Have you ever introduced someone to VGM?

[Secret Squirrel]

Have any of you ever introduced someone to Video Game Music for the first time?

I did just that with my boss back during the summer, when we made a trip to Columbus, which was about a one and a half hour drive each way. I had my Arcos with me, and was the driver on the way up, so I put on a little concert. ^^

Journey there
Escaflowne Soundtrack 1 -- I know it isn't VGM, but it was a good starting point, being mostly orchestral and choral. He liked this one.

Terranigma Arranged -- Okay, not the best choice. My boss has never played a video game in his life, so he didn't really appreciate this one.

Journey back
Genso Suikoden - Orrizonte -- The world music feel of this one made it a great choice.

Tobal #1 -- Heh, my boss enjoyed this one, probably because his musical tastes were mostly formed in the 1970s/1980s, and this isn't far from rock/techno/funk, etc.

All in all, he was very receptive, and the most telling sign was that he asked me to turn on the player for the return trip.

[Ian Gillseed]

I've tried, but most of my family & friends aren't down with the idea. Although I've gotten my parents (classical lovers) to listen to some arranged CDs. They enjoyed Actraiser Symphonic.

[Eriol]

This is why VGM has come of age. Mainstream doesn't really pay attention to OST music, but with Playstation generation music and later OR arranged music, mainstream listeners pay some attention.

[Rince]

Well, I always try the introduction with some of my good arrange stuff. Depends on the listener and his tastes. Actually you can dumbfound them pretty good if you play some style of VGM they may like and they ask you from whom it is and you can tell them "From Castlevania" (in case of hard rock for example)...

I like to do that pretty much ;)

[Sir VG]

I always bring my VGM cd to work, but everybody thinks I'm absolutely nuts. I've tried to show them what's cool besides Britney Spears, but they're all idiots who listen to what they're told is hot.

[Adaman]

I was introducing my parents to my VGM shoutcast one day and it was just kind of awkward, i think my mom started dancing at one point ._o i've decided to keep it to myself from now on, and between my online buddies of course ;)

[Jenneriku]

I've made attempts with everyone I know, but most of them fail and miserably at that. The only person I've really been succesful with is my science teacher. I brought in Dracula ~New Classic~, FF4 Celtic Moon, and Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock. He loved it and has been asking me to bring stuff in ever since.

[Galatea]

I introduced my boyfriend and some of my closest friends to VGM and they all loved it. I tried playing some at work and they just kind of said "oh, that's game music? Cool." There wasn't really much of a reaction other than that and their response wasn't really enthusiastic or anything so I just played VGM and anime OST's quietly at my computer most of the time. Nobody else could really hear it but me.

[Killraven]

Actually, most of my friends already knew about VGM and introduced me to it.

However, for those people I know who were oblivious, I've tried to get them hooked. Most have failed miserably, though I have found if I play some stuff from Overclocked Remix (http://remix.overclocked.org) for them, they respond better when I start playing the true VGM.

I think this is because the remixes help to bridge the gap between mainstream and VGM. So, I'm implementing remixed tracks as part of the whole "conditioning" process from now on. :D

[Makura Wing]

I have. I gave my MGS2 OST to a friend of mine after she commented on the game's score. I've lent a few of the FF PCs to my mother and one of my uncles. Neither of them can pronounce Nobuo Uematsu correctly, yet. Oh well.

[Moguta]

I agree Killraven, VGMix or OC stuff does help. Especially mixes done by a certain Scott Peeples. ^^

[Zeratul]

My cousin really likes Megaman games, so I showed him the Rockman X Alpha Lyra CD. When I get the chance I'll burn him a copy of it and some of my other Megaman music.

I've introduced school friends to the GGX: HRTs CD because I thought it was the most accessible one I had. Eventually though, I had some people requesting me to play the Goldeneye 007 game rip CD I had in class (though they didn't seem to notice it when I played it.)

My family seems to like the Romancing Saga music I have since I've shown them Saga Ka Romance and Windy Tale.

I also showed one of my friends the Metal Gear Solid OST since he's a fanatic of the game. He also liked GGX: HRTs, UT, and SC: BW.

[Killraven]

Originally posted by Moguta
I agree Killraven, VGMix or OC stuff does help. Especially mixes done by a certain Scott Peeples. ^^

Peeples is the man when it comes to VGM remixs.

Though, I have a number of other favorites, such as McVaffe/QuasiKaotic/Jade Gemini (:rolleyes:), DJP, Mazedude, AmIEvil, CotMM, Bart Klepka, Ailsean... And a whole ton of others that I'm forgetting. :erm:

I know that I've actually gotten my mom hooked on the more ambient mixes, and that's actually led to her interest in the Panzer Dragoon OSV and Valkyrie Profile Arrange OSV.

Good times. :D

[Eriol]

"Arrange OSV" is not a correct term.

It is either an arrange album or OST/OSV.

[CyberSamus]

I've tried to introduce some of my friends to VGM, but they can't seem to get past the "music" barrier. A few times, I've gotten quite close, but on the mention of VGM the conversation started to go nowhere. From past experiance though, alot of my friends seem to like music from either the MegaMan series, Dance Dance Revolution/Bemania line or Arranged albums.

That's just my personal experiences though, unfortunatly I can't get very many of my friends to like VGM.

[Zephyrin]

I've tried with a few, but they just seem to go, "Oh, that's kool." Eh, suit themselves, I'm tired of trying.

What I really hate though, is when people ask me what I'm listening to (my headphones). I have to either pull the disc out and show them, or have them listen to it themselves, becuz I just KNOW if I tell them "Konami Shooting Battle 2" they're just gonna go "Duhhhh, huhwhat?"
Then they'll ask who it's by. I TRY telling them it's various artists/a soundtrack/I don't know...but they never stop being ignorant.
Then what pisses me off on top of that, is that they almost ALWAYS ask "so, does it have any singing?" Of course, they can never use a correct term, lyrics, to satisfy my irritation, but what the hell. I tell them no and they just wander off, and I just get irritated by the whole ordeal. It's like I can't ever get a positive reaction unless I'm listening to something that they're going to recognize off the tops of their heads.

[Sword Serenity]

I've introduced one person to VGM successfully. The others usually go "Wtf?" or something along those lines when I answer that one of my favourite songs of all time is Radical Dreamers from Chrono Cross. Because of things like that, I don't really bother with trying to introduce people to it anymore.

[Zeratul]

Heh, I've had people whine because the VGM songs I played on my computer or the class radio was over 5 minutes long and had little to no lyrics. They even went so far as to say it wasn't music because there were no lyrics. Also, one of my class rivals who was always complaining about the music even tried to make Final Fantasy Tactics out to be crap. In the end though, no matter what anyone said, they ended up hearing my VGM anyway simply because I didn't want to have to create art to the sound of the horrid radio stations.

[Strohmie]

Hey Killraven, are you talking about the Panzer Dragoon OST (POCH-2219) or Panzer Dragoon Full Sound Version (NACL-1181)? I got a friend of mine hooked on "Empire" (which is a damn good track)...

Strohmaier

[Makura Wing]

Super. I've got an old friend hooked on Koji Kondo's stuff. So far, he's listened to a bit of Pikmin Worlds, but his favourite is the Majora's Mask OST.

[adamgian]

I introduced my mom to the Genso Suikoden 3 OST, the first song she really liked. I tried friends, but here in Saudi Arabia, download speeds are a tad slow to dl 5 mb files straight, and it costs a buck an hour. Dling vgm, it really adds up. ADSL's about 150 dollars a month, dangit.

[acidboy]

I've introduced a few of my friends into it. I got a friend of mine hooked on Final Fantasy music. Some of them still look at me odd when I listen to remixed Bubble Bobble music though...

[ReclusiveWriter]

Give me an orchestral OST and my mom will get into it (at home at least). Beyond that, no one I know likes VGM. It's like trying to appreciate the soundtrack of a movie you've never seen if you don't even like the genre. Even if the music is good, those of us who are fiends of it are mostly so for nostalgia's sake, whether we know it or not.

Can't listen to most of the good stuff in the car because my parents don't want to be fall asleep in a moving vehicle ;).

[Pez]

Only one -last year I gave him a few 'sample' CDs (FFX, Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve, Xenogears) fairly mainstream as far as VGM goes, but enough to foster a mutually beneficial trading relationship.

Anyway... the thing about VGM is it encompasses a huge variety of genres. There's loads of classical (OGC, DQ SS, RS3, orchestral and piano music CDs), and you can get close to mainstream with titles from fighting games (SF, KOF, GGX) even DDR. FPS aren't a bad choice either... something like Sonic Mayhem's Quake 2 soundtrack is comparable to what's on offer, or something like Somnia Memories (Platinum Edition) if lyrics are an absolute must.

[DML]

As a matter of fact, I actually did introduce someone. I was talking to my friend online a few weeks ago and I told him I was listening to VGM. Well, I pointed him to a net radio so he can hear it. Now, he's constantly bugging me to borrow discs from my collection :)

I still have the problem of not being able to talk much about VGM, since most of my friends hate the stuff :sick:

[Zeratul]

Well, I always had an easy time talking about VGM with my friends since I hung out with people who were into computers, math, and videogames most of the time. A couple of my friends were actually programming top down RPGs on their graphing calculators. So, we were often trading VGM. One of mine actually had the FFX and Valyrie Profile Arranged albums I let him borrow on his Palm Pilot. He also helped me by giving me CD-Rs of Sonic Adventure 2 and Saga Frontier 1 & 2 music. I also gave one of my other friends copies of the Metal Gear Solid and FFVII OSTs sicne he liked them so much. I also showed him Unreal Tournament and Guilty Gear X, which he liked as well.

[Linear Helix]

Introduced someone to VGM... hmm...

Well, my parents are familiar with it, but they're of the gaming generation anyway. I introduced a non-gamer friend on the 'net to it; she wasn't exactly crazy about it. :)

[Killraven]

Originally posted by Strohmie
Hey Killraven, are you talking about the Panzer Dragoon OST (POCH-2219) or Panzer Dragoon Full Sound Version (NACL-1181)? I got a friend of mine hooked on "Empire" (which is a damn good track)...

Strohmaier

That would be the Panzer Dragoon OST. I don't remember Empire right off the top of my head, as I only had the mp3s on my computer for about a month before I burned them, but that soundtrack was chocked full of a lot of good songs.

Heck, like I said, I got my mother hooked on it, and the only video game she's shown any remote interest in was Dr. Mario.