Blizzard’s epic MMORPG, World of Warcraft has been around since 2004 and over this time has gained 8 expansions. With every bit of new content, there are new quests, new areas to explore, new enemies to defeat and new stories to tell. There is also a huge amount of new music to listen to, with new songs and scores as well as extra ambiance.
The soundtrack for each and every bit of content is carefully crafted to enhance the experience of playing. Blizzard takes great pride in its soundtracks and quite rightly so, since they are carefully and lovingly crafted. Here are a few things you may not have known about the music of World of Warcraft.
10 Influences Are Drawn From The Game’s Content
While the main soundtrack of Azeroth has a familiarity to it, influences are drawn from specific features of each expansion. For example, the Mists of Pandaria soundtrack drew from Chinese instruments.
The team aims to keep the overall feel the same while adding in specific touches that incorporate each expansion’s new themes.
9 Previous Warcraft Games Have An Influence
The music for World of Warcraft adds to the immersion of the game but its overall tone and theme draws from the wider Warcraft franchise. According to composer Russell Brower, this influence includes “specific melodic devices and tone colors for Alliance and Horde.”
Brower also mentions specifically Arthas’ musical arc, which comes from Warcraft III. The original melody forms the basis of the chorus of “Invincible” and is enhanced by new verses composed to fit around it.
8 Blizzard Often Use Live Orchestras
Most Blizzard soundtracks include credits for live orchestras and World of Warcraft is no exception. There are many different orchestras from around the world listed in the credits, as well as featured musicians.
Using a live orchestra for recordings helps bring the huge cinematic feel that echoes throughout the game.
7 Player Feedback Is Taken Into Account
In the previously mentioned interview with Russell Brower, he talks about the importance of installation and login screen sounds and mentions that many players hated the roaring of Sindragosa on the Wrath of The Lich King login screen.
These complaints directly influenced later games and are the reason why the Cataclysm login screen is very quiet in comparison, despite also heavily featuring dragons.
6 There Are A Large Number Of Composers
Over the years World of Warcraft has welcomed a number of talented composers. While they have a core team, which has changed slightly over this time, many other composers and writers have also been involved.
Across the eight soundtracks, Russell Brower appears as a main composer 6 times, while Glenn Stafford and Neal Acree appear 5 times. Derek Duke and Sam Cardon each appear 4 times, with more names appearing in the extended credits.
5 Soundtracks Are Composed To Work As Scores And Albums
While the original soundtrack is quite random and mostly alphabetical, from Burning Crusade onwards the team strived to make the soundtrack albums work as albums.
Each game has an incredible amount of background music and this ambient soundtrack is combined with main themes to make a cohesive album that is mostly gapless. All choices are deliberate and well thought out.
4 There Is A Huge Amount Of Extra Music With Each Expansion
In a game like World of Warcraft, players are often immersed in the experience for hours at a time. One of the greatest challenges is making a soundtrack that they want to keep listening to. As part of this, an extensive amount of music is recorded.
Brower states that Mists of Pandaria has seven and a half hours worth of music and at that point in the franchise the total was “45 hours of music, including 12 hours of ambient music.” This figure is now no doubt vastly increased, with music said to be added at a rate of “6-8 hours of music per expansion, and around an hour per patch.”
3 Musical Easter Eggs Appear In The Game
The song “The Traveler’s Path” from Mists of Pandaria is actually part of a small quest within the game. The song itself tells a folklore type story and was incorporated into a small and easily missable easter egg.
Brower says “It only happens at certain times; you go out to a little beach where Lorewalker Cho’s waiting, you sit down in front of him and he sings the song, and places all these paper boats in the water, and it’s just this gorgeous thing.”
2 Eímear Noone Made History
The franchise owes a huge debt to Irish conductor and composer Eímear Noone. She’s been involved with many of the most iconic pieces of music in World of Warcraft, as well as other Blizzard franchises since World of Warcraft’s very first soundtrack.
In 2020 she became the first female conductor of the Oscars when she took to the stage to conduct segments from each nominated soundtrack.
1 World of Warcraft Soundtracks Are Award-Winning, Sometimes
Over the years, many World of Warcraft soundtracks have been nominated for numerous awards, recognizing the talents of the team. These have included International Film Music Critics Awards, BAFTA awards and Hollywood Music In Media Awards.
While the music often gets nominated it has been overlooked many times, especially when compared to other Blizzard soundtracks. Despite this, it has won some awards over the years. These include Best Original Score for Warlords of Draenor, at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards.
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