Five Amazing Songs We Have Games To Thank For

Music is a universal language. No matter where you are from or what your culture teaches, when someone drops a beat, you know it’s time to dance, sing or have a good time. For this reason, music is a mainstay in popular culture, with various artists battling it out to make the next viral track, make the most popular album of the year, or to sell out the largest arenas. Not that the latter is all that possible right now. What we are getting at here is that music is important to a lot of people. So it’s hardly surprising that video games have had a hand in taking some tracks to the top of the pile.

Through marrying the two forms of media, games have managed to add value to some unique songs, pushing them into the public eye and making them some of the most listened to tracks of the moment. It can be hard to break into the mainstream music charts but when gaming fans get behind something, you best believe that it’s going to climb the charts fast. So sit back as we run you through five amazing songs which you have games to thank for.

Hikaru Utada – Face My Fears

To kick us off, we have Hikaru Utada, the woman behind all of the title tracks within the Kingdom Hearts series. Now admittedly, we could have placed ‘Simple and Clean’ or ‘Sanctuary’ in this spot because they are both wonderful tracks. However, we thought we would include the most recent song in the series which featured in Kingdom Hearts 3.

This song’s production value for what is essentially a game’s opening track is sublime. The beat is epic and uplifting, Hikaru’s vocals are great as you would expect. Plus, Skrillex featured on the track, laying down some amazing samples and lifting the song to new heights. This song has managed thirty-six million listens on Spotify alone, showing just how incredible this track is, not just for fans of this iconic Square Enix created series, but indeed the whole world.

Far Away – Jose Gonzalez

For those of you that know their music, you may recognise this artist due to their wonderful song ‘heartbeats.’ A song that was featured in a breathtaking advert for Sony Bravia which included incalculable amounts of coloured rubber bouncy balls. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a watch. However, we are talking about another brilliant track of Jose’s, Far Away.

This song would feature in the iconic cowboy open-world adventure Red Dead Redemption as protagonist John Marston rides into town. It’s a song that captures the mood of the scene, the themes of the title and the setting perfectly, adding to the already incredible spectacle that Rockstar crafted. This track filled with western twang currently sits on ten million hits on Youtube alone, showing that plenty of fans of gaming and music have flocked to this one. Be sure to give it a listen.

Death Stranding – Chvrches

Well, we reckon you can guess which game this song was featured in. Death Stranding, the proposed Hideo Kojima masterpiece that divided the opinion of many gamers undoubtedly done one thing. That being including a tonne of meta-references in the game. Not only were you able to chat with Conan O’Brien and tweak out on Monster Energy in this game. You would also be able to take in some music from Chvrches, a fantastically talented mainstream group that lent their talents to the gaming industry.

The game would also feature tracks from artists such as Khalid, Bring Me to the Horizon and The Neighbourhood to name a few, but we think this one is the pick of the bunch and captures the tone of Death Stranding best. Which is probably why it’s been given the same title as the game itself. If you haven’t heard this one, you can head over here to check it out.

Delicate Weapon – Grimes

Now we have a very recent entry indeed. You may know Grimes for her excellent library of songs like ‘Oblivion’ or ‘Kill V. Maim’. Or alternatively, you may just know her as the singer that’s married to SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk. Either way, you probably know her for one reason or another. However, you may not know that she played the role of Lizzy Wizzy in controversial open-world RPG Cyberpunk 2077 and when she did, she dropped a track on top to compliment her phenomenal performance.

The track ‘Delicate Weapon’ is synonymous with Grimes typical style. The track is whispy and makes use of her vocal range to produce a soundscape that is perfect for listening to as you cruise around Night City. If you haven’t heard this one yet, check it out right here.

I’m Ready – Jaden Smith

Then last up on the list, we have Jaden Smith stepping up to the plate to lay down some verses for Marvel’s Spiderman: Miles Morales. In this track, we hear Jaden lay down some bars from the perspective of Miles himself as Peter Parker hands over the role of New York’s saviour to the Into The Spiderverse star and while this might sound like a really cheesy concept. The song actually turns out to be one of the slickest you’ll hear on a video game soundtrack.

It’s a track that ushers in a new era of Spiderman content and it does so with grace and aplomb. We will admit, it does have that lack of edge that his father’s rap career was best known for but considering this is a game for all ages, we don’t have any issue with that. If you missed this one, head over here and have a listen.