While it may seem rather strange that the music from the Wii Channel is this week’s Musical Moment, it is only strange on the surface. In reality, the music of Nintendo, despite being the subject of many memes and musical jokes (if you’re involved in that sphere of media), is unironically incredibly clever and good music.

If you’ve ever played a Nintendo game, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with the works of Kazumi Totaka, the veteran composer for many of Nintendo’s games since the Game Boy era. His most famous game soundtracks include, but are not limited to: Animal Crossing, the Yoshi franchises, Mii Channel and Wii Sports. Totaka has also worked as a voice actor, and provides ‘voices’ (more often they’re sounds) for characters such as Yoshi, Professor E, Gadd from Luigi’s Mansion, and Shy Guy.

The Wii Shop Theme: Kazumi Totaka’s Magnum Opus

Arguably one of Totaka’s greatest cultural achievements lies in his composition of the music for Nintendo Wii’s Wii Shop Channel. The music that plays while scrolling through the Wii Shop has captured the imagination of many remixers and musicians on the internet and has become a brilliant meme (in my opinion)! The music is layered with musical jokes with it’s irregular rhythms, stop-start fragments of melody and jazzy harmony, which ultimately has led to fans remixing the music in different musical styles, shifting pitches, elongating the rest and other types of musical experimentation.

Totaka’s career in video game music has truly added to the enjoyment of all players, who come across his music and it demonstrates how a good soundtrack can make even the most musically unaware people love music.

Here is a variety of YouTube remixes for your enjoyment and amusement: