Jan 072015
A salute to menu music, shop songs and other oft ignored tunes from consoles and handhelds.
00:00 – GameCube demo disc
05:38 – Initial Setup (PS Vita)
09:02 – Home Screen (PS Vita)
10:49 – Shop (PS Vita)
27:30 – Shop 2014 (Wii U)
29:08 – Shop Summer 2014 (Wii U)
36:52 – eShop (Nintendo 3DS)
49:57 – Launch (PlayStation Demo Disc)
Awesome. Since the Nintendo eShop, I’ve been a bit concerned about menu music being preserved – since the eshop seems to change frequently for special events and holidays.
This topic sounds really fun and I’m really looking forward to listening!
Antista Episode Quote: “I wanna finish Tearaway, but I’m really sick of looking at my double chin.”
This ep is the closest we’ve gotten to “BGMpire” yet, haha!
I’ve had difficulty finding good rips of this music, so thanks for making an episode dedicated to them 😛
While I liked the Vita’s “Setup” music, I turned off Vita’s background music after a while because I found it too distracting, it’s kind of the antithesis of the Wii/Wii U/3DS music, which is a lot more soothing and less obtrusive.
The Wii and Wii U’s Menu Music are some of the most relaxing game tunes out there. The Wii U’s is perhaps the most inventive for having the GamePad and your TV/Speakers play different layers of the music, so in order to get the full “tune” you have to have both of them on. PS4’s is pretty good too — very ethereal.
I remember the “Main Theme” from Shovel Knight played in the Wii U eShop when the game launched in June.
Speaking of brentalfloss, everyone should watch his Wii Shop Channel with Lyrics video. One of my favorites of his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ruNfajgUr0
Super Guitar Bros. did a wonderful acoustic rendition of the Wii Mii Channel music as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auj9J2bKbvY
Also, everyone’s aware that the GCN’s menu music is a super-slowed-down version of the Famicom Disk System Launch Jingle, right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjEsXf3SJ6o
That Famicom Disk System thing was awesome. You should have guested on Legacy Music Hour before it died (RIP).
During Hyrule Warrior’s launch, they had Zelda music playing in the Wii U eShop too!
I didn’t expect system menu music, I thought it would be game menus and shops.
I watched Short Circuit 2 the other night, and some of the music from this show reminded me of the sort of music in that, and other 80’s and 90’s movies, instrumental music that comes to the front when there’s no dialogue, that I don’t think you ever hear anymore. It also reminds me of a lot of anime background music, which still hasn’t changed that much.
Check out Carpenter Brut, a band that makes that kind of 80s BGM music with a bit of a modern edge. Song ‘Meet Matt Striker’ and that whole album are top notch. Also Mitch Murder
I checked out ‘Meet Matt Striker’. OH MY GOSH. I get the 80’s vibe, but it really reminds me of one of the BEST Genesis OST’s: Herzog Zwei. Compare with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEf-jS4qwYM&index=3&list=PLD2409E5806DFEFA6 (No time to lose)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgXd7hTYIvk&list=PLD2409E5806DFEFA6&index=8 (the Mournful War)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zol5Dmr2qrg&index=7&list=PLD2409E5806DFEFA6 (Back to Square One)
….come to think of it, the synth beginning of Matt Striker totally sounds like a Genesis.
Thanks, Brett! Good stuff! Reminds me a little of Neon Indian on amphetamines!
[…] salute to menu music, shop songs and other oft ignored tunes from consoles and handhelds – LISTEN NOW! And in case you didn’t know, VGMpire’s got a Best of 2014 episode available […]
Oh nice! I didn’t expect a new episode this soon!
This one’s bound to be fun. I recently got a PsVita, and yeah, I find the shop music to be very pleasant and relaxing.
MMMMMMMM, got dayum.
You should rename your show BGmpire!!!!!
Nice episode, very fluffy music that I like to listen to on occasion.
I would like to hear a Gran Turismo episode someday, some great jazzy menu music.
Btw great topic to start the year, Best wishes for this new year Bret 😀
Great idea for a topic. I love how these things, alongside stuff like console intros, menus, etc give so much personality to each console. Sometimes I like to just open one of those fancy “listen to some dope rain sounds” webpages and load a playlist of vidjagame/console menu music. It just gives the desktop a less sterile feeling I guess.
I guess this is only tangentially related, and I’m sure I’ve posted them here before, but I also love the music from the old UK/European Playstation Demo Discs. You ‘mericans should check them out, they’re pretty decent:
http://youtu.be/oE-uG8SBB6I?t=23s
http://youtu.be/FuhJoUlRov0?t=23s
http://youtu.be/qkIoX_hJLz8?t=34s
http://youtu.be/uFwCntPSpwY?t=9s
http://youtu.be/Ll0Fz9xW0_A?t=23s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRNDSNDRn6Y
http://youtu.be/yenxyJuR4mw?t=37s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk5fP8iFVdI
Here’s my fav, from Jason Page, Amiga music wizard, on the PSone’s Demo 1 disc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SwQr1Xsg9E
And a intro, for good measure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HogQtCdcegc
Hopefully one day I’ll find out who made all of this and if I can get my hands on the original music.
Ah, what the hell, here’s some bonus remix of the Monkey Song from Mario Paint, because it’s awesome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XKX7tZ-4Uk
You know what? Just do an episode on SEGA/Nintendo menu themes. That is all.
Much cool stuff! Some of those were familiar to me. It reminds me that somewhere I have a demo cd of music from Turbografx-CD tracks. I don’t know why or where they were handing those out, but I have one.
realizing how familiar that 3DS eshop music is. I spend too much on that crap
I don’t know if you take requests anymore Brett, but a lot of these songs reminded me of the music in The Sims franchise. Some of the original Sims 1 music is widely beloved, primarily for nostalgia purposes, but it’s quite good in an objective sense as well. It’s also an interesting subject because all of the music is re-recorded in Simlish, which leads to some very interesting and strange results. With a multitude of genres and now four different games to go through there is plenty to choose from for an episode if you ever decide to do one.
SOMETHING IMPORTANT I NEED TO TELL BRETT
did you kno you can mute system clicking sounds? it’s true!
That way we don’t have to hear your constant clicking as you browse your folders while other people are talking
I’m tuff cuz I care
pls get rid of the clicks…
just recently got a vita and have been abusing the hell out of it. that home screen music has been stuck in my head for so long that when i heard it i almost didn’t realize it was on. sick show
Brett,
I gotta say this is one of my favorite episodes you guys have done. And I was familiar with almost NONE of the music. Great job.
Hey, I just started the episode, but right away with the starting conversation, I had to comment. You talked about how the Japanese companies wanting to make the shop a nice experience, and how you end up liking the shop music itself. Well, Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U has a remix of–wait for it–the Wii Shop music. And it is fantastic. Take a listen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Hnu06kENs
It’s actually one of my favorite tracks in Smash 4, and it’s a remix of the online store music. I mean…how crazy is that?
“The people at Sony Entertainment Japan need to make something….’cause they aren’t making The Last Guardian.”
Henry, you make me laugh, but hurt at the same time. Why do you do this? And I’d rather buy physical carts for my 3DS games in case people want to borrow them or save room on the SD card. Also the account system for Nintendo isn’t the greatest so I’ll take the extra security. This was a neato episode; menu music is an integral part of our gaming experience we just don’t pay attention to. For example, the VIta home music is linked forever with Persona 4 Golden. If the Vita is on, Golden is on. I can’t not see the splash screen for the music when I hear it. How did you get your hands on this music anyway? Did someone rip it?
Thanks for the episode, guys!
Can someone please tell Henry to lighten up and stop taking every little joke so seriously? It’s getting to the point where it’s ruining the shows for me.
I’d rather see Brett, Mike, and Chris take Henry(a little) more seriously. Maybe his personality just lends itself to being picked on, I don’t know….but it does get a little annoying after a while when he tries to make a serious comment and it’s immediately turned into a joke at his expense.
That said, you can’t cut out the Henry jokes entirely, because that wouldn’t be right either. 🙂
This was a fun episode. I had a really weird ‘worlds colliding’ moment as I was driving down the highway and the Vita home screen music came on. My brain immediately transitioned to the Danganronpa title screen music when it ended since those were the last two games i played on it over the past 4 months.
This was a really cool episode music wise. Makes me want to hear these songs more often