Video game music is not staying in its own little container. It is slowly but steadily creeping out into the real world, mixing with popular culture and breaking away from the stigma of 8-bit “noise.” The world is starting to consider video game music “real” music, as silly as that may sound. The Ivor Novello Awards have expanded to include a video game category (The MTV Music Awards had a video game category from 2004-2006, but it hasn’t reappeared since then). Video game music has also become popular in clubs and with techno fans. There are also video game cover bands, who adapt video game music into full-length songs in their own styles (my favorite is Powerglove’s Power, Wisdom, Courage— it’s Legend-of-Zelda-turned-metal). So not only is music playing a bigger part in video games, it’s also becoming recognized in the regular music world as a legitimate form of music.