Video games help young fans tune in to classical music

CLASSICAL music on video games has been responsible for a huge rise in younger listeners, Classic FM has said.

The genre more typically associated with older, more highbrow listeners is attracting a new generation of fans after Rajar figures showed the station broadcasts to 449,000 listeners aged 15 to 24 every week, and one million under 35.

Composers and station directors have pointed to film scores and background music on video games as a potential gateway into classical music, and Classic FM has capitalised on this, producing a weekly video games music show and a film score programme on Saturday nights.

A study by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra found that video games have become a major influence. It found that 15 per cent of children aged six to 15 said they had discovered classical music as a soundtrack to a computer game.

Alexis Ffrench, a composer who has appeared on Classic FM, said: “They employ fresh, vibrant presenters such as Charlotte Hawkins, and also they’ve got some wonderful programmes such as film scores, and one dedicated to computer game music.”

He cited Hans Zimmer, the composer, who referenced Elgar’s Nimrod in his soundtrack to the film Dunkirk.

In the world of video games, he referred to composers such as Koji Kondo,

for his work on Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda.

Sam Jackson, the managing editor of Classic FM, taid: “[Young people] have no qualms about listening to Bach or Beethoven – it’s to be enjoyed, not endured – and in an age of streaming, millennials encounter classical music not as something ‘niche’, but as content that appears on multiple playlists and across all forms of popular culture.”