Videogame Music Receives First Grammy Nomination

[The Continental]

For the first time in the 53 year history of the Grammys, a song written for and featured in a video game has been nominated for the music industry's highest honor. Originally written as the opening theme of Civilization IV, composer Christopher Tin's song "Baba Yetu" has recently shown up on Tin's debut album, thereby making it eligible for the award.

The track, "Baba Yetu", which features the Soweto Gospel Choir, was shortlisted for the "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists" category. It will compete against Roger Treece's "Baby", Vince Mendoza's "Based On A Thousand True Stories", Geoffrey Keezer's "Don't Explain", and Herbie Hancock and Larry Klein's "Imagine".

Tin originally created "Baba Yetu" for Firaxis' 2005 turn-based strategy title, but local and professional choirs have extended its popularity beyond Civilization IV, singing it at nearly 1000 live concert performances. It's also a staple of Video Games Live, the concert tour featuring game music played by orchestras and choirs.

The composer's other Grammy nomination is for his debut album, Calling All Dawns, which has been selected for the "Best Classical Crossover Album" category. The classical/world fusion CD features over 200 musicians from around the world singing in 12 different languages. "Baba Yetu" serves as the album's opening track.

Source: Gamasutra by way of 1Up

[Widgetcraft]

Wait, doesn't someone on this site know a member of the choir?

EDIT: And they should have used the regular Civ IV intro, not whatever that was.

[CES]

VGL made that song awesome. It's about time to see it get some recognition even if it is from the Grammys.

[Spectre-7]

It's a great piece of music and totally deserves the award. Hell, Civ IV will probably be my favorite entry in the series for some time just because of the feeling I got the first time I loaded it up and heard that song.

[evilgoodwin]

Hearing that song again makes me want to boot up Civ IV again and do my usual thing of playing as Caesar and dropping a nuke on Hammurabi. I don't know why I do that, but it always seems to come up every time I play...

[Lint of Death]

If ever I thought a videogame song could break into the Grammies, this would be it.

[Spigot]

Originally Posted by CES

VGL made that song awesome. It's about time to see it get some recognition even if it is from the Grammys.

Agreed. It's a great song but hearing it live with the full orchestra is a whole other layer of awesome.

Now to wait for One Winged Angel to get nominated

[CES]

Originally Posted by Spigot

Agreed. It's a great song but hearing it live with the full orchestra is a whole other layer of awesome.

Now to wait for One Winged Angel to get nominated

I have a hatred of OWA (especially the Advent Children version, which VGL use) that borders on the irrational. A friend in college used it as a ringtone so I heard it many times a week. There's only so much ominous Latin and timpani drums one man can take.

[muddi900]

Is this the point where Video Game music becomes definitely irrelevant?

[ElektroDragon]

I saw this performed live at Video Games Live - TWICE! Pure awesome!

[Darkmatter]

Probably the best game song ever.

[evilgoodwin]

Originally Posted by muddi900

Is this the point where Video Game music becomes definitely irrelevant?

Ah, first decade Simpsons. Kids today have no idea how good that show was.

[Spigot]

Originally Posted by CES

I have a hatred of OWA (especially the Advent Children version, which VGL use) that borders on the irrational. A friend in college used it as a ringtone so I heard it many times a week. There's only so much ominous Latin and timpani drums one man can take.

Oh man. That would drive me insane. And I agree about OWA. I liked the VGL take on it but in had really hoped that they would play the opening overture from FFVI (the walk through the snow to Narshe) instead. Sigh.

[Vandabo]

Definitely a great song. I remember pulling it out of the Civ 4 folder and putting in my playlist.

I don't usually really get into game music, because I often mute or lower it and listen to my own media in the background. I did however love the soundtrack to Halo 3. My most powerful memory of that game was playing the stage One Final Effort where you fight the two big walker things, and as I played through it the music seemed to perfectly match my actions. It was beautiful.

[CES]

Originally Posted by Spigot

Oh man. That would drive me insane. And I agree about OWA. I liked the VGL take on it but in had really hoped that they would play the opening overture from FFVI (the walk through the snow to Narshe) instead. Sigh.

That would mean Tommy can't shred for a few minutes.

Originally Posted by Vandabo

Definitely a great song. I remember pulling it out of the Civ 4 folder and putting in my playlist.

I don't usually really get into game music, because I often mute or lower it and listen to my own media in the background. I did however love the soundtrack to Halo 3. My most powerful memory of that game was playing the stage One Final Effort where you fight the two big walker things, and as I played through it the music seemed to perfectly match my actions. It was beautiful.

Actually, what made Halo 3 for me was the intro cutscene for the level where you take down the shield wall. The three Pelicans flying in and Three Gates kicks in with that iconic Halo rumble and you just think "It's the Silent Cartographer all over again, we've come full circle." There was also Finish the Fight, the theme from the first trailer which was extremely simple but incredibly powerful. Halo gets a lot of shit from people for having a more casual MP playerbase but the music is some of the finest around.

[Arphahat]

This song is epic and I hope it wins. After hearing it in Civ4, I pulled the mp3 from the files and listened to it repeatedly during the day at work.

[The Doctor]

Wait, those are the real lyrics?



And here I thought...

[RandoM51]

I don't see the point in differentiating between "videogame" music and other music now that it features similar instrumentation?bitrate?, whatever.

We're not talking 8-bit nowadays, are we?

[CES]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

I don't see the point in differentiating between "videogame" music and other music now that it features similar instrumentation?bitrate?, whatever.

We're not talking 8-bit nowadays, are we?

There shouldn't be a distinction these days but there is. Movie composers have written original work for games for at least a decade and GTA, Guitar Hero and Rock Band all brought licensed "real" music tracks to gaming. What there is not for the most part is game composers writing music for TV and movies and why that is, I'm not sure. It could be the fact that writing music for a game takes far longer than for a TV show or movie. Halo 3 for example, all the music for that was written over the course of 18 months.

[Savok]

I must be the only person who thinks that song is one of the most annoying ever... still, trust the Grammys to find the most politically correct piece of music they could.