Art & Creativity Quote by Nobuo Uematsu

A composer doesn’t describe art as a “very large market” by accident. Uematsu’s line is blunt, almost businesslike, and that’s the point: it reframes game music from niche craft to an industry with gravity, budgets, and leverage. Coming from someone whose melodies helped define the emotional language of JRPGs, the understatement lands like a quiet mic drop. He’s not bragging about popularity; he’s marking a structural shift.

The phrasing carries a practical subtext: once a field becomes a market, it stops being a hobbyist sidebar and starts demanding professional standards, labor, and infrastructure. “Over ten years or so” reads like an inside timeline, the view from a veteran who watched the medium upgrade in real time: from chip-limited loops to orchestrated scores, from anonymous credits to celebrity composers and concert halls. It also hints at a gentle warning. Markets bring opportunity, but they also bring commodification, risk-aversion, and the pressure to produce “content” rather than take artistic swings.

Context matters here. Uematsu’s career arcs through the period when games fought for cultural legitimacy, and music was one of the strongest arguments. If games could move players the way film does, the music had to carry narrative, mood, and memory. This quote quietly asserts that the culture finally caught up to what composers already knew: game music wasn’t just background; it was value.