The Magic of Minecraft’s Music

– Minecraft is a wonderful game for many reasons. You have unparalleled freedom years of incredible developmental support and attentive community management, and a wonderfully positive though, sometimes childish audience. However, the entire essence of the game is reliant on something that the Minecraft community has grown to love over the years.

A constant that subtly narrates their gameplay, keeps you calm when a creeper kills you far from home and provides the undertones that cement the heart and soul of Minecraft into each and every player. Of course, I’m talking about Minecraft’s genius soundtrack, composed by German musician, Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418.

When he teamed up with Notch in the earliest days of Minecraft, he wasn’t well-established in the music scene. In many ways, he was still an amateur. But as Minecraft exploded, his competence was recognized. People absolutely loved what he had done to the game. However, despite the recognition that his music got

And has gotten over the years, I still believe his score is grossly underrated. Without the music, Minecraft just isn’t the same, which is something that can only be said about a handful of games. In fact, I believe Minecraft’s music is one of the absolute best in the history of video games,

Rivaling even legendary titles like Tetris and Mario. And while people understand the quality, there’s still a lot to be discovered beneath the surface. Like how, even after hundreds of hours, it doesn’t get old. How it perfectly creates an atmosphere for a game with an ambiguous atmosphere, and how it creates more nostalgia

Than any soundtrack I’ve ever encountered. So stay tuned because today I’m gonna cover exactly why Minecraft’s music is so incredible. First let’s define C418s sound. It’s unmistakably unique, meaning anyone can recognize a C418 track within just the first few seconds. His songs are simple, but perfect for creating ambience. He tends to just feature a few instruments with little to no percussion in Minecraft’s case using no percussion at all.

Strings or synthesizers fill in the background, bass tones fill out the lower levels, and a simple piano or similar instrument will carry the melody. Effects are used to lengthen, repeat, subtly distort, or to build ambience. But above all, C418 songs are weird, which makes them perfect for Minecraft. Hear me out.

First, let’s talk about Skyrim for a little bit of context. Skyrim songs make sense. They provide continuity with the era in the world in which the game takes place by using instruments that would reasonably exist within the games world. For Skyrim, this means that the tracks are orchestral

And the only exceptions are synthesizers used to provide additional ambience. But the entire soundtrack is generally sensical. The songs while incredible and creative, are somewhat expected. I’m playing a game with swords, dragons and magic, and the music I hear matches the environment that I expect.

And this is a rule of thumb in game soundtrack creation. Music is used to emphasize unless the game is specifically built around it. And it rarely adds an additional narrative element. So with a game like Minecraft, what would you expect to hear? There’s no clear time period,

And it doesn’t necessarily seem to mirror reality. So anything goes, right? Well, given that, how would you emphasize the game play? I suppose it’s a relaxing creative game so you’d probably expect a relaxing creative soundtrack. C4 knew this. So he knew he had to create a relaxing ambient calming soundtrack.

But he took it a step further, adding narrative undertones that really show while you play the game. The first three tracks he made Minecraft, Clark and Sweden all fit this aesthetic that you’d expect the best. These tracks are named Calm 1, 2 and 3 in the Minecraft filing structure.

And they sound just like that, calm. I’m gonna play a bit of each song just for context before we discuss. These songs are all a combination of piano and synthesize strings. They’re simple, but some of the best on the entire soundtrack. The theme of C4, his album starts to come through with these though. Due to their simplicity, they’re a perfect introduction to the theme of C4 soundtrack.

Now I’m gonna get a bit more abstract, something that I’m gonna keep doing throughout the video. I realized that everybody might react a little bit differently to these songs, but I’m gonna tell you how I think C418 intended for these tracks to be interpreted, and how they relate to the essence of Minecraft.

Anyway, these tracks for me, while Calm as the name suggests, invoke a sense of melancholy. When I listened to them, I find them extremely sad despite having neither context nor lyrics. The ambiance created by the strings give a sense of loneliness, and the piano feels almost like footsteps wandering through that vast emptiness.

And if you think about it, that perfectly embodies what playing Minecraft alone is like. You’re in this incredible beautiful world, but you’re painfully alone. Sure you might have villagers, maybe a cat or a dog, but without verbal NPCs or your friends, you’re isolated. That’s a lot of the magic of Minecraft

And it’s certainly relaxing, but it’s undoubtedly, a bit gloomy. And because C4 wrote these tracks before multiplayer was even introduced to the game, it perfectly represents what Minecraft was like at the time. These first three tracks perfectly capture the spirit of what it’s like to play Minecraft by yourself.

The next set of songs are titled “How one through four,” but you probably know them by their names. Sublet for Lullaby, Living Mice, Danny and Haggstrom. These songs all have a similar vibe to each other and are certainly different from the first triplet. Lemme show you what I mean. Now while the Calm trilogy focuses on elegance, these four are much more about creating an a theorial feeling. These tracks have long stretching synthesizers with chord progressions that give a sense of space and bouncy plucking melodies that give a sense of weightlessness. To me, these songs represent the second world

And the escape that Minecraft creates. A world that you can get lost in. A world that the recognizable is a beautiful break from reality. Minecraft creates a world you can sink hours into at a time without breaking immersion. When I’m playing and one of these songs come on,

I can’t help but feel mesmerized, almost hypnotized by the game. That being said, they’re not spooky and they’re not eerie at all. If anything, they’re a bit sad as well, but maybe that’s just because the escape is only temporary. Next up, we have two of the more unique tracks

Known as Oxygene and Key or Nuance one and two. These tracks are extremely short and a bit weirder than the rest. Lemme play ’em. These songs are by far the most ambient of the bunch. They’re short bursts of relatively dissonant, irregular noise drenched in reverb with hints of melody, just sprinkled in. These songs represent the endless nature of Minecraft. And yes, worlds can have an end in Minecraft,

But the amount of worlds you can generate is limitless. The scale of Minecraft is immense, and these songs are there to represent that scale. These are certainly similar to the previous for the house series, but they take it a bit further. They take it into total ambiance,

And they really create that sense of being in a vast space. When I first played Minecraft, this is one of the biggest things that stood out to me. Every world I created felt like this new world to explore. And it felt like as much as I kept walking,

I would still be seeing new things. The scale is breathtaking, and I think these tracks perfectly represent that. And though they’re similar to how, they just take it a step further, which I think is perfectly represented by their name. They’re a nuanced version of the previous set. Finally, we have the piano trilogy.

“Dry Hands, Wet Hands, and Mice on Venus.” As far as songs go, these are probably my favorite of the bunch. Here they are. These are in my opinion, the most melodic and intricate of the overworld songs, despite being just a piano assisted by just a few other noises. “Mice on Venus” is a long decorative anthem, covering many bases. And “Wet and Dry Hands” are both shorter piano interludes. And unlike the other sets of songs,

No meaning jumps out to me with these. Perhaps they represent exploration and creativity, gently dancing, building melodically, but overall, they’re just aesthetically pleasing. These are the songs that put a smile on your face while you’re playing Minecraft. They keep up with the vibe and the sonic continuity of the previous songs,

Focusing a bit more on sounding good. And these songs as great and as Minecraft as they are, don’t add to the narrative as much. But that does not decrease their value. So as you can see, all the songs that C4 made are meant to represent a part of Minecraft,

What it feels like to be playing the game. But it’s worth noting that I focused on just the overworld songs for this one. They’re the most common songs you’ll hear in the game. But you, see music in Minecraft is random. The songs are played only when you’re in the overworld,

But they come on at random intervals. But that adds another element of genius to the game. There are literally only six parameters that determine what you’re gonna hear. Are you on the ground, underwater, in the nether, in the end, in creative mode, or are you in the main menu?

Based on that list, the game will play a random track at sunrise, at noon, and at dusk. What this translates to is each track has a specific meaning to a specific person. There’s no villager song, there’s no song for killing creepers, they’re all personalized. They’re gonna come on when you’re doing something unique.

What this means is the music is the oral equivalent to Minecraft’s visuals. Each world is tailor-made for the player. It’s not something that many players would notice, but in this way, Minecraft’s music captures the essence of Minecraft in another form. Just like your world seed,

Minecraft music is made for you and your game play. There’s a reason that Minecraft’s music invokes such a strong sense of nostalgia when it’s played. The game and its soundtrack are truly inseparable. C4 set off to create an ambient soundtrack, but he ended up doing much more than that.

Anyone can string together synth waves, electronic plucks, and sunny piano melodies, but C418 created a soundtrack that managed to perfectly encapsulate the spirit of the game it’s paired with. Anyone could have made a soundtrack to Minecraft and the game still would have been a success. But C1418 made more than just a soundtrack.

He translated the essence of what it means to play Minecraft into music. Thanks so much for watching, and thanks to my patrons, R.S., Ethyn, Gamer of Gold, Dr. Keys, Admiral, G.E.M and Nicholas for supporting my Patreon and helping me create these videos. If you’d like to join the Patreon

And gain access to an exclusive discord where I’ll talk to you guys behind the scenes, check the link below. But anyways, thank you guys so much for watching. This has been Meraki and until the next one, bye-bye.