Not because it’s bad, but because it was so ubiquitous. I love that about late 90s and early 00s games. Examples: ace combat 2, klonoa. I just find it interesting, a thing of the era for sure. Do you remember any other games that had this type of music?
I played a butt ton of nfs in those days. My entire childhood was dnb, lol
This is good read
The Impact of Jungle Music in 90s Video Game Development
https://pikuma.com/blog/jungle-music-video-game-drum-bass
Jungle and many other genres of EDM were a perfect match for the fast-pace games that were developed in the 90s. Most of the titles using a jungle soundtrack were from the second half of the decade, although the trend continued all the way up through the mid 2000s.
Consoles from this generation were also able to store and play CD-quality audio, which meant developers could really take advantage of the entire spectrum of frequencies and sounds that both jungle & drum’n’bass demanded.
There’s a list of games at the end including Wipeout, Rage Racer, Gran Turismo, Bomberman, Sega Marine Fishing
Movies from that time period also had a lot of drum and bass tracks.
It was a (relatively) new genre in the late 90s and it works well for energetic scenes and gameplay.
GTA2’s Funami FM had some drum and bass influenced tracks. The GTA2 intro movie used drum and bass in a way that’s very reminiscent of the time period:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z5O29rLRnw
GTA3’s MSX FM had some top notch drum and bass tracks from the legendary (by electronic music standards) Moving Shadow record label.
Unreal Tournament 99 had drum and bass tracks.
Michiel van den Bos - Forgone Destruction
System Shock 2 also had great drum and bass music.
I wish this trend of using drum and bass tracks would become popular again, it’s a such good fit for intense/energetic scenes and gameplay.
It’s also great for that cold and clinical, yet psychedelic sc-fi ambience (like the Engineering track from SS2).
I’ve noticed on the radio that drum & bass is making a sneaky comeback. Usually not entire songs, but some modern songs will have a bridge or finale with a clear drum & bass beat. I like how younger people creating this music must’ve gone: “wow this ancient form of music has a sick beat, it’ll be cool in my song”. Same way as 90’s music often has references to disco.
Rollcage comes to mind straight away. 90s and early 00s games were full of jungle and drum & bass.
Lots of people make original music now influenced by the genre, like Pizza Hotline
I was watching an interview of John Frusciante and he was telling this fan how he likes making jungle music. The fan said “oh, tribaly stuff?” lmao 😂
John Frusciante from RHCP likes making jungle/dnb?
My mind is blown!
I actually checkout his album on Bandcamp, it’s pretty good.
There are several, some under his name, some more electroey stuff released as Trickfinger.
