Koji Kondo

Welcome back. The variety of media outlets present today make consumers much more susceptible to exposure to certain types of music. If you listen to something enough times, you will eventually seek it out, and that is exactly what happened to me.

Increased popularity among avenues such as the film industry, gaming industry, and other lesser-known forms have been some of the best contributing factors for music to be found and accepted as part of the culture. Through the use of subtle integration, we are familiarizing ourselves with different people and their talents without even realizing it.

Koji Kondo — Biography

Featuring his talents in the popular Legend of Zelda series, Koji Kondo has made a name for himself since the start of his career at Nintendo in 1983. Games such as The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Star Fox, Super Mario Galaxy, and many more not only curated an outstanding portfolio which has undoubtedly secured him future roles as the best person for the job, but also showcases the range of his musical capabilities across the span of 40 years.

Koji Kondo is a Japanese composer, music/sound director, pianist, and sound designer. His many talents have been utilized in the video game industry for 4 decades but is mostly known for his Super Mario and Legend of Zelda games. Koji was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1961.

His introduction to music sprang to life during his early years, playing a multitude of instruments as a child, though video games were where he really felt at home. His career as a video game music composer kick started when he applied to a Nintendo ad sent to his school during his senior year of college, and he has been there ever since.

His First Works

The first game he composed for was called “Punch-Out!! — a 1984 video game series about a 17-year old boxer from the Bronx who must fight his way to the top using his fists. Soon after, he took on more and more projects, establishing a reputation of creating some of the greatest works in the industry.

Two years after his start at Nintendo, he was tasked with creating a theme for the Legend of Zelda — which I am sure no one at that time knew would turn out to be such a monumental hit, as well as still getting sequels to this day. Unbeknownst to the rest — and Koji as well, I am sure — he ended up creating one of the most notorious main themes for any piece of entertainment, across all industries.

I can almost guarantee that most individuals who grew up from that time period and beyond have heard that familiar theme, at least in passing, once in their life. The combination of heroism and adventure complement the overarching story of the series and is still relevant in today’s time, as well.

Soon after, he went on to create additional compositions for many of the sequels which would not be released until later on. The three awards Koji was nominated for — British Academy Games Awards (Best Original Music — 2x) and the Video Game Music Online (Best Soundtrack — Retro/Remixed) in 2011 and 2014 — are a testament to his long lasting, lucrative career not many music and video game lovers ever get to experience in their lifetimes.

Final Thoughts

It provides me some comfort knowing he is still fairly young, at least in my eyes, so he can still apply his talents for a few more decades. Hopefully, as the gaming industry has changed and evolved for the better in several aspects, so will Koji’s, but still retaining what makes him so recognizable as an artist and creator.

His compositions are absolutely beautiful and will always be masterpieces to me. The familiarity to some of his other pieces is a staple in my opinion and is not really deserving of criticism. If you were to randomly pick any composition or music director who has worked for a while in their chosen position, odds are, you bound to some across some kind of overlap. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

We all have our own styles we adhere to, falling back on them occasionally without even knowing it. I actually recall the frequent callbacks to previous creations. The feeling of nostalgia I get is one of the best feelings in the world for me. I cannot wait to see what else Koji will create in the future!

Keep playing!

-Jess

Originally published at http://calminstrumentals.com on May 15, 2023.