When I listen to new music, one of the biggest influences I hear—both in the sound and the choices of samples—is video games. Specifically, the games and sounds I remember hearing constantly while I was growing up. There's Pi’erre Bourne’s skittering, glitchy "power up"-style instrumentals and sound effects, and Pinkpantheress’ unmistakable Sonic Adventure 2 vibe. Playboi Carti's outer-space pocket, flickering rhymes, and ad-libs make him feel like a walking arcade game soundtrack. Listen closely and you'll notice that gamer culture is all over the best music being made today.
Sometimes, that influence is direct and obvious—full of digital cartoon effects and bright electro-pop that sounds straight out of Dance Dance Revolution. Other times, it's more subtle, capturing the emotional residue of growing up playing these games. The nostalgia is channeled through ethereal textures—sounds that evoke Sega Dreamcast, the old PlayStation loading screen, or blur into something that feels like a half-remembered dream. Alex G and Mk.gee have a gift for this kind of sonic memory—their songs can feel like a lost afternoon on the N64 as you wait for your crush to get on AOL Instant Messenger.
Video games are to my generation—and those younger—what the movies once were to the previous ones, so it makes sense that they’d be so present in pop music, in all kinds of ways. So I put together a playlist full of songs that, each in their own way, feels like the soundtrack to a wasted Saturday playing Mario Kart at your cousin’s house—tracks full of nostalgia and candy-coated Rainbow Road production, and a whole lot of hyperactivity. It's a unique mix that hopefully gets at what I’m talking about, while also showcasing some of the better pop music of the last 5 years, in my opinion. (Sorry—there's no older stuff like late Three 6 Mafia or The Postal Service, which is what I was actually listening to while playing video games back in the day.)
Enjoy, and watch out for those tortoise shells.
