Pac-Man, Zelda, Final Fantasy… The Philharmonie de Paris will dedicate a unique exhibition to video game music. Titled Video Games & Music, this immersive, interactive journey will run from April 2nd to November 8th, 2026.
The Philharmonie de Paris celebrates video game music
Quelques notes suffisent. Le thème de Zelda, les bips séminaux de Pong, l’envoûtante mélodie de Final Fantasy… Et c’est tout un pan de mémoire qui resurgit. La musique de jeu vidéo possède ce pouvoir singulier. Elle ne se contente pas d’habiller l’image, elle réveille le corps et l’esprit. C’est cette force que la Philharmonie de Paris entend explorer avec Video Games & Music, la musique dont vous êtes le héros, une exposition inédite qui sera présentée du 2 avril au 8 novembre 2026.
The main theme from Zelda, the seminal bleeps of Pong, the haunting melody of Final Fantasy… A few notes were all it took for an entire realm of memories to come flooding back. Video game music has that singular power. Sound does not merely accompany the image, but stirs both body and mind. It is precisely this hidden force that the Philharmonie de Paris intends to explore with Video Games & Music, la musique dont vous êtes le héros, an original exhibition on view from April 2nd to November 8th, 2026.
Curated by musicologist Fanny Rebillard and video game journalist Jean Zeid, the exhibition will trace, through a series of playful installations, the evolution of a once marginalized sonic art form.
From 1960s laboratories to symphony orchestras
The history of video game music stretches back to research laboratories in the 1960s. Then, the first arcade halls of the following decade made it even more popular. In the era of Pong (1972), technical limitations imposed a highly minimal musical language. A few electronic pulses had to suffice to create an atmosphere. Yet, these constraints forged a singular aesthetic that has since become iconic.
The exhibition will highlight how video game music has grown richer with new technologies, eventually filling concert halls. Composers like Kōji Kondō (Super Mario, Zelda) and Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) have shaped a sonic collective imagination shared by billions of players.
From Jean-Michel Jarre to the Wu-Tang Clan
One of the exhibition’s most compelling aspects is the versatility of this type of music. Unlike a film score, fixed by editing, video game music responds in real time to the players’ actions. To some extent, they become the musicians. From 1970s arcades to the motion sensors of Just Dance and David Bowie’s appearance in Omikron (1999), the exhibition will stage this participatory dimension.
Beyond pixels, video game music is conquering new territories. The demoscene, a movement born of creative programming, and chiptune, a genre built from the electronic sounds of early consoles and computers, reinvent the 8-bit aesthetic. Meanwhile, artists such as Jean-Michel Jarre, Radiohead, and the Wu-Tang Clan use that medium in their own ways. Symphony concerts, Chiptune Nights, free-entry forums, and family experiences will round out the program.
Video Games & Music, from April 2nd to November 8th, 2026, at the Philharmonie de Paris, 221 avenue Jean-Jaurès, Paris, 19th arrondissement.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source numero.com ’
