Much of my fund memories of playing WoW has music from places like Teldrisil, Darkshore, Westfall and many zones in Northrend.
However, I find myself the past couple of years completely turning off music.
Now, I do not think the music sounds bad. It’s actually really good. But I find it distracting.
Game music IMHO should seamlessly become part of the ambiance of the environment. A good example of this is Tavern music when you go in an Inn or Tavern. Its music that fits that areas environment.
Modern WoW music (with the exception of a couple of zones) just feels too busy and conflicts with the zones ambient background sounds. Now, this is clearly subjective and my opinion. I dont find older zones music distracting. Maybe it’s due to the music being less complex, or less instruments.
Anyway, again. I think the music sounds great. But I alway end up turning it off when trying to focus on something. No matter how I adjust the music, ambience and other sound levels. I end up just turning off the music.
Anyone else end up doing this?
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I only find it distracting when trying to listen to my own music. I really like the music. In fact, I tend to level in Zandalar because of how much I enjoy the music and that big beautiful temple.
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Not all the time. Some of the new zones offer good ambient music, such as the Emerald Dream, that I can vibe to really easily.
But when I do high M+…
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I agree with this, although I acknowledge it as an opinion. I don’t think I cope the same way, but when compared to the atmospheric feel of music in Silithus or Ahn’Qiraj or Northrend or Blackrock Mountain, I find the new forward music less pleasant and to be more distracting to gameplay.
Yes, I just play something else. Sorry, music team.
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I completely agree. Tonally there are issues with the music. I shouldn’t be hearing emotionally sweeping music when I’m talking to a vendor in some random town, it just doesn’t work. On the other hand, that same sweeping emotional music CAN be good for a cutscene… but the music in WoW isn’t used in a pointed way, it’s random for the most part.
At Blizzard. Good music at the wrong time, will transform said good music into bad music, while simultaneously potentially ruining what ever mood you were trying to inflect.
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I feel like this is more so since WoD than in earlier expansions. And I also feel like the scores are incomplete: You’re getting the same 4-5 bars on repeat.
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After around…Legion I would say I’m having a hard time remembering WoD’s soundtrack, I think they started really enjoying to use of certain themes as a musical base. In Legion it was the main beat of Canticle of Sacrifice, or Anduin’s Theme, as an example.
While I do like that it gives each expansion a consistent theme throughout, it does make all the tracks feel less unique.
The Dragon Isles seem to be a step back to the more atmospheric music of classic WOW, rather than the epic scores of Cata through Shadowlands. Although I will say epic scores do have their place, it’s best to have a balance between the two.
I often have my headphones from my laptop next to my personal computer on while I watch a show or movie or youtube, so I don’t always have my computer’s sound on to begin with. That said, I don’t know if I’ve ever disliked any particular music in the game, although I’m sure there are some zones I don’t care for it, overall though I don’t think it’s ever distracted me. Just speaking for myself though, not taking away from anyone else.
I would say more distracting are the mounts or hunter pets that make their noises over and over, or when I’m trying to enjoy the music and then have to fight something or hear other people nearby doing their thing, taking away from the vibe. 
The hunter pets that THUDHTUDTHUDTHUDTHUD need to be changed.
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Tbh I almost never have the music on anymore. But I’d say probably the reason I turn it off is because it is xD
Honestly, I haven’t noticed. The music team has usually done a fine job from where I sit.
The space between the creator and the observer is a very interesting one. We can both listen to the exact same piece of music at the exact same time and take a completely different impression away. And neither of us are entirely right, or entirely wrong.
I don’t have music enabled, so I wouldn’t know.
I usually just play my own music or listen to podcasts while playing.
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I’ve never heard the music of wow because I have the music option turned off. Instead I’m listing to 12 hours of ambient music I’ve meshed together which happens to include music from Diablo
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If I remember correctly the thuds of the t-rex and big rhinos were A LOT louder back in the day, it was crazy. They made them quieter, but are still pretty annoying sometimes, haha.
Yep right now for certain things it’s still necessary to use the mute annoying WOW sounds addon.
Music is such a big part of the immersion experiance for me that I would never turn it off, even if I didn’t really care for it.
Most WoW music has been excellent and expansions like vanilla (okay I know it’s not an expansion) wrath, cata, mop, wod and bfa even come to mind as having some really memorable themes.
Shadowlands was a bit of a bummer though. I can’t remember any of it’s music and barely noticed it while I was playing. DF also has a lot of forgettable tracks unfortunately. Are they still using the same composer?
I cannot speak for the whole of the Dragonflight soundtrack, but the Amirdrassil raid music is chefs kiss Mmmm! So, so good.
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