The Magic of Minecraft’s Music | Volume Beta

Two and a half years after c418 released minecraft’s first album the eternal volume alpha a second longer and paradoxically more complex album was released as a sequel to that first ensemble daniel rosenfeld’s volume beta on this album you hear things you never would have expected to hear in minecraft

New sounds new instruments and a tone that can both put a smile on your face or a tear in your eye you’ve likely heard my ramblings about the first collection and how they perfectly embody the spirit and essence of minecraft but if not take a moment now to look because this second album

Takes c418’s first release and fills the gaps we didn’t realize were left most notably he added an entirely new soundtrack to minecraft’s creative game mode a game mode that holds a special place in my heart as i’m sure it does many of yours but we’ll get to that later there’s a

Reason that i like rosenfeld took two and a half years to cover volume beta not that i would compare my passionate blather to his musical genius the details and emotion in the second album range from elated joy to empty sadness and it’s not a collection that can be discussed without dedicating the proper

Time to the concept minecraft and its music are inseparable and regardless of whether you took the time to truly appreciate it when you were a kid these songs were the backdrops to a generation of childhoods with each track holding a special meaning to each player holding memories laughter hours of heated

Discussion with your friends over voice chat the discovery of your creative side the awakening of your adventurous spirit all over the carefully composed soundtrack by c418 you see minecraft is a beast that due to its procedural nature and the careful developmental progress over the years has intricacies

That can’t be covered in a single hour-long album created during the game’s early days c418 quickly realized this and it’s the reason why he has dedicated himself to composing and producing more than six hours of soundtracks to cover every single emotion and experience that minecraft can provide a lot of this is largely

Unreleased or not even in the game yet but the care and purpose you can hear in each track is absolutely definitive i plan to continue covering these until i’ve truly dedicated the time to analyze all of his music and i want to make sure i’m taking ample time to truly explore

All the elements of the music that means so much to the lives of myself and many others without further ado let me introduce you to volume beta nearly double in size to its predecessor clocking in at a rotund 140 minutes with 30 unique tracks it is a monumental

Effort from c418 and yet continues to perfectly capitulate the same ethos from his first album this video will be a bit longer than the first one due to the size and scale of this album and because i want to make sure i’m exploring every part of this album that’s a bit more

Complex than the first for context to save yourself some time and to rob myself of some views my first video essentially explored how each of volume alpha’s tracks represent an emotion or a feeling that the player experiences when playing minecraft whether it be the melancholy you experience when playing

Alone or the wonder you feel when you first discover that minecraft is truly endless and infinite he continues to cover these abstract themes in the beta release and we’ll take a look at how he progressed the soundtrack as the game took shape the album’s release on november 9th of 2013 nearly nine years

Ago as of the recording of this video was followed by an update in-game one week later where they took a little over half the tracks from the album and put them into the game today we’ll explore how each of these integral songs fall perfectly into the world of minecraft

Like missing pieces to a puzzle we had all previously believed to be finished welcome to the magic of minecraft’s music volume beta Funnily enough even though volume beta’s track list is a bit longer than the first the second album is a bit more organized probably because the game had gained quite a bit of popularity and c418 likely had more clear and detailed instructions than when notch first asked him to create the original soundtrack

And honestly thank goodness because my last video was a bit all over the place as i tried my best to pair tracks together based on my own dumb ideas in this video we’ll first cover the four new main menu track pieces then the six tracks he made for creative mode which

Are some of the most important tracks in the game and i’ll explain why later next we’ll cover the four songs crafted specifically for the nether than the 15 minute long piece created for the end area and then finally we’ll talk about my favorite track in the entire game the

One that plays when the credits roll let’s get started first and foremost we have to talk about the underrated and under-appreciated tracks made specially for the start menu while these are some of the songs that i’m sure many of you know best they rarely get the same love

As a track that plays when you’re playing the game it makes sense as you make the best memories when you’re actually playing the game but the menu screen is where every great minecraft story begins right before you create a new untouched unexplored world from thin air there’s something special about this

Brief but wondrous moment and c4 knew exactly how to capture this in his four menu tracks these songs are all quite unique and important so i’ll go through them one by one First we have mutation as the name suggests the first track is a mutation on minecraft’s title track which you probably recognize from volume alpha as that song you hear in game all the time c4 18 took this track and added a dramatic orchestral backdrop making this nostalgic classic song into this mutated

Title track we see now in my opinion rosenfeld is doing two things here one he’s using a familiar song and adding a dramatic twist to emphasize how the main menu is in many ways the start of our journey but more importantly he’s mutating the title track the track that

Was literally before named minecraft to show us how the game has evolved since its early days before there were mobs before there was an ending and before you could even play with your friends mutation is a celebration of the progress that minecraft has had and a reminder of your humble beginnings that

You hear every time you humbly begin next we have moog city 2 which takes smoog city 1 and just like mutation makes it much more grandiose and cinematic it sounds just like the first one but a bit more mature and unlike the previous version he actually uses moog

Synthesizers that the name suggests this time around the droning repetition of the synthesizers in this track speak to the circular nature of minecraft which is something i’ve spoken about before in many ways moog city 2 is another title track that takes a familiar minecraft sound and makes it more elegant so it

Can fit the establishing setting that is the main menu beginning 2 is yet another sequel but as the final sequel of the minecraft title tracks it takes the sequeling to another level now i know you guys are smart so i’m sure you could figure out the beginning two is just a

Sequel to beginning one from volume alpha but what you might not have known is that beginning one is actually just a spin-off of the original minecraft track so just like mutation we’re mutating the original minecraft track here but beginning 2 takes it in another direction and it’s probably the most

Calm and serene title track with gentle synths gentle piano and a gentle choir comprising the entire song as the title suggests it symbolizes a new beginning by embodying nostalgia perfectly sounding just similar enough to make you smile at the memories of previous adventures with enough new and different

To make you excited for more for the fourth and final title track we finally have an original song floating trees which in my opinion has to win an award for one of the most innovative song titles on one of c4’s albums now i actually have to admit when i first

Listened to this song i found it a bit boring but once i sat down to write this video i i took another listen and i discovered another layer that made it my entirely favorite title track this song sounds like a memory with classic c418 ambience and synthesizer speckled all

Over it for me this track unlike the three other title tracks truly invokes a feeling of wonder and discovery that you feel when you first play minecraft while the other songs are remixed or rehashed versions of songs from the previous album which don’t get me wrong is a

Great idea for a theme song that plays at the title menu c418 took a risk with this one and the risk paid off it feels unknown and yet familiar just like the feeling you get when you launch a new minecraft world and if that wasn’t enough as the title suggests a floating

Tree is the sign of a novice minecraft player who’s still too distracted by the size and wonder that minecraft has to offer to finish destroying the trees they’re punching and i love the imagery with this song as c4 once again creates a clear picture in your head with just a

Song title and a few synths like it or not we all started here as a newbie player and it’s comforting to be reminded of the blissful awe that you felt when you played minecraft for the first time all in all the title tracks do a stellar job of capturing the

Feeling of awe that you get when you first discover how truly endless and unique minecraft and its world are they provide the perfect relaxing backdrop to the simple title menu and i can’t think of a better place to both begin each world and end each fantastic play session with your homies

Creative mode took minecraft and turned it on its head allowing for a game that already had very few limits to become truly limitless for me and many others some of my best and most favorite memories both alone and with friends come from playing creative it removes every barrier

Between the game system and your imagination and my friends and i made some pretty incredible things over the years now c4 once again had a massive task ahead of him the soundtrack for the ambiguous game was about to get way way more ambiguous but luckily dan had a

Plan take everything you know about the minecraft soundtrack and throw it out the window to make the creative soundtrack c4 started nearly from scratch breaking some rules that previously had never been broken and there’s no better example of this than with a track that i know many of you

Hold very dear and one that needs its own section entirely arya math While most minecraft songs are droning ambient ensembles that you listen to to relax or focus or play minecraft i guess arya math keeps that relaxing focused ambient atmosphere but it’s a bit different from all the tracks i’ve talked about so far in both this video and the last aria math is perhaps the

Grooviest track in the entire minecraft soundtrack it’s the first track i bought my head to the first song i tapped my feet to it’s a whole new take on the music of minecraft for the first time c4 brought a percussion instrument into the minecraft soundtrack and no we’re not

Counting piano’s percussion you nerds now for a while i thought this was because there were already so many percussive sounds when you play minecraft punching trees attacking foes the crack the xbox controller makes is it connects with your younger brother’s jaw after he burns down your wooden house adding percussion into the

Survival mode soundtracks would have added a tempo that would have distracted from the gameplay in survival mode you set the tempo but creative mode is a whole different beast suddenly you don’t have any long-term goals no zombies attacking you at night no end dragon to slay now a

Tempo can be useful to keep you focused on the task at hand whether you’re building the house of your dreams the pixlr of your favorite movie or constructing a shrine to herobrine songs like arya math kept me and my friends focused and productive and c418’s genius use of the percussion he had previously

Kept from us is perfectly executed the use of drums drum kits and other weird percussion would only continue with the remaining five creative songs i’ve separated these into two buckets the reminiscent ones and the innovative ones let me explain first we have the three reminiscent tracks let me play a bit of

Each for context I’ve grouped these together because they sound like they belong on a minecraft soundtrack they all resemble tracks you heard on volume alpha soundtrack with large sweeping synths quarter note melodies consistent pacing and plucking and some of c418’s most iconic sounds the important distinction here and the reason you associate these songs with

Creative mode is again that percussion that c418 finally decided to introduce as i’ve said the percussion is what kept you and your friends accountable and focused in creative mode almost like a clock ticking along to keep you building now just because these songs sound more like traditional minecraft songs doesn’t

Mean they’re less exciting or important in fact there’s a reason i picked the word reminiscent to describe them just as creative mode takes the traditional minecraft survival mode and creates a new exciting way to play the game these tracks take the original minecraft soundtrack and slightly adapt their

Pacing and feel to adapt to the new exciting game mode you’re still in the beautiful world of minecraft with all the memories from your adventures in survival mode attached but now you’re looking through the game world with a new lens with less barriers between your imagination and what you can accomplish

For me these tracks embody how minecraft’s creative mode builds on its survival mode and they leave you feeling right at home all well c418 subtly makes you build faster and dream bigger all through a subtle use of percussion as promised up next we have the two innovative tracks here they are these

Two tracks are in my opinion some of the most underrated coolest and consequently longest tracks on the album both songs are definitely still minecraft tracks but they approach the soundtrack in totally different ways dryton starts slow and ambient but something feels a bit different the tone is a bit darker

And there’s some scratchiness in the background that almost feels like rain slowly more synths come in to complicate the melody while the breathing scents from the beginning continue then all of the sudden the pan drums from arya math return and the song gets twice as intricate the song builds and builds

Until it cuts out entirely at four minutes and the closest thing that minecraft’s soundtrack has to a bass drop the pan drums take over and a variation on the melody from key which you might remember as one of the songs from minecraft alpha plays the song continues to build in the second half

And then again stops abruptly at minute 7 replacing the melody then with a guitar interlude which continues until minute 8 before the song fades away to nothing it’s both one of the weirdest and one of the most beautiful songs on the album now when i start to think

About what this song means it of course embodies c418’s theme of pacing and structure to balance out creative mode’s lack of both but the song goes a bit deeper most interestingly with the two sudden and abrupt silent sections in the track at first i thought this signified how the

Circular gameplay loop of minecraft something again i’ve spoken about before was emphasized in creative mode with you building these huge grandiose creations only to start again from scratch with a blank slate from nothing once again but then i found a note that c418 had written about the track referencing why

The track builds up and then abruptly stops for seemingly no reason he writes sometimes creativity doesn’t need to have a reason sometimes you just build and i think that puts it better than i could have ever hoped to now the second innovative track is taswell which is a

Song that was written in memory of the late ryan davis which is one of giant bomb’s co-founders if you haven’t heard of it giant bomb is a gaming website which is perhaps best known for their podcasts and it’s actually a podcast that i’ve personally been listening to

For over eight years c418 wrote that the song is a farewell to a friend that they knew only for a brief time but a friend that they wanted to rather than mourn their death celebrate their life and their happiness now when you’re listening to the track talswell almost

Tells a story with a dark beginning and a happy end it starts quiet and soft like many c418 songs do sounding hopeful at first but then it turns a bit darker and more ominous stays ambient and ominous until about four minutes in when it turns into a nice relaxing almost

Low-fi esque song it builds more and more into a happy hopeful and expansive track with arpeggiated synths and a relaxed drumline and then finally the drums fall away and we’re left with the open ambient synths that carry us along to the end of the song tazwell is a

Beautiful track that speaks to one of the most important parts of minecraft the friends who keep you company along the way well maybe not all of us have experienced lost like c418 did i’m sure almost everyone has a friend that they used to play with every day who has now

Been offline for years and this can be a sad and heartbreaking realization not all friends are permanent and it’s easy to think back to the incredible memories and feel miserable because we took those times for granted but that’s not the case at all as bittersweet as those

Memories may be they’ll always be there and minecraft even allows us to visit the old worlds you created together you can explore the houses you built read the signs you made and continue to explore the world you created together c418 reminds us not to cry because it’s

Over but instead to smile because it happened the nether had been out for three years before it got its own soundtrack so rosenfeld had some time to explore what made it special and different to all sorts of players after some time he decided on a theme but i’ll

Get to that in a second because these songs all follow the same thesis i’ll talk about them as a group rather than one by one here’s a bit of each for context Now as you can tell all these songs are a little ominous the nether is a scary place filled with lots of hostile mobs no weather no day or night an endless horizontal space filled with fire and terrors the songs intentionally use a lot of reverberations to emphasize that you’re

Exploring this parallel world that acts as the largest cave you’ll ever encounter there are these scary sounds that are hard to describe and lots of dissonant chords to make you feel just a little bit uneasy and yet these songs aren’t here to scare you sure they set the scene with this apprehensive

Ambience but they tear that away with robust hopeful midsections this dichotomy between the terror of the nether and the excitement of what it has to offer is perfectly complemented by c4 soundtrack and you get stuck in this constant cycle of nervous awe and hopeful optimism the track structure for

Me resembles being lost in a dark spooky forest and then stumbling across a campfire you warm your bones you bask in the light and then you return back out into the fearsome unknown and such is the cycle of the nether though most of us are used to it by now try to remember

How it first felt when you stumbled through that obsidian portal you were scared you were holding onto your loot for dear life to the left there was a zombie with a pig for a face to the right there was a ghost and below you there was nothing but hot hot lava few

Things spooked me more than my first time in the nether and each of these tracks strives to remind you of this but as you faced your fears and you delve deeper into the abyss you’re rewarded with great treasure and great experiences that are unique from anywhere else in the game in the

Darkness we found light and c418 managed to capture that feeling perfectly in a song thus creating the perfect backdrop to the beautiful terror of the nether now at last we enter the final stage of the video and there are only two songs remaining but they’re absolutely gargantuan efforts from c418 clocking in

At over 25 minutes between the two of them now i’m gonna approach these in chronological order because they take place in chronological order within the game first we have the end a world specifically designed to house the game’s final boss fight needed an epic soundtrack and c4 pulled no punches the

Song has droning ambient synths throughout the entire track which sets the scene for the vast nothingness in which the end exists distortion and bit crushing take over the track which leaves it glitchy and almost indistinguishable at times but the track is so much deeper than that you’re in

This world that is truly foreign fighting a boss that signifies the end of the game as any great warrior does when they enter their ultimate fight memories of your adventures that got you to that conclusive moment flash through your mind so what does c418 do systematically he plays distorted

Evocative remixes of nearly every single track you heard along the way minecraft cat hagstrom dry hands wet hands subwoofer lullaby oxygen danny clark equinox beginning floating trees sweden all while retaining that vast ambient tone finally the track cuts and you hear minecraft stuck on a loop before someone cuts off the vinyl c4

Could have made boss battle music and technically he did but it’s basically just a few ambient notes so i’m not going to touch on it here but the music when you enter the end is much more moving and much more impactful the journey to beat the ender dragon takes

Hundreds of hours for many players mostly because it’s not really the most fun part of the game nor is it truly the point just as with any great game or story the beauty is in the journey not in the destination and the end soundtrack perfectly sets the scene

While reminding you of the incredible journey you just took it’s almost a transcendent experience and then suddenly the dragon falls and you’re met with silence you look around you collect your xp and you decide to jump through the inauspicious portal in the ground As you complete minecraft’s most ultimate challenge you’re rewarded with both the end poem and perhaps one of the most beautiful songs in the entire game alpha alpha is an homage to the previous album and it’s my personal favorite on volume beta i talk a lot about how c4

Likes to treat tracks like stories and how he embodies moods and captures parts of the game perfectly but every track has a purpose and previously the purpose was isolated to a game mode or a part of the game or sometimes even a specific feeling in my opinion this track tackles the

Insurmountable task of encompassing the entire game i can’t help but get goosebumps when i hear this song the entire song is so familiar and yet it’s an entirely new piece of music from c4 it’s an orchestral fanfare it’s a subtle piano track and it’s an electronic and ambient masterpiece

It’s everything you could ever hope for in a final minecraft song the song is a fitting farewell to your game world a fitting capstone to your tireless journey and a fitting reminder of the late nights and laughs shared with friends it captures the melancholic loneliness and the awe-inspiring beauty that the

Game can show you no one aside from c418 the mastermind and genius behind the soundtrack could have ever hoped to do the finale justice but thankfully we have rosenfeld and he took a game with endless worlds endless adventures and endless possibilities and condensed it into a 10 minute

Masterpiece volume beta was a daunting task but you can tell that c418 was excited to approach it he innovated on concepts from the previous album and once again succeeded in giving a backdrop to such an ambiguous game as he was tasked with scoring increasing ambiguity while volume alpha certainly gets the

Spotlight volume beta has some of the best tracks in the entire game and some of the tracks aren’t celebrated nearly enough minecraft is a beautiful game and its beauty can be appreciated without the soundtrack but for me and many others the soundtrack is essential to fully experiencing the game and the

Emotions associated with the soundtrack resonate even when i listen while i’m not playing regardless of how old i am and even if my best years of minecraft are still behind me i can always listen to the soundtrack sit back and smile now first i’d like to

Thank you all for the patience that you all had while i put together the sequel to the video that i never expected to be this popular i am honored that so many of you care about how passionately i feel about the minecraft soundtrack regardless i want to thank

You guys for watching and if you’re new to this video and you haven’t seen some of the new videos i put out in 2022 go check them out because i put a lot of work into them they’re 25 they’re 30 minutes long and i put a lot of heart and soul into

Them and i think you’d enjoy until next time this has been meraki bye You