Star Control 2

The Sims building music: A great example of music improving the experience without getting in the way but still making a big impact on all players. It opened the door for more instrumental music like Windham Hill records and similar.

Red Alert 2. I did not know what metal was up to then.

Some of the Kirby games? I love Dusk Dunes from Epic Yarn.

I was in a hospital for a few days when I was 8-year-old. I was not allowed to leave my bed. But they had a kind of a moveable shelf with a TV and NES on it.

And therefore, to this day, I've got the Bubble Bobble music as an earworm. A kind of an awakening, right? 🙃

lol… genuinely, DOOM. I grew up with just the radio and a mom who made weird and arbitrary rules about music so my music exposure was terrible. I found a journal from when I was ten talking about how excited I was to listen to the “top ten soft rock hits” of the week with Delilah. Hearing DOOM and going omfg this ROCKS!! made me realize there was other music out there, big music, epic sounds, distortion, heavvvvvy sounds I love it all, I’m also a bass head as it turns out. DOOM opened the door and I’ve spent my adult life exploring all the different kinds of music I never got exposed to as a kid.

One Winged Angel, Sephiroth's theme from Final Fantasy 7 blew my mind! I did a report on it in high school I loved it so much!

Damn, I can't believe Halo CE hasn't been mentioned yet. That game was a musical awakening for the entire industry.

Rolando, which was a little platformer on the early iphone. Music by Mr. Scruff.

Super Mario Bros 3.

That airship theme.

StarCraft’s iconic Terran soundtrack is the earliest game where the music really got me hooked into that 80’s synth rock/metal. Of course there’s also Mick Gordon’s Doom soundtracks, but that came in later and I was already listening to metal by that time.

Ocarina of Time Need for Speed

hey. you asked.

Everything from Supergiant is fantastic, worth a listen even if you don't play the games. Also, Burnout Revenge had such a good soundtrack. Completely shaped my preference for music in highschool.

Pick any game in the Final Fantasy series. For me it was the overworld in FF6 and the battle songs from VII and VIII. I Also really vibed with the Uncharted games, which used an orchestra of interesting folk instruments to create a really cool musical soundscape for adventure.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Kingdom Hearts II, and GTA San Andreas all come to mind. Also a more recently Lethal League and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Do the Guitar Hero games count? Because those

Quite a few for me:

• OneShot: The melancholic music blends with the atmosphere of the game and its really good.
• OxenFree: On its own, it's good. But when playing the game, it really helps sell the ambience. Also, first soundtrack I've ever listened to that had encoded messages in it.
• Celeste: Really helps represent Madeline's emotions and mental state.
• A Hat in Time: Some of the orchestras in the soundtrack are really good, almost rivaling Nintendo. Some of them are a vibe too.

Mick Gordon's music in Wolfenstien and Doom. In particular, his version of the Partisan, Blazco Kill the Nazis, and of course, The Only Thing They Fear is You. That was what allowed me to get into metal.

Chrono Trigger.

Tony hawks pro skater series and gta vice city mostly

I honestly think FF7 made get into classical music and contemporary composers.

If you put the install disk for Warcraft 2 in a cd player, you had a kick ass orchestral soundtrack.

Fallout Soundtrack is the only reason I know who the ink spots are.

Both let me appreciate styles I had never given a chance.

Both the OST and gameplay Jetset Radio Future blew me away as a kid.

Cyberpunk Bomb Rush and it's OST was great experience recently too.

I don't know about an awakening, but Wuthering Waves has some really really good music. Not sure if it's the emotional aspect of the story that makes the impact of the song greater, but I've never found myself downloading game music before like I do now.

They seem to put a lot of effort into music. I'm not about to argue that this is the greatest song ever, but they made this for a freaking side quest that's off the beaten path and you're never directed towards it, no one tells you to go do this so it's something many many people just don't even experience and yet they made this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xsUKWv1KFWs

Better song, one of my favorites:

https://youtu.be/iLiXuLD2IVA

This one had people crying, but I think it's a case of just needing to know the story for it to mean anything:

https://youtu.be/p4tTkC9uRvU

I never would have listened to this kind of music even 2 years ago lol

I've always been into video game music, but as far as awakenings go I would say Lunar Silver Star Story on PS1 because it was the first time I heard original video game music with lyrics. Before that, it was all chiptunes and instrumental stuff, at least that I had seen. That was good. I did play King's Quest 5 long before and it technically also has an original song with lyrics... But it's not something I'd listen to outside of the game.

Morrowind for sure.

Chrono Cross!

Wondering if Project Mirai DX would also count....

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Might be cheating cause music was one of the core features. I do remember downloading the tracks for each flute melody to use as ringtones.

Also, Byrne's battle theme and the final boss theme go so fucking hard.

Mass Effect 1's credit outro song led to a rabbit hole of me getting into electronic music over the next six months. It's not even super dancey but it was enough lol

Morrowind & Skyrim. Nothing really comes close to Jeremy Soule's music.

FF9, Vamo' alla Flamenco taught me I really like spanish guitar.

To go a bit newer, I really enjoyed both Death Stranding soundtracks, especially 2. I went on a few months journey of listening to more theatrical/movie OSTs while gaming.

Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time, and nothing else even comes close. Koji Kondo is a genius.

Diablo/Diablo 2

Though this tune isn't quite part of their soundtrack (that I know of), it highly resembles their style on this otherwise hidden track...

Dawn Of Tears - Blood On Verona (Hidden track timestamp 11:43)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63WxrVmquJw&t=703s

Kingdom Hearts for sure. Has inspired my love of pop and j-pop to a large degree.

I still listen to the Riven soundtrack, 29 years later. It's so rich and atmospheric, and composed and performed by one of the game's co-designers Robyn Miller.

Everything about that game was beautiful. Still holds up today.

Beat Saber custom charts were how I discovered Vylet Pony, who was my favorite artist throughout my teen years.

Homestuck is more webcomic than videogame, but it did its best to blur the line. It introduced me to the genre of chip music. I got pretty involved in that and even made a few tracks that were released on netlabels (and lots more that weren't).

For a proper video game, Doom 2016. The genre is called "argent metal" by enthusiasts.