This is what the Recording Academy has understood this year, which organizes the Grammy Awards ceremony in the United States and, for the first time, will reward Sunday evening in Los Angeles the best soundtrack of a video game.

A belated recognition, by the equivalent of the Oscars of music, of the weight of video games in popular culture.

We will have to decide between "Aliens: Fireteam Elite" with music composed by the American Austin Wintory, "Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök" and its American composer Stephanie Economou, "Call Of Duty: Vanguard" by the American musician Bear McCreary, "Guardians of the Galaxy" by Briton Richard Jacques and "Old World" by American composer Christopher Tin.

A few days from being able to win a Grail in the music industry in the United States, the only non-American of the lot, Mr. Jacques, 49, has not yet realized that his selection is "very real".

Slow recognition

Classically trained at the London Conservatory of Music, Richard Jacques has been a professional for 30 years.

For the first time, the Grammy Awards will reward the best soundtrack for a video game on February 5, 2023 in Los Angeles © Robyn Beck / AFP/Archives

In 2001, he caused a sensation with an orchestral soundtrack for a video game recorded at the famous Abbey Road studio.

But recognition took time, he told AFP.

That the Grammys created an award for video game music "finally gives us a kind of respectability that we've been looking for for a long time," he says.

It is also for these musicians to take advantage of a global screen game industry which is close to 200 billion dollars in turnover in 2022 according to Global Games Market Report.

Generation Z

Better, a Deloitte survey in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Brazil concludes that it is the first source of entertainment for Generation Z, young people born between 1995 and 2010.

And the music is very much part of the "immersive gaming experience," according to composer Stephanie Economou behind the "Assassin's Creed" soundtrack.

"The players really listen", wants to believe this young musician from Los Angeles known for her soundtracks for films and TV series.

Like her competitor Richard Jacques, Stephanie Economou explains to AFP that this brand new category at the Grammys marks "an important step for people to finally recognize that video games have been in the air for a long time".

Players on the Nintendo stand at the Paris video game fair, "Paris Games Week", which is held in November each year © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP/Archives

Composing a soundtrack for a game is "a new way to experience and listen to music", she says.

For Richard Jacques, the challenge is also to ensure that "the music reacts to what the player does" on his console.

Because everything depends on the "player's choice" and the "many possibilities of the game".

"Whether players are fighting or doing a puzzle, whatever the nature of the game, it's our job as composers to provide them with a seamless and interactive experience," says the Briton.

The links between music and video games are so close that the American jazzman Jon Batiste - who won five Grammy Awards in 2022 - told the Washington Post in 2019 that the game had inspired him from childhood to "create themes heady music that we constantly want to hear".

© 2023 AFP