anyone else self-conscious about listening mostly to vgm?

[Raziya The Seeker]

I can be a bit worried about it... which is part of why I love noise-cancelling earbuds. ;3

Most of the songs on my phone at any given time are VG songs, from RPGs to Donkey Kong Country. This is on top of listening to the usual stuff I like, and enjoying stuff on the radio too (00s and earlier are my preference, but the rare modern rock song is also nice). Also butt rock adjacent stuff, like the opening themes of Saturday morning cartoons.

Good music is good music, no matter the source.

 

[jiyuuboyetsvi]

I can be a bit worried about it... which is part of why I love noise-cancelling earbuds. ;3

I feel like noise cancelling earbuds is a bit of a misnomer. Incoming autistic info dump, don't take this as an attack on you; but as my general frustration over "noise-cancelling" earbuds.

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) is a straight up marketing gimmick. It's gotten so big in recent years due to the Apple "introducing it" onto their Air Pod Pros. The only somewhat... good(?) thing about it is that you can easily switch between noise cancelling and passthrough, but honestly it's dumb as hell. Just take the earbud out.

Noise Cancellation has been around since the first In-Ear Monitors (IEMs) were invented. The only reason the layperson has never experienced noise cancellation before is because the greater consumer population didn't want to stick in ears well... In their ears. Of course until Apple made it cool.

IEMs were made for musicians to help them hear each other and keep in time while on stage by monitoring their own sound (hence the "monitor" part of in ear monitor). Since they're used in live performance situations, they need to cancel out hella noise. Because of their usual design, the noise cancellation on IEMs is and always has been vastly superior to ANC Bluetooth earbuds.

Nowadays with IEMs being much more affordable, it's possible to get complete and total silence while listening to music, with better sound quality, all for a fraction of the price of "good" ANC Bluetooth earbuds.

All Bluetooth does is jack up the price and lower the sound quality in return for the convenience of not having a cable. A cable which phone companies have forced away from the average consumer because they figured out how to steal away with more of our money via ANC Bluetooth earbuds.

TL;DR to anybody listening to music who cares about sound quality or noise cancellation and is using noise cancelling Bluetooth earbuds. Do yourself a favour and switch to some wired IEMs with a dongle.

 

[Yuki Senoue]

Why should I? Game music is awesome. And when people ask me, I tell them "I like mostly videogame music". I just always listen to it using headphones. I hate when people listen to music in public spaces, I'll not do the same, I'm not rude as they are.

 

[Rhent]

I understand the hesitation but for me, I like some good vgm. And that genre deserves much more respect and love.

 

[jiyuuboyetsvi]

Obligatory Nier Gestalt and Replicant Piano Collections plug until everyone on this forum has heard the entirety of it

 

[Antilocal123]

Technically VGM.

 

[χKai]

Why should I? Game music is awesome. And when people ask me, I tell them "I like mostly videogame music". I just always listen to it using headphones. I hate when people listen to music in public spaces, I'll not do the same, I'm not rude as they are.

I will blast mood music through bluetooth speaker to set the atmosphere
And I will be playing something dramatic from a game

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

I don't often listen to vgm but I would feel awkward about like listening to cyberpunk2077 music IRL like imagine you're vibin to Never Fade Away then someone's like "dang that shit fire who's that?" and like it's Samurai the band literally doesn't exist it's NPCs in a video game how do you explain that without being awkward ?

 

[jiyuuboyetsvi]

I don't often listen to vgm but I would feel awkward about like listening to cyberpunk2077 music IRL like imagine you're vibin to Never Fade Away then someone's like "dang that shit fire who's that?" and like it's Samurai the band literally doesn't exist it's NPCs in a video game how do you explain that without being awkward ?

"It's from this video game I really like called Cyberpunk 2077, have you heard of it? It's sick as hell"

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

Nope, not when I can find an OST for any occasion. I freely listen to GTA radio at work during lunch or SaGa during the time I hit the gym. Most modern radio just irritates me and I listen music to feel better so why try to conform if the volume is reasonable and not explicit in nature? But most of the time it's in my headphones so that's a plus on it's own.

 

[waterxwraith]

Back in middleschool and before I mostly listened to video game music and anime music, and I moved on to trying to get into contemporary stuff at the time for social reasons and truly, going to local shows and moving on to using last dot fm and 4chan to find new music became pivotal in my young adulthood. It didn't make me appreciate game and anime music any less because damn I still love a good final fantasy soundtrack or a good anime op but missing out on music culture would have changed the trajectory of my entire life.

 

[sandogma]

I work remotely from home so every day I'm listening to VGM
Shoutout to the best free online videogame music streaming site Rainwave!

 

[Izzy]

Rather listen to something that has a beat than whatever the hell is called music now. Hell, I listen to old anime music on Spotify and some vgm on my external drive.

 

[RageBurner]

Not me, I always enjoyed video game music and instrumental/synth over what people consider "normal music". That isn't about to change.

 

[Yankee]

Nah, for a mix of two reasons:
It's not the main thing I listen to in the first place, it's just a big part.
All VGM is made by and performed by artists like any other music. They have names and careers, other works and stuff.
Instead of saying you like Mario music, say you enjoy the works of Kondo-san.

 

[Mochi Panic]

I use to until I just learned to live with it. The more I worried about it, the more uncomfortable i made others when I did mention it. Once I got older and became more comfortable, more people just didn't care or were okay with it. I actually met way more people who liked it in College as i got older which helped me be more comfortable listening to VGM.

 

[Matricks]

VGM have an evolution time of xxx billions years, even your (grand)parent never heard it.
My 24/7/365/xxx VGM Life on:

NoLife-radio

 

[Lemons]

Used to, but now i don't care

 

[DanVzare]

Personally, I just don't like having to explain it.

"What kind of music are you into?"
"Video game music."
*Eyes glaze over*

I mean, I get that they're just trying to be friendly. But it's just awkward for both of us when I explain that I've been listening to the indoor music that plays on the SNES port of Ultima 7 on repeat for the last hour.

 

[StopTheCatastrophe]

if your goal is to listen to great music composition and sounds, you should often be seeking out normal music (especially from past eras) just like how you seek out videogame music.

Everyone will say “stick with what you like” but that’s ignorant advice that encourages narrow horizons. Better advice is: search out more stuff that is likeable.

OP said “even a 1971 album” but any healthy lover of musical art should have 1955-1965 jazz, 70’s philly funk and other, 80’s new wave, etc. Try it out. Finding an amazingly good tune requires sampling 100 mediocre tunes. Thats just a starting outline. Just like having a bunch of excellent chiptunes. If a person has or listens to mostly Currently Marketer stuff then they’re doing it very wrong.

Same applies to any art: books and literature, painting, movies.

 

[CardcaptorEd2019]

Kinda. I listen to different types of music, including lots of video game music. It can feel a bit weird especially when I'm outside with my earbuds or if I'm listening to music in my car, but I try not to care most of the time. A listen to a lotta music that sounds different or may sound weird to other cars when I'm driving especially video game music, but it's hard not to crank the volume up sometimes.

 

[jiyuuboyetsvi]

if your goal is to listen to great music composition and sounds, you should often be seeking out normal music (especially from past eras) just like how you seek out videogame music.

Everyone will say “stick with what you like” but that’s ignorant advice that encourages narrow horizons. Better advice is: search out more stuff that is likeable.

OP said “even a 1971 album” but any healthy lover of musical art should have 1955-1965 jazz, 70’s philly funk and other, 80’s new wave, etc. Try it out. Finding an amazingly good tune requires sampling 100 mediocre tunes. Thats just a starting outline. Just like having a bunch of excellent chiptunes. If a person has or listens to mostly Currently Marketer stuff then they’re doing it very wrong.

Same applies to any art: books and literature, painting, movies.

TRUTH!!!!!
My last post i info dumped about IEMs but THIS is actually so true. Around my senior year of high school, i stopped listening to primarily VGM and Anime OPs in order to listen to contemporary "real" music. This lead me down the rabbit hole to discovering SO many different types of sounds that I would have never even thought i'd hear listening to only VGM and Anime OPs.

Now lemme just say, VGM and Anime has some REALLY cool chord progessions and musical ideas. But, i feel like if people explore ALL kinds of music (VGM, Anime, contemporary, and "old school") their musical palette will expand greatly :3

so for all that is holy in music, PLEASE LISTEN TO MORE VGM AND ANIME MUSIC
and ALSO EVERYTHING ELSE THAT CATCHES YOUR EYES (and ears)

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I hate it when people judge music tastes, especially my own family. They don’t deserve to know what else I listen to