Some of the greatest music in video games has been awarded a place in the Classic FM Hall of Fame for the fifth year running.
This is great news for all the colossal old windbags who look forward to the time of year when they can take to the comments saying things like 'It's nice, but it's still from a video game' and 'I knew this would happen when we let film music in'.
More on that later.
For now, just enjoy the fact that the likes of Nobuo Uematsu and Jeremy Soule are being appreciated for their work outside their direct fanbase.
Here are the soundtracks that made it, as well as the place they came:
#272, Viva Pinata, Grant Kirkhope
#269, World of Warcraft, Russell Brower et al.
#268, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Jessica Curry
#221, Journey, Austin Wintory
#144, Shenmue, Yuzo Koshiro & Ryuji Iuchi,
#135, The Legend of Zelda, Koji Kondo
#126, Blue Dragon, Nobuo Uematsu
#120, The Elder Scrolls, Jeremy Soule
#98, Banjo Kazooie, Grant Kirkhope
#31, Kingdom Hearts, Yoko Shimomura
#17, Final Fantasy, Nobuo Uematsu
The hall of fame, which can be viewed in its entirety here, is always a pretty controversial affair. It'd be easy to think listening to beautiful music can make you agitated and tetchy, if going only by the messages left under each entry. Either that or old age - it seems unfair to guess.
Thankfully this year they decided to turn off the comments, not at all a bad idea.
That doesn't mean there wasn't still complaints on Facebook and in other articles.
"A couple of years ago there were 2 or 3 pieces of "gaming" music in the top 10 which could only have got there by a concerted effort of tactical voting."
"Why film and computer game soundtracks are included in classical music is somewhat artificial."
"Much as I like Holst and Pachebel among some others I cannot see them occupying their positions in the top 20, as for Uematsu at no.17 with Final Fantasy a game theme tune, how many listeners asked for that to be aired ? not gamers that's for sure, they are too busy on their consoles and wouldn't dream of listening to Classic FM. Maybe the gaming companies themselves might enlist the help of a classical radio station to promote their music, if you know what I mean"
"All that controversy over a few game tracks making the top 10 a year or two ago, where are they now? What's the saying; form is temporary, class is permanent. When little boys grow up and mature they soon realize the reason why 'traditional' classics have stood the test of time and survived through the generations, only to be re-invented time after time when the 'glory hunters' of today run out of inspiration and fall back on the geniuses of yesterday."
