OSTs in Trailers

Adagio in D Minor might be one of the most overplayed songs from an OST in history. That's obviously, because it's really good, and the movie it comes from Sunshine, was hardly a big hit, so audiences don't attach the music to that specific film, it's just a great track that fits a variety of scenes.

Most notably, Kick Ass gently remixed it for an intense scene that's one of the most notable from that film.

Using OSTs in marketing has become common practice, and video-games are no different. The beautiful track "Car Chase" from A Beautiful Mind helped promote Rise of the Tomb Raider, for instance.

And music from games is used all the time in other media. The entire Chaos Theory soundtrack was drilled into my head despite never playing Splinter Cell until I was a Teenager, because it was in the BBC's music library, and used in much of their programming.

All of this is why its strange to me then, that I don't believe I've ever encounter a scenario where a video-game is using music from another to help promote it. This occurred to me when listening to Wolfenstein II's "Amazing Grace" that is pitch perfect trailer music, yet as I've never heard game music be used to promote another game, I think the trailer would get people pointing fingers saying "look, it's using Wolfenstein."

Maybe I'm just overthinking it, maybe there's actual a scenario where games have used other OSTs to promote themselves, and I just didn't see or forget.

But personally, if the reasoning is, it makes people think of that other project, perhaps, but I'm not sure if that's even a bad thing. When Top Gear played Halo's "Peril," maybe a part of me was pointing fingers, but the rest was just absorbed in the mood of the Episode which had music perfectly accompanying its imagery.

Music absolutely is in part shaped by perception. You can't use Linkin Park's Papercut, Sia's "Breath Me", or Imogine Heap's "Hide and Seek" without just being a meme. There's also soundtracks that are so attached to their IP, its hard to separate. You can use Peril in a Top Gear episode, but hearing it in a gameplay trailer for another Sci-Fi FPS would be questionable.

It's an invisible line, and I guess, I just see a few scenarios where there isn't an issue from crossing it.