“My Harmonic Digital DNA: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Face the Music!”

Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.

-Alphonse de Lamartine

Music. Inescapable music. It is all around us, penetrates us, moves us, sometimes without our even knowing. We’re spoiled by it. Its very nature is too good, too transcendent for us. Music is the literature of the heart, the language of the soul, the expression of the spirit, the prayer of the innermost yearner.

And also, I love it. Most of it.

This is a joke, btw. I have no knowledge of Minaj lyrics.

I’ve come to grips with myself on music love here: TWRM began as a games review site and it’s grown into a haven for long-form critiques submitted by contributors the world over, but it’s also a place for the appreciation of the beauty of video games, which of course includes music. We partake in TWRM Radio mixes now and then to show our appreciation, but today I had the opportunity, courtesy of @ccesarano, to do more. Let me explain…

For exactly 91 days now, I’ve been tweeting out a daily entry from my Top 101 favorite games list (#TWRMtop101). It’s been a lot of fun and it was the first time I ever comprised a list of that scale. No, it wasn’t that hard. My thanks and condolences to those who have put up with me tagging them for so long. We’re in my Top 10 now. It’s almost over!

With the end in sight, though, I’m already thinking of new ideas and lists to put together. I did actually think about doing a top so-and-so many songs list or something similar. Well, this gave me the opportunity to talk about and share those songs without having to spread it out across days and days:

Someone tagged me with this image and I took the offer. For every like, I’ve shared a video game song that I absolutely love. So far, I’ve tried to keep myself from sharing multiple songs form the same game. We’ll see how long that lasts.

What we’ve got here, then, is a musical blueprint of my person-hood. Music is so powerfully interactive with the fundamentals of who we are and who we’re becoming that this might as well be an autobiography written in song. It’s just another favorites list, yes, but I realized it describes who I am. It is the shape of my thoughts. It is a record of my personal history. Nobody else is going to have the exact same list. It is my symphonic fingerprint.

Here’s the developing thread:

Thanks for thinking of me with this, @ccesarano! pic.twitter.com/P2Tw7spJny

— the Well-Red Mage (@theWellRedMage) July 16, 2018

In closing, I want to invite anyone who likes this article to share their Twitter handle in the comments (if we aren’t already acquainted there) and I’ll put up another song I love just for you!

Also, I want to turn this into a challenge of sorts!

I nominate the Black Humor Mage, the Timely Mage, the ABXY Mage, the Iron Mage, and the Mail Order Ninja Mage, as well as Cheap Boss Attack, Nostalgia Trigger, Normal Happenings, AmbiGaming, Zach Casserly, and Adventure Rules (who may be just a little busy right now) to tweet this image for themselves and share some of their favorite songs for likes! You won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t/can’t join in, no pressure!

Thanks for reading!

Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage, Mage Cast, or Story Mode.