Shenmue Dojo

Shenmue's illustrious soundtrack has been voted into the Classic FM Hall of Fame as this year's highest new entry, joining previous video game compositions from the likes of Journey and Final Fantasy to be recognized alongside the works of Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky as well as celebrated movie scores heard in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and more.

Congratulations to Shenmue's team of composers and to all the fans who voted in their droves. The full list is currently being revealed on air and on the Classic FM website.

Good old ShenMoo-e

Haha! Couldn't help by laugh out loud while watching the above video. The Shenmue music 100% belongs in the Hall of Fame. Been listening to the same music for 15 years and still not bored of it, says enough I think

Seems silly to me that people will vote for Shenmue into anything. Kind of loses the integrity of the voting process if you're just going to vote with a bias and not even listen to the other representatives. But I guess that's just voting in general. I'm not going to congratulate Shenmue for winning this on sheer force of will though.

Thief wrote:Seems silly to me that people will vote for Shenmue into anything. Kind of loses the integrity of the voting process if you're just going to vote with a bias and not even listen to the other representatives. But I guess that's just voting in general. I'm not going to congratulate Shenmue for winning this on sheer force of will though.

Dude there's like 300 tracks, and I'm sure you've heard of a good few there as they are very iconic. Without a doubt, shenmue's soundtrack is an outstanding and unprecedented in videogames, especially for its time and now. The fact that there are sooooooooo many well made compositions for basically ever single scenario and setting in addition to the fact that i don't think most fans (me included) have heard every single track since there are so many.

Votes like this that are done yearly speak for the era of people's interests more than anything else. People will look back and wonder with intrigue, to soon find out what an incredible, epic and immersive track it is.

I believe this is shenmue - sedge tree not only deserves every vote it got, but it will emphasis how fantastical the composition pieces were, and only serve to spread the joy that is shenmue to others. Shenmue is a world unlike anything else, and imo nothing in that game coveys and emphasised it more than the soundtrack.

I also know many people who never played shenmue but listen to and enjoy those tracks irl (although you see this on ziming's channel on YouTube too), that's gotta be worth something too...

On another note, sad to see John Williams raiders of the lost ark theme drop to 300 (the very last entry in the hall of fame.... :-( hopefully it will increase in the years to come....)

Thief wrote: Seems silly to me that people will vote for Shenmue into anything. Kind of loses the integrity of the voting process if you're just going to vote with a bias and not even listen to the other representatives. But I guess that's just voting in general. I'm not going to congratulate Shenmue for winning this on sheer force of will though.

It's going to take you a while to let all those Final Fantasy fans, Zelda fans, Journey fans, World of Warcraft fans, and fans of all the other games on the list know how silly they are, so you'd better get started now before the moment passes.

Thief wrote:Seems silly to me that people will vote for Shenmue into anything. Kind of loses the integrity of the voting process if you're just going to vote with a bias and not even listen to the other representatives. But I guess that's just voting in general. I'm not going to congratulate Shenmue for winning this on sheer force of will though.

So how much of a bias has polls been enjoying not including other fields such as the games industry?

Maybe in the future when all media platforms are given equal exposure and awareness there might be some level of fairness but in reality people are exposed to different things, not all are gamers or classic music listeners so there's no true accuracy and can only be subjective opinion swayed by the format with most users consuming its media.

Maybe if there was a group of recognizable composers ranking their favorites after being exposed to tracks from various sources and aggregating their results it could have some weight.

For now i think its at least a start that game tracks are starting to have some recognition and maybe won't need to be pushed aggressively to be noticed at all. I loved the Shenmue track and its one i listen to more often than other ones in the list so I don't feel bad voting on it.