6 game-themed artists that you need to hear

Music, along with gaming, is probably one of my largest passions, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that when the two coincide there are fireworks. From straight up 8-bit theme music to raps about Princess Zelda, from absolutely mind-blowingly great to brain-numbingly horrible, I have listened to a large array. From my exploration, here are a few of the best gaming-related musical acts out there:



The Greatest Bits: 

The Greatest Bits is a self-described video game DJ that covers cross-generational  theme music from some of my favorite games. Slightly different from the rest of the artists on this list, GB has no lyrics and is all chip-tuney goodness. I would argue that this is video game music in the truest sense of the word, and is definitely not for everyone. If you are in for some good, campy fun, I personally love the 8-bit NES top 50 albums.

Team Teamwork:

Team Teamwork resides wholly in rap/video game mash-up territory and is the group that first introduced me to the genre. While there are many people out there that do this, the variety of artists that Team Teamwork use on their albums helps to keep these album exciting and me coming back for more. My personal favorite out of all of their songs is probably the one linked above, a mashup of Still Tippin' and the Great Fairy Fountain theme from Ocarina of Time. That shit is so good.

Bit Brigade:

Bit Brigade earned themselves a place of honor in my video game hall of fame when I witness them playing through Legend of Zelda and playing the theme music for the game at the same time. The sheer amount of musical skill and knowledge of the game needed to do something like that is completely insane to me. Apparently this is something that they do all the time with other games (like Mega Man, Castlevania and Contra) but Zelda was my first hit of them, and thus my best. While the performance live was definitely something to see, I enjoy the math-rocky, quirky vibe of their play style, and find myself listening to them often.

Powerglove:

I was first introduced to this band when I heard their Saturday Morning Apocalypse back in 2010 thanks to my good friend Jordan. And, would you know it, he also later introduced to me to another equally great album of theirs entitled Video Game Metal. You've probably heard some of their covers, like the Tetris one above, but I had to give this band credit for being totally badass and totally nerdy at the same time. Normally I'm not a fan of "traditional" covers so far from the original genre, but this is one exception.


2 Mello:

I just found this guy recently when perusing Chris Kluwe's Twitter, and holy crap do I wish I had sooner. Unlike Team Teamwork, mentioned above, this gentleman keeps his mash-ups to specifically one artist and one game. Not only that, but he makes awesome titles for his albums like: Chrono Jigga, Nastlevania and Final Fantasy: The 3-6 Chambers. They all sound like, well, what they sound like. The mashups are smooth, and include original lyrics and rhymes over some parts by the artist himself. My favorite song, thus far, is Shimmy Shimmy Strago off of Final Fantasy: The 3-6 Chambers or Gato's In Love (featured above).

Fatty FTW:

Fatty FTW is an entirely original indie rapper rapping specifically about video games and other general nerdery. Listening to Fatty's songs almost always makes me smile, especially because 1. I know them in person, and 2. I can easily relate. The lines are original, the flow is smooth, and the content is radical. /Nerdcore, the song featured above, won Fatty a ticket to Blizzcon to perform live—how cool is that?  Similarly, check out Accio (Nerdy Girls), a Harry Potter (and other fandom) themed song here.

Well, that's all for now! How about you? Any videogame related music that you're bobbing your head to lately? Share it in the comments!