The influence lives on A Yuzo Koshiro Music Spotlight - Pt Final

This post is the continuation of the series "The Influence lives on: A Yuzo Koshiro Music spotlight" for parts 1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-1 and 3-2 click on the links provided 

I had been running music at random while I was surfing the internet a few weeks ago, and had nodded off at the table (This surely has much to do with me trying to retain some sense of a social life on my weekends away from work). As I woke up I heard a particular track from the Streets of Rage 3 soundtrack and it got stuck in my head. I had this song on repeat for the better half of an hour just marveling at the way it played around with a few melodies. The name of the track is Cycle II, and started off a four song set of awesome towards the end of that soundtrack. It's funny how things work out that way.







Since I started this series, I've been trying to show any and all of the things that make Yuzo Koshiro's music so awesome and how it inspires fans and musicians alike. There are very few composers that dabble in as many different genres of music as he does, and to see the influence from such games spread as far as into.

It's been over a course of weeks into months that I have been trying to formulate a proper finale to this. It's been both nerve-wracking, and irritating, yet how do you end something that still goes on and on? That's the kicker. THe title is in fact true to it's basic meaning. The influence lives on and on.  Music at it's very core is spread on it's influence. Someone hears a song that resonates with them so strongly that they too want to make music and the cycle continues.

The obvious answer to the question proposed, is to not end it - but to just express the love and interest in such influence and to keep the influence going. I grew up on music,and Video games, which is why i have such a fierce love for both, and to find someone who was willing to take the interesting music of the 80s and 90s and actually echo those sounds into gaming culture made me feel that Video game music can be a valid form of music. Hell In the UK people were bumping SOR music in clubs, so what's to say that Video game music can't be played on mainstream media? Years later here we are listening to mainstream music hits with slight chiptune flair, and Dubstep which is both fantastic and thoroughly intoxicating, is only growing into mainstream acceptance. The things that guys like Skrillex are doing are just evolutionary steps from dub's humble underground beginnings overseas, but you can tell that the different styles take influence from everything including VGM.  Much like a person takes food from a buffet; Picking and choosing at random to create a more solid 'meal' for the ears. It's completely fantastic, and yet throughly facinating.





If this, and the things Franck Rivore / Danger is doing is just a precursor to what the future of music is like, and VGM has much to do with it, then I'm effing ready for the future!! I have nothing else but to thank Yuzo and other fantastic composers for pushing artists to produce some fantastic pieces of ear candy. I'll be covering more of those composers popular and lesser known just to ensure that you, the reader know that awesomeness exists in the most little known places, and so yes, that the influence can live on... forever.

Game On!!