I'm kinda lost here... What exactly seperates Game Music from lyricless rock, from any other type of music. What seperates game music from any other kind.

Game music is music that is written for games.
Thats it, end of story baby. It can be orchestral, it can be rock and roll, rap, electronica. Whatever the game needs.

When people say "I listen to game music" its basically saying "I like soundtracks, but just the ones from games".

Game music can be any genre. It's more of an attitude than a style.

I see. Thats simpler than I thought it was.

Game music can have lyrics. Check out "Eyes On Me" from the Final Fantasy 8 soundtrack. I think the writing approach to game music (or even movie soundtracks) is different from that of a radio based genre. It must match the game/movie that it is written for.

Yea, and for that matter, check out Lunar - Silver Star Story, and Lunar 2 - Eternal Blue (playstation 1). They have songs with lyrics on them. So any song can be used for a video game really. It just has to fit the mood of whatever it's used for. I get wierd reactions when i say that i listen to game music. People for some reason think of the old 8 bit mario brothers music and think that this is what i listen to on a regular, like that's as far as game music goes. Sometimes i feel like getting smart with them and want to say something like "yea, i put the first mario stage music to my new 3d movie yesterday and it was awesome, and tonight, i'm gonna make love to my girl with the 8 bit princess toadstool music in the back ground." but i don't, but it's very tempting. ^_^ but in conclusion, game music can be anything, any genre, any types of sounds, whatever will fit the mood a theme can also be game music. There's a game called mugen that u can download online and customize with whatever mp3's you have. I use to mess with it in college. i use to put some of my favorite anime, rap, and rock mp3's to different stages and play for hours. it was great. So, once again, anything can be game music.

the only difference is game music usually loops, that's about it.





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www.gamenoise.com
audio for games

There is also dynamic music, which is a huge separator of game music than anything else. The genre can still be anything, but any music which is arranged and developed on the fly is dynamic music. Halo and Ghost Master are great examples of this, where the different layers are cross-faded in and out, depending on how well you are doing at the time.