"I can't listen to this. It's Video Game music and needs to be in a game"

Originally Posted by bishop743

Nope, not anymore. I used to be like that though. I would only listen to music from games I had played so I could get this special "connection" with the music. When I started buying albums, I only bought stuff from games I played or were planning on playing. Nowadays, I've completely thrown that notion out of the window. Music is music to me. If it sounds good, I'll listen. I don't need any type of connection with it to enjoy it. Sure, the connection helps, but I don't think it's a requirement or necessity.

So, long story short, I'm in the same boat with you.

That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about people who won't listen to the music because it reminds them of a game. Not people who won't listen to VGM that doesn't bring back memories of a particular game.

I'm used to the bleeps and bloops of old, so I don't absolutely need the context to enjoy the music, though it can often help me understand and appreciate the music better. I sometimes feel like I'm missing something without having heard a particular track in context. Otherwise many are still catchy or interesting enough on their own. However, even though music is music, the purpose of music on a soundtrack is to function in context first before standing out for its musical merits. The best soundtracks tend to do both well. So I take it that your friends probably don't listen to movie soundtracks outside of a movie either, right? It seems like a form of closed-mindedness to me. I bet most people who feel that way probably have no problem with band music. What you should do is find some rock'n VGM of high sound quality or something but perhaps not tell them that the music is coming from a videogame. See if somebody likes it then. That might tell you whether or not it's just a personal notion about the nature of VGM. It's silly for people to close themselves off to certain things based on image, but it absolutely happens. Of course, it's also true that people prefer to stick with the safe and the familiar, but I think most cases of people not giving themselves a chance of liking VGM have more to do with "OMG, listening to VGM would be so embarrassing". That's certainly the case with my long-time friend, who will often joke around and say something sarcastic like, "Oh yeah, we're jamming now..." when I play some VGM.

Jam it back in, in the dark.