Classical Music of the Future?

Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, all these words evoke the image of riding in an elevator and tuning the radio to that random easy listening AM station they always have. Tommy Tallarico, Martin O'Donnell, Taizo Takemoto, Video Games Live, and Mario could have very similar effects in 200 years.

I have always wondered what music would be played on the "oldies station" when I have kids. Then, after writing my first article and starting to think more about the music, I realized it is the exact same as 400 or so years ago. Although the names, notes, and purpose have changed, these songs have the possibility to be timeless classics. Listening to a top 100 list of the best video game music, I can imagine these songs being listened to in years to come and the composers to be thought of as geniuses of their time, even though society doesn't necessarily agree with that now.

Categorizing these new songs will most likely create a new genre of classical. This genre would have similar patterns in which each song was designed to be looped and played a countless number of times without the listener becoming bored of the same 4 minute clip of music. I was curious if anyone else had the same thoughts as me, as it turns out I am not alone in this. After googling I found an article Video Game Music: Tomorrow's Classical Music on About.com. They share the same views as me and propose that if orchestra's were to make room in their repertoire  for video game music that it would successfully draw larger and younger crowds to their shows.

Call it a case study if you will but the article mentions Nabuo Uematsu, the composer for the final fantasy series. The article states...

Perhaps the leader in video game music, Nobuo Uematsu, creator of the music of many Final Fantasy titles, played his first concert in the U.S. at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Final Fantasy concert sold out the very same day tickets went on sale. Because of the concerts overwhelming success, Uematsu arranged a second concert “Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy,” which played in select cities across the United States.

However, Uematsu is not the only one video game composer to play a concert. Shows such as Video Games Live, and Taizo Takemoto's Super Smash Bros. concert have all gone on to have great success and sold out shows. Gamers hear these songs so often while playing, hearing them out of context brings back memories of endless hours spent gaming.