A Fight for the Soul
Towards the end of his journey here, his music tastes changed radically. Here are some of the new songs, full of big questions, that filled his mind with hope and courage and love for those he might leave behind.
“Sometimes the only payoff for having any faith,
Is when it’s tested again and again everyday”
“They see you as small and helpless
They see you as just a child
Surprise when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild
Prepare for your greatest moments
Prepare for your finest hour”
“But through it all,
The rise and fall
A life well lived,
that’s what I’d say
Wish I could fight
just one more day
But I know I haven’t won
I paid the price,
I failed the test
For what it’s worth,
I tried my best”
“Now it’s time to say goodbye,
To the things we loved
And the innocence of youth,
How the time seemed to fly
From our carefree lives,
And the solitude and
peace we always knew”
“Hold fast! Tides are turning
Flames roar, fires are burning
We’ll all be returning, if we sail together”
“I’m not a soldier but I’m fighting
Can you hear me through the silence?
I won’t give up ‘cause there will be a day
We’ll meet again”
Recent on Repeat
A few days before he passed, he had a welling up of emotions. Concern about the negative impact he might have on his family. The difficulty of living without a full leg. The “all of it-ness” of the next steps of his life. While I was out at lunch, I listened to a couple of songs and shared them with him. We shared a cry and we both looked forward to working through the problem and finding solutions.
“I am gonna make it through
this year if it kills me”
When did the sky turn black?
And when will the light come back?
We all suffer but we recover
Just to discover life where we all are
I fought all through the night
Oh-oh, but I made it alive!
The sun is starting to rise
Oh-oh, these are beautiful times!
This fight of my life is so hard, so hard, so hard
But I’m gonna survive
Top Genres
No surprise, Asher’s tastes started in video game music and the kind of chip tune lollies that he’s listen to day after day playing all the video games or completing homework while wishing he was playing video-games.
Pixel
Otacore
Speedrun
LoFi Video Game Music
AntiViral Pop
Indie Game Soundtrack
Video Games with Amazing Sound
Designing music for a video game is difficult because it’s a captive audience and each repeating sound will start to get repetitive. You can either make your tracks long, or make them adaptable. While it’s not listed here, Horizon: Zero Dawn has won awards for its sound design because of it’s overlapping adaptability. On the other hand, I could listen to Transistor music for the rest of my life and be happy.
Top 10 Artists
So, I’m working off of Spotify listening data and things Asher told me about. That means a lot of the genres and video games already on the sheet might be duplicated here.
Jeff Williams
A frequent musical contributor to Rooster Teeth, the Austin, Texas-based production company responsible for Red vs. Blue, Williams has also composed for the company’s American anime web series RWBY and the comedy series The Strangerhood. The RWBY series entered the Billboard 200 in 2017 with RWBY.
The Chalkeaters
If you are into video games and funny songs, you might have bumped into one of our tunes. We do what we like to call an “overproduced crappost”: we take very random meme topics and make cool songs with infectious earwormy melodies out of them, releasing them along with the original animated music videos on YouTube and TikTok.
Imagine Dragons
Emotionally charged and inventive sensibilities with a series of independently released EPs that earned them grassroots following. Famous for their unfettered honesty. “Instead of hiding behind metaphors, I was able to be more direct in my lyrics. I really focused on searching deeper for lyrical value.
The Cog is Dead
Steampunk musical madness! The Cog is Dead blends musical styles from a wide variety of eras, bringing a diverse and energetic sound with roots ranging from dark cabaret, folk, rock, punk, island, Russian and even musicals and films scores. It’s an exciting musical roller coaster ride of songs set in an incredible steampunk world!
Jake Kaufman
Chiptune and 8 bit artist turned orchestral DJ. Responsible for games like Shovel Knight, Proton Pulse, and Red Faction. Also composed the sound tracks for Duck Tales, Anastasia and Atlantica.
Mike Gordon
Hardcore industrial metal designed for extremely violent video games alike DOOM, Wolfenstein and Prey. The music is non-lyrical so it’s “safe for church,” but it’s got some serious hits.
RAAAAAA! CRUSHIT!
Owl City
Alt-pop since 2007, built a global following on the strength of his heart-on- sleeve songwriting and endlessly inventive sound.
A wildly imaginative body of work revealing his deepened devotion to the strange magic of creativity.
Noah Giesler
Famous for turning the Tuba Warrior meme into a complex universe with Tuba Mech Warriors, Tube Arch Mages and more. Mostly this’ll be funny only with the context of the Tuba meme. It’s pretty good generic background orchestral music though…
TheFatRat
TheFatRat is the EDM moniker of Göttingen, Germany’s Christian Büttner, whose music ranges from euphoric progressive house to trap and melodic glitch-hop, with a heavy influence of video game music. He is enormously popular on YouTube, particularly with the gaming community, currently boasting one of the largest followings and most engaging fan-bases on the web for an artist in his genre.
LilDeuceDeuce
TheFatRat is the EDM moniker of Göttingen, Germany’s Christian Büttner, whose music ranges from euphoric progressive house to trap and melodic glitch-hop, with a heavy influence of video game music. He is enormously popular on YouTube, particularly with the gaming community, currently boasting one of the largest followings and most engaging fan-bases on the web for an artist in his genre.
Honorable Mentions
Singles
Don’t confuse these for one-hit wonders. Some of these artists have fantastic repertoires but these single items exceeded Asher’s play time for the individual artists. Feel free to check out the rest of their collections as well.