We've come a long way since the cheesy 70s computerized music comprised of bleeps, blunts, bells, and bongs. Or have we? The technology has changed, but in some cases, the song remains the same–or worse.

All the advancements in the world can't replace talent or imagination. Take YouTube for instance. At any given time you could listen to a million different original songs or a million different comedy bits. And after suffering through that ordeal, you would come to the realization that 99 percent of that stuff is absolute crap. And by crap I mean, absolutely unable to generate any income or interest beyond the immediate friends and family members that think it's cute.

The problem as I see it is that most people can't judge quality. And that brings me to my rant about the level of quality, or lack thereof, of the music in video games.

Developers need to cut corners. It's survival. Often these sacrifices are made in the audio department. They figure customers are more concerned with playing the game than listening to it. Unfortunately, they are wrong. A video game should be a sight and sound spectacle. From an aural standpoint, the soundtrack should be married to the onscreen ambience. But that would require talent. Not only a talented composer, but a talented producer who knows what's good and what's not.

Video game companies will buy prerecorded music from discount sources such as Taxi. Here, starving composers and home recording enthusiasts will part with their musical creations for tens of dollars. There are exceptions to every rule, but let's not forget the saying: you get what you pay for.

A favorite trick of the developer, especially one who recognizes a good tune when he or she hears it, is to milk it. Loop it. Repeat it endlessly. Possibly pay another composer to make variations of it on the cheap. The result is often strings and horn sections which sound as realistic as Stephen Hawking's computerized voice. These tricks were used decades ago to overcome the limitations of the CPUs and memory. These solutions were imaginative, with developers yearning for a time when they could include a complete symphonic soundtrack, scored specifically for the game. But that's not always possible given various circumstances such as overages and budget restraints.

Still, developers need to use more discretion and imagination when it comes to the audio realm. We all have our personal favorite game tunes we hate. Most of them are found in sports games, especially racing games. What could be worse than these awful Nu Metal tunes with Cookie Monster on lead vocals?

There is some truly awful music on video games. I don't blame the composer, I blame the person that chose the song for inclusion in the game. Either that person is a tone-deaf moron, or there's a lot worse music out there we'll thankfully never hear. Except maybe on YouTube.

By Cole Smith
CCC Senior Contributing Writer

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*