with it in a complete vacuum and that music doesn't inherit the emotional and narrative charge of its contexts, which greatly informs the listening experience of all music as a general rule, they may be able to trick themselves into believing the statement makes sense.

different roles from, yes, pure background ornamentation, to what are essentially proper operatic pieces at the forefront of the narrative. I guess if someone conflated all that and assumed only the former exists and then also pretended that the only valid mode of listening to music is to engage

Very infuriating statement. I was trying to think of a reply myself, but I think a core problem here is that this idea is just so sweepingly reductive it's really difficult to respond to. There are so many different types of video games, and in all of them music acts differently and fulfills

Relevant image: (go play project silverfish)