Music in games is an integral piece that can play a very important role in satisfaction and game association. For example, anyone who has played the original Super Mario Bros. knows the theme music.
Over this past weekend I was attending a party and we dusted off the original NES and played Mario. The sound wasn't working at first and so 3 or 4 of us began making our own soundtrack with hummed versions of the music. Eventually we figured out how to make the sound work and we all sat in silence for a moment until someone shouted "Hey! The sound works!" We were all so familiar with the music we almost didn't notice it was on. This illustrates the power of association with music. In fact, just today on the radio I heard a song I haven't heard in 5 years, yet I knew all the words still. Kinda scary, right? I guess that's what my brain was storing rather than subject matter in college.
These examples all show that game music can be a really powerful way to pull in an audience. Think about your favorite games and see if you can remember the sound track, or a piece of music during a pivotal boss battle. I can still remember the Tetris theme music, which seems odd because I never really liked that game. My point is that a strong musical score can make a poor game memorable, or a good game great.
Mobile media is attempting to take advantage of this musical pull, however hand held games offer unique challenges. I usually play my Nintendo DS with the sound off so that I can listen to conversations, or simply so my gaming goes unnoticed by other people. Do you know any good mobile games with good sound tracks? The Final Fantasy franchise has always had good music, and it transferred well to mobile platforms (DS, PSP, etc).
Essentially what I was reminded of this past Labor Day is that while music can often be used as a background tool, there's a major place for it in memories and in gaming as well.
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