Exciting Discovery of
the Anime Soundtrack
Music and Songs from Anime
Soundtracks
Ever wonder about how many different
soundtracks from movies there are? Most of us think of
movies such as “Grease” and “City of
Angels” when we think about soundtracks but there is a
genre of soundtracks that is quickly gaining popularity here
in the states.
Over the past twenty years, anime
soundtracks from video games, TV shows and movies are
rapidly catching on. There have been several English
versions of Japanese music being recorded for release over
the last decade.
Nobuo Uematsu and Final Fantasy
Soundtrack
One of the more popular anime
soundtrack composers for video games is a man named Nobuo
Uematsu from Japan. This composer has created songs for
several anime video games, most notably the Final Fantasy
series.
Final Fantasy is a series of twelve
games and more games in this series are due to be released.
Oddly enough, the collection of songs from this game series
has prompted other soundtracks to emerge as well.
After creating music for video games
for close to two decades, Nobuo Uematsu began a concert
series in 2000. Uematsu brought his anime soundtrack series
to the United States in 2004. He was playing music designed
for video games with the Chicago Pops Orchestra to rave
reviews and sold out venues.
Pop Culture from a Video
Game?
His type of music incorporates
orchestra, opera and pop songs. Uematsu even utilized
members of the group Korn to do a hard rock-style song for
one of the later games.
Anime movie soundtracks have been a
must have for the anime addict. Shows like “Ghost in
the Shell” and “Akiria” have been around for
years. Back in the day of these movies a fan of the music
had to get the music from Japan. The United States really
had not opened its doors to these types of soundtracks until
the 90s.
Soundtracks from Cartoon
Movies
The recent explosion of anime cartoons
have opened the door for more accessibility to the anime
soundtrack in that their growing popularity gave rise to a
higher demand for the music that goes along with the shows.
It is not unusual to find the soundtracks to such shows as
“Samurai Champloo” and “Inuyasha” in
your local record store or online.
The Best of Anime
Soundtrack
By 1998 the American Rhino put out an
anime soundtrack as a compilation album called “The
Best of Anime”. It included anime shows like Speed
Racer, Gigantor, Sailor Moon and Astroboy. The growing
popularity of the anime soundtrack has paved way to the
J-Pop and J-Rock craze.
Japan Produces More Than Karaoke
Music
The J-Pop and J-Rock productions are
performed by Japanese singers performing songs in their
native tongue but they throw in a few English phrases
throughout the course of the song. There is a lot of
beautiful music coming from across the ocean that is worth
listening to. So, if you are a fan, hop on the anime
soundtrack express and listen to the music you love again.
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