The Unseen Legacy of Y2K Gaming Music
How Starjunk95 and Others Are Reviving the 90s Jungle-Techno Soundtrack Vibes for a New Generation.
You’re lucky; This time I’m going to start with the reason behind the post and then evidence it.
Let’s talk about Y2K’s music, starting with how gaming culture was only seen if you played the game, how it manifests in modern media today, how an artist called Starjunk95 (and many others too) have occupied this space as an original artist, and how this hidden market is being curated today for tomorrow’s culture.
Gaming as a hidden market
Y2k inspired-music
Starjunk95
1. Gaming as a hidden market
Between the late 1990s and mid-2000s, according to my memory, gaming was underrepresented in mainstream media. For TV shows, soaps, music, films, or celebrities, we used to see all sorts of media crossovers, such as late-night interviews and cultural magazines, but seldom did we see anything about gaming.
There was no cross-over; Therefore it was up to the gaming industry to create gaming-specific avenues where people could learn about gaming, such as gaming-specific magazines or TV advertising. By the end of the 2000’s, gaming became more recognised in mainstream media - A great example is this 2008 commercial for World Of Warcraft including Ozzy Osbourne:
Gaming had much more creative freedom back in the 1990’s. In this blog written by a developer from that era, they detail that games had smaller teams with far more creative control, as well as investors being much more fluid and trusting with their investments. This meant that creative projects that may be deemed ‘risky’ today, were much more possible and accessible. If we look at 1998 as an example of an impressive year for gaming creativity, many of these game IPs and franchises still exist and grow today.
Given that the unique, diverse, and creative experiences contained within video games around Y2K were only accessible through the video game itself, my thinking is that the culture and values contained within video games are mainly understood by those who played the games. Those hidden cultural experiences are now shaping today’s culture as millennials and Gen Z, who grew up with these games, move into creative decision-making roles and have artistic creative outlets.
If I’m right about this, will this happen again? Has this cycle always happened? Does this mean that there are experiences happening right now that are packaged inside of products that aren’t considered ‘modern media’ that will detail the culture of the future?
We could make the following statement about the future: Video game experiences contain cultural experiences and can create ‘hidden’ markets, which may be merged into the aesthetic of the near future.
2. Y2k inspired-music
The hidden market revealed today is the Y2K-jungle music, reminiscent of the video game soundtracks of the same era. Over the last year or so, I’ve seen so many playlists that circle around Y2K’s musical genre. These contain derivative descriptive terms like ‘low poly breaks’, ‘liquid drum & bass’, or ‘breakcore’. This is music that is directly inspired by the likes of the soundtracks of the PS1/Dreamcast in particular sports and racing games of this time such as Ridge Racer (1993+), SSX Tricky (2001), Jet Set Radio (2000) and Wipeout (1995+). An example of this modern playlist is below:
The first track title for this YouTube playlist is actually ‘savestate’.
Also, the comment section for this video contained a very interesting observational discussion below about the points I was making already:
A quick Google or YouTube search will get you a plethora of returns for examples like this. These playlists are full of original artists that are making equally impressive waves with good streaming numbers as the playlisting curation grows in number. I had already spoken about Gamemotif’s in my last post, but this is somewhat different: Artists recognising the values within the gaming aesthetic, and letting that inspiration drive every aspect - the art direction, the genre of music as well as the marketing.
3. Starjunk95
Starjunk95 is an artist without an album, but 21 singles and an EP released. This artist has built up to 350k monthly listeners over 4 years since their first release, and their tracks average over 1 million plays. Starjunk95 openly states that their inspiration comes from soundtracks from games of this year and the aesthetic is strict - there is even comic book lore. Starjunk95 uses clips from Y2K games as visual prompts for their advertising, so the audience knows the bridge between their music and video game soundtracks of this era:
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Even Starjunk95’s single images have references to video game designs of the same era:
Here’s an actual dreamcast game cover of Jet Grind Radio so you see what I mean.
Some of Starjunk95’s tracks include references to the racing genre that popularised this sound, including words like ‘drive’ or ‘circuit’, almost imagining these as driving course soundtracks. I’m using this as an excuse to post one more track because this one absolutely slaps.
There are many artists in this space, including the many that are among the huge number of D&B/jungle/Y2K/breakcore playlists that exist. Some I’d recommend checking out are Dr. Gabba (350k monthly listeners), Trashiii (160k monthly listeners, including many cover images of SSX games) and PXRKX (850k monthly listeners, also stated in their bio: “He takes inspiration on Old racing videogames OST.“)
These artists are likely making a living by making music using this aesthetic. 350k monthly listeners, if each listener listens to their track just 10 times a month, equals 3.5 million streams, equaling $14,000 a month in gross income. This statistic proves both the strategy, the hidden market and the potential.
One more note on this…
In 2000, the global music industry generated approximately $36.9 billion in revenue, while the video game industry was significantly smaller, at around $7.98 billion. In 2024, the music industry is projected to generate about $43 billion in revenue. In contrast, the video game industry has seen explosive growth, with revenues expected to reach $244.22 billion.
I wonder what will be nostalgic in 2030. Do you think the hidden market of today proves that music’s inclusion in video games has resulted in a powerful long-term impact, both culturally and financially?
TLDR
Music in gaming is a significant cultural and financial investment over the long term. Unique cultural experiences only available within video games have shaped those who lived through them into today's artists and decision-makers. This has led to the manifestation of gaming culture in contemporary art and media, and this cycle is expected to continue.
I can already tell that Starjunk95 will be on my Spotify Wrapped.