The medium of gaming has become progressively more mainstream. Originally considered a niche interest to computer nerds or children, the audience has gotten larger and the medium has become even more lucrative. That kind of profitability and exposure attracts high-profile figures. While it would have been unthinkable for a famous musician to contribute tracks for a video game during the 8-bit era, it's not unheard of today.
As the audience for the medium has changed, so has the technology. During the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, games didn't have the space for Redbook audio, which made it impractical to hire famous talent to compose music. However, with the introduction of CDs, games could have music with live instruments and vocals. Here are some examples of games that have had music provided by professional talent.
10 Rise Of The Robots Has Some Music By Brian May
Rise of the Robots is an utterly incompetent 2D fighter, whose only claim to fame was being the only SNES cart to boast "Music by Brian May" on its packaging. This is true in the same sense that Home Alone features a scene with Jimmy Stewart.
The game's title screen is accompanied by a short snippet of a heavily compressed version of Brian May's "The Dark." After that, it's entirely original compositions from Richard Joseph. Apparently, the former Queen guitarist had indeed composed a full soundtrack for the game, but it was barred by his record company.
9 Method Man And Capcom Go Into A World Gone Sour
From the slums of Shaolin, Wu-Tang Clan strikes again. Surely Capcom, Method Man, and Sour Patch Kids is a collaboration that could only happen in the world of video games. World Gone Sour is a 2D platformer reminiscent of titles such as LittleBigPlanet.
Despite being a game seemingly made for kids, the tone is very subversive and filled with comedic self-deprecation, courtesy of some snarky narration by Creed Bratton of The Office fame. Why Capcom put so much sass and attitude into a game devoted solely to advertising a recognizable candy brand is a mystery.
8 Lost Odyssey Features Two Songs By Sheena Easton
Hironobu Sakaguchi's Lost Odyssey was basically an SNES JRPG with HD graphics and Hollywood production values. While the gameplay mechanics were as basic as they got, the creator of Final Fantasy had not lost his touch when crafting emotionally resonant tales with well-rounded characters. Microsoft basically gave Sakaguchi a blank check with this game, hiring acclaimed translator Jay Rubin and granting fellow Final Fantasy alum Nobuo Uematsu a live orchestra to work with. In addition to Uematsu's sublime tracks, the game featured two songs with vocals provided by acclaimed Scottish singer Sheena Easton.
7 The Rapture Contributes A Diss Track In Grand Theft Auto IV
A satire of American culture, Grand Theft Auto IV's radio stations feature several songs from many genres and artists. However, one song was made specifically for the game: a track from American Rock group The Rapture entitled, "No Sex For Ben." The song is essentially a diss track at the expense of Fat Truckers DJ Ben Rymer. Players can find the track in the indie rock station Radio Broker. Thankfully, it's one of the few songs that wasn't a casualty of Rockstar's Steam update, which removed several tracks from the game due to license issues.
6 Snoop Dogg Gets Ready For The Next Battle In Tekken
Tekken Tag Tournament and its sequel were non-canonical entries that allowed players to challenge each other with teams of two fighters. Since the game was free of the series' larger canon, even characters who were presumed dead were allowed to participate in the King of the Iron Fist Tournament. Regarding the game's soundtrack, producer Katsuhiro Harada stated that, in spite of the diverse sounds of previous games, they had never tackled rap before. So, it was that Snoop D.O. Double G himself contributed "Knocc 'Em Down" and even appeared in a stage in Tag Tournament 2.
5 David Bowie Acted In And Composed Music For The Nomad Soul
The Nomad Soul was a graphic adventure developed by Quantum Dream and released for the PC and the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. The title also incorporated gameplay mechanics from other genres such as 2D fighters and first-person shooters. Director David Cage had a list of artists who he wanted to enlist for this game, and publisher Eidos Interactive managed to get in touch with one of them. Songwriter David Bowie contributed ten tracks to the game and even lent his voice and likeness to a character named Boz. His wife Iman even lent her voice to a character.
4 Megadeth Does A Cover Of Duke Nukem
It had been 12 years since the cigar-chomping movie quoting hero saved the Earth from aliens in Duke Nukem 3D. When Duke Nukem Forever was released in 2011, it was heavily panned for its technical shortcomings, overreliance on pop-culture references, and its abrupt shift in tone during the alien hive chapter.
Heavy Metal band Megadeth performed a cover of the theme for Duke Nukem 3D, "Grabbag." The song was originally composed by Lee Jackson who'd worked on previous 3D Realm games such as Rise of the Triad.
3 Michael Jackson's Brad Buxer Contributed Tracks To Sonic 3
While Masato Nakamura had contributed wonderful compositions in the first two Sonic titles, Sega initially decided to go with an in-house talent for the third entry. However, Michael Jackson was a fan of the series and approached the company with the prospect of contributing tracks to the third game. There are conflicting reports on what happened next. STI producer Roger Hector claims that the scandals led to Sega of Japan dismissing Jackson. Conversely, Brad Buxor claims that Jackson was not satisfied with the Genesis sound chip and refused to be associated with a product that devalued his music.
2 Nine Inch Nails Provides The Dark Ambience In Quake
Trent Reznor was a massive fan of Doom, and Id Software frequently listened to Nine Inch Nails during that game's development. It seemed like a collaboration that was meant to be when both parties agreed to work together on Id's third groundbreaking FPS, Quake. Regarding the soundtrack, Trent Reznor stated, "it's not music; it's textures and ambiances and whirling machine noises and stuff." In addition to including tracks by Nine Inch Nails, their logo appeared on the nail gun ammunition crates. Nine Inch Nail's ambient tracks were instrumental to the dark Lovecraftian feel of Quake, which is why subsequent ports suffered from their absence.
1 Paul McCartney Pleads Hope For The Future In Destiny
When longtime Halo composer Martin O'Donnell was approached with the prospect of collaborating with The Beatles songwriter and vocalist Paul McCartney, he thought it was a joke. However, after hearing some tracks from Halo Reach, McCartney expressed interest in contributing a track for Bungee's successor Destiny. He had never done a song for a video game before and relished the opportunity to do something that he thought his grandchildren would enjoy. He likened the experience to composing Live and Let Die for the James Bond film of the same name.