February 2023 will be the first time a composer has walked away with a Grammy for recording a video game. And many in the creative community say “the time has come”.
Game scores have, over the past two decades, become a huge part of the media music scene. However, despite being eligible for the highest accolade in music since 1999 (in the film and television music category), only one game has ever been nominated: Austin Wintory’s featured score in “A Journey” in 2012.
After years of lobbying by game executives and composers alike, the Recording Academy in June announced a new category, Soundtracks for Video Games and Other Interactive Media to “recognize excellence in recording soundtrack albums composed mostly of original scores and created specifically for, or as a companion to, an existing video game or other interactive media.”
“Discarded and belittled” in the way Steve Schnorr, global CEO and head of music for game producer Electronic Arts, describes game music’s contribution to modern culture. “Not just for the level of quality, but also for the size of the success, and how relevant it is to the next generation of music lovers,” he says. “We needed to convince the powers that this music stands alone and deserves to be judged against one another.”
Gordy Hap, whose music in several Star Wars games has won acclaim (and numerous awards from other organizations including ASCAP and Game Audio Network Guild), welcomes the new Grammy category and notes that authoring for games “carries its own set of unique creative requirements.”
Jordi Hap
Getty Images for ASCAP
“The most obvious challenge is interaction: music that can adapt and change in real time based on consumer input, while constantly maintaining the music and interest,” he says. “There really isn’t any other form of music making quite like it.”
Instead of lobbying the Recording Academy for a specific game music category, Wintory spent years trying to persuade fellow composers to join the Academy and enter their work in the current soundtrack field (renamed Sound Recording for Visual Media in 2001). However, no game other than “Journey” made it to the nomination stage.
But Wintory agrees, “Game scoring is not just about writing music for games, it’s about writing the music that the player will dance to in real time. This is a totally unique gaming art.”
Surprisingly, a song from a game won once: Christopher Ten’s “Papa Leto” (a theme from “Civilization IV”) won the rankings for singers’ accompanying instruments, but that was a track from his album, not a game score.
“Games have always been treated as little brother, trash racing,” Wintory says.
Hub adds: “Gaming, as one of the largest industries in the world, has no shortage of audiences. Game music deserves recognition and recognition in its category.”
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