As an avid Minecrafter, and someone who has been playing the game for almost as long as its 15-year lifespan, I was incredibly excited to play and pleased with the 1.21 Minecraft update. The new structures, the new blocks, the accompanying features from earlier patches all culminated in what is one of the most refreshing versions of the game in years.
But one thing that comes very apparent if you play the game’s latest version for a long enough time are the new music tracks. Along with the update’s gameplay additions, 12 songs were added to the game. Some of these are Music Disc only, such as Lena Raine’s incredible new track Creator, but others are ambient and will fill your ears as you play and explore.
Minecraft’s new music tracks add a feeling of loneliness to its new Trial Chambers. Credit: Esports.net
Now, I just want to say that hearing some of these songs while playing Minecraft hits so different. Aaron Cherof’s Watcher, Raine’s Endless, and the standout for me, Kumi Tanioka’s Komorebi evoke such a melancholy feel. Much has been said about the speculative lore of Minecraft, as a kind of abandoned and lost world, but these tracks really sell the feeling of being lost and alone so much that it’s kind of stunning.
As someone who spends a lot of his time on a shared Minecraft group server that most of the other members only occasionally visit, there’s something extra poignant about hearing these lonely, atmospheric tracks when wandering a Minecraft world alone.
But there was also something missing with the update. After a few hours, I was certainly hearing more of the new music, but couldn’t remember the last time I heard one of the older Minecraft tracks. Minecraft’s original, iconic soundtrack was made by Daniel “C418” Rosenfeld. Tracks like Mice on Venus, or Sweden are songs that stick in your gut and instantly evoke nostalgia with their simple piano melodies.
After some (slightly unscientific) research, I found that in an hour of playing, I heard none of the ‘classic’ Minecraft themes, and three of the new tracks (Minecraft only plays music in Survival mode every 10-20 minutes). Over the course of three hours, I heard only one track from pre-2020.
So are Mojang quietly removing or filtering the older Minecraft music tracks? It’s certainly plausible. In a 2021 interview, C418 stated that “I have something—I consider it finished—but things have become complicated, especially as Minecraft is now a big property, so I don’t know.”
Later in the year, on his Discord server, the composer stated the following:
“I still want to do stuff for Minecraft, but I’ve never managed to get to an agreement with the big guys. I have a lot of music but only time will tell how we will get it out. It will involve at least 20 lawyers.”
It could be that without an agreement with Microsoft, Mojang’s owners, C418 won’t be making any more Minecraft music, and hasn’t directly contributed since 2018. To prevent any future litigation, Microsoft and Mojang may be filtering out music by C418, albeit slowly, before a full on removal in the future.
It’s a worrying thought, especially for the highly nostalgia driven Minecraft community.
Luckily, Minecraft is also perhaps the most-modded game on the planet, and you can bet that any changes to the music would quickly find a mod to return it to the original form. Additionally, Minecraft unlike perhaps any other game in existence allows players to play almost any version from the game’s history using their launcher, at least in the Java edition. So, you can always go back and experience the older versions, music intact.
But regardless of any reduction in the classics, the new tracks for Minecraft’s 1.21 Tricky Trials update are incredible. Once again, Lena Raine, Kumi Tanioka, and Aaron Cherof have captured the unique sound that makes Minecraft special. But let’s hope these tremendous new songs don’t come at the expense of the game’s history.
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