover new music while playing.

There's two exceptions tho. Both from Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Imperium Dekadenz and Avenger contributed to the game's OST and hey, both bands are quite good I would say.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDU5KIkPxt0

 

[Krud]

Game soundtracks have been a "guilty pleasure" of mine since I bought my first soundcard in 1991, and while I can't recall an instance where a game has led to my listening to a mainstream artist (or even slightly less than mainstream), there are a lot of musicians and groups that I only know from games, that I enjoy. Just a handful:

- The Gone Jackals: Full Throttle soundtrack
- Clint Bajakian: Sam & Max, Outlaws
- Peter McConnell: Grim Fandango
- Michael Land: Monkey Island series (and CoMI in particular.)
- Jared Emmerson-Johnson: TellTale games
- Bobby Prince: iD/Apogee/3D Realms games
- Jeremy Soule: Elder Scrolls games
- Robert Holmes: Gabriel Knight series
- Jonathan Coulton: Portal series (though I prefer his non-game-related music.)

Edit to add: I also tend not to care as much for when games inject real-world music into them, especially if and when they cause licensing issues...

 

[Jawaka]

Civilization IV Soundtrack

Christopher Tin
Calling All Dawns - album
Baba Yetu - song

 

[Krud]

Civilization IV Soundtrack

Christopher Tin
Calling All Dawns - album
Baba Yetu - song

Now that song is stuck in my head. Though when I first heard it, I thought it was something like

"♪Oh, I've yet to get to the egg,
Thin Goonie egg, too late, too yummy,
Oh, Bob, I've yet to get to the egg,
Oh gee, Nala's poetic, excuse me..."

 

[I Will Haunt You]

I probably never would have known anything about Poets of the Fall without Alan Wake. The song "The Poet and the Muse" is great (as is Balance Slays the Demon) but I instantly became a Poets of the Fall fan after listening to their other stuff. Marko Saaresto (sp?) has an incredible voice.

 

[Balf Eubank]

My big discovery was Faith No More when San Andreas included Midlife Crisis on the Radio X station. FNM have been one of my top 5 bands ever since. Hopefully I will get the chance to go see them and Korn this summer in Denver!

Another great one was SSB Melee, the menu song as well as all of the classic game songs done with an orchestra to my great pleasure!

 

[FreeJet]

I'm going WAY back and say the music of Thomas Dolby ("She Blinded Me With Science"). He wrote the soundtrack for the really nice 3D adventure game called Obsidian. It was released in 1996 by Rocket Science Games and published by SegaSoft .

 

[lermite]

Castlevania SOTN - Fantastic OST made by michiru yamane

 

[Alm]

I didn't have much of an appreciation for metal till I played DOOM with my best mate. I know they didn't outright steal Master of Puppets but that song still reminds me of DOOM.

 

[Inspireless Llama]

I can't remember the first band / song I learned of via a game.

For me it are the radio stattions in games like Mafia 3, GTA4 and GTA5 that lat me learn of new music, also Borderlands games introduced me to some artists I didn't know yet.