Civilization IV / VI - Zulu / Baba Yetu | Reacting To Video Game Music! 

This might just be my new favourite video of yours. Not just because of the great music, but because how much your reactions mirror my own. I'm always thinking about how much you'd blow people's minds by going back in time and showing them modern technology (or maybe you'd get burned as a witch). Even going back to seeing Kid Bio and showing him the FF7 Remake/Rebirth games on PS5 compared to the original on PS1 - his tiny mind would explode! As for Civilization itself, this game is more around guiding your nation through history - from the Stone Age to modern times and beyond. You choose your civilization at the start (or randomise it) and have a huge selection such as the Romans, Greeks, English Russian, Incan, Zulu, Japanese, Australian - the list goes on for ages! You build cities, set up trade, send out ships and scouts to explore the world, and meet other civilizations. The most recent version introduced dark and golden ages, depending on how well your civ is performing, as well as having to deal with volcanoes erupting, sea levels rising, and extreme weather. In case it wasn't clear, I love these games, and have been playing them since I was a kid, so I'm very excited about Civilization 7 coming out next year! Now I need to choose more tracks for you to hear!

Now you know why Baba Yetu was the first song from a video game OST to win a Grammy!

Baba Yetu is "Our Father" in Swahili. It's basically the Lords Prayer in Swahili. I use to listen to this song all the time. Every once in a while I'll catch myself humming it present day.

The first Civilization game came out in 1991 and it solidified my love of geography and history. Baba Yetu is the main theme from Civilization 4, that came out in 2005. Fun fact: In 2011, the Grammys didn't have a category for video game music, and the song was only able to be submitted under the "Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals" category because Christopher Tin released it on his 2009 album "Calling All Dawns". The Grammys only made a "Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media" category in 2023, 12 years after Baba Yetu won it's award.

Civ is the ultimate "Just one, more, turn" game series.

In terms of genre, Civilization is considered to be the forefather of the "4X" genre (meaning Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate). The ones closest to it aren't things like SimCity, but more like Stellaris, Europa Universalis, or Crusader Kings. The goal of the Civilization games is to take over the world, more or less, roleplaying one of the major world civilizations as they grow from the Stone Age to the Modern Age. While in the original Civ game the only real way to do that was through violent conquest, the games have gradually introduced new victory conditions, including through diplomacy (by making enough people your allies), economics (by making so much money that you effectively control the global economy), cultural dominance (by making everyone adopt your cultural ideals and values), or scientific advancement (by successfully becoming the first civilization to explore the stars).

Not only the song but the video itself also keeps me coming back to it. That transition from space age back to the stone age also blew my mind the first time I saw it.

So, Baba Yetu, as one of the many people who recommended it at some point or another, let me expand. It is the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili. ‘Baba Yetu’ translates to ‘Our Father’ Additionally, not only was it the first to be nominated for and win a Grammy, but it was also the only piece of video game music to win a Grammy at all until they introduced a category specifically for game music.

Baba Yetu is one of those songs that really captured a wider audience and (I believe) drew more attention to video games as an art form. I don't know if you heard of Video Games Live? It's a concert series that does orchestral renditions of video game music. The organizers did a wonderful version of Baba Yetu, but also music from Nier, Metal Gear, Halo etc.

I'm so grateful I had something this authentic and genuine as my first experience to this sort of music. Time to go play some Civ once more :D. For the record Baba Yetu is the theme song for Civ IV from 2005

The first Civilization sounded like a dialup modem, its likely older than you Jesse.

Civilization has such a special place in my heart. Been playing since IV after my dad introduced me to it when I was a kid. I went on to play and love all of them since, especially having hundreds of hours of playtime in VI on Switch and PS4. I'm SO hyped for the reveal of VII in August and release in 2025. 😊

Highly recommend you check out a live performance of Baba Yetu for yourself, especially this one: 'Christopher Tin Conducts "Baba Yetu" (Live at Llangollen)'. It's stunning and so powerful to see the lead singer and full choir singing it. Just, very human.

The Baba Yetu video almost always makes me cry, what our civilization has accomplished is so beautiful

Hear you talk about how the advancements in technology and stuff is incredible and scary at the same time makes me think you would enjoy the actual cinematic openings of civilization specifically 4 and 5 since baba yetus video was good for 6

Just to expand a bit on the comment that was touched on briefly at the start, the studio had native musicians play a lot of the Ancient Era and Medieval Era for their respective cultures/civilizations on traditional instruments for Civ6. A lot of the Ancient Era cultures are voices only because the voice was the first instrument of course! Really respectful to the cultures and a fantastic way to really bring in a lot of the power and feelings behind a lot of the tracks. Plus, I've learned a crapload about cultures I had never even heard of before!

Civ 6 has a great OST in general, there is so much great cultural representation in it (as yes, the songs arent totally original, most are based on folk songs of the respective nation with some original connecting bits and passages worked in), and the progression through the ages in terms of instrumentalization, tempo etc. often tells the story of that nation moving through the ages really well. My personal favourites are the German Industrial, Hungarian Medieval, Macedon Industrial and Roman Atomic theme. I know Roman Atomic sounds weird as a concept, but you just gotta hear it to understand.

Baba Yetu bros, we are so BACK!

I love how uplifting and positive the music is without the lyrics having to tell you how to feel.

Heh there it is. Back when ya did the Sogno di Volare react, I figured someone would have Baba Yetu in the pipeline. Christopher Tin man. One of the legendary composers of our time. His works are beautiful and human

Just to give you some context since you wandered about those things in the video. Civilization game series is about you taking over as a sort of "eternal ruler" of a country; or a civilization, rather, hence the name. It is a turn based game not too different from board games mechanically, that has you rule the country since right before it founds the first settlement, through the ages, right to the modern era and a bit beyond. The game map is the whole world, except it is usually not our Earth, the map is generated. But the civilizations you control are actually the ones that we know well from our real history, and you are free to lead them in a different way than what historically happened to them. You most likely will considering the different circumstances. The first game in the series is fairly old, released in 1991, and while it had some good tracks, the style of the OST was fairly generic. In the later parts of the series the soundtrack often takes interesting and fresh ideas. For example, Baba Yetu is a Christian prayer "Our Father" translated to Swahili and arranged with various instruments, including some world music elements, I believe. It is used as a main menu theme in Civilization 4 and, in a sense, reflects much of the spirit of the Civilization of a franchise as a whole, this essence of a melting pot of various cultures and traits. The OST commonly features arrangements of various famous pieces from all over the world. Like the Zulu themes used at various stages of the game as background music when you play as Zulu being based on Zulu folk songs in Civilization 6. Or the Spanish themes from the very same Civilization 6 being based on a famous classical guitar piece "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" by Francisco Tárrega.

About the whole "space and our insignificance" thing: when the universe was "discovered", in the sense of it being understood as a vast thing where Earth is floating and not just "oh the sky is basically a blue/black painting and there's dots sometimes that appear out of nowhere" and when people figured out that Earth was spinning around the Sun and not the other way around, it genuinely ushered in an era of depression among philosopers of the time, due to our newly-realized "insignificance" in the universe. It took many years for new philosopers to come and turn things around, as they then started saying that you don't have to think about us being insignificant (even if that might be true), but that the vastness of space also symbolizes a vastness of possibilities and limitless discoveries and excitement. Just a curious thing I remembered from some philosophy classes I took years ago. The universe is so freaking big it depressed philosopers as a group lmao.

The industrial themes are always super cool, because they are these big explosive crescendos almost, because it's finally the end of the "dark ages" and the beginning of the higher level of technology. I always loved how Civ represented these nations beginning to come into their art, culture and tech.

If they use unique music for each civ, there's gotta be a big ost.

It’s magical. It’s also true that as well as being in Xhosa language, a lot of the other songs in the game are in dead/dying languages. The Sumeria song is the first musical composition ever discovered.

I never played any civilization, but damn every time I hear Baba Yetu, I get moved to tears. idk why exactly, but man, it just hits me right in the feels.

I felt called out when you said people would feel emotional listening to Baba Yetu while I'm crying my eyes out. Wonderful video.

Baba Yetu is just the first song from Christopher Tin's first album, "Calling All Dawns". It has 12 songs in total, each in a different language. All of them are awesome and worth listening to, I particularly love the last 4. Baba Yetu was part of the Civ 4 which came out in 2005, the full album came out in 2009, so the rest of the album aren't used in any video game.

"Envagin" is a great portmanteau lol Any yeah, while as a whole game music deserves more mainstream recognition, Baba Yetu's such a crowd-pleasing choice it's hard to find or 'envagin' someone who could hate it... The song, the history it reps, and the game itself is such an abbreviation and summation to so much of humanity, it's a perfect mix.

Ive always said Baba Yetu is the theme song to Earth/Humanity. So amazing

Civ is a game that fast forwards time, play for one hour and suddenly it's tomorrow

13:08 as a few people have already said but to answer your question. The civilization is a "4X game" (name of the genre. ^•^) meaning that the actions you take throughout the game are spent over many many years in game time, and the idea being that you're building a nation or "civilization" as it were. :p In a bid as much as humanity has to try to stand the test of time. The game consists mostly of building world wonders, armies, cities, trade routes, an engaging in diplomacy with other nations. Of course just like the real world sometimes diplomacy doesn't work or maybe you're a warlike civilization and so, just like history itself you may go conquering and in turn, cause their civilization to be lost to the annals of History. To make my long explanation short, the point of the game is to essentially emulate a giant what if scenario in actual history. What is Shaka Zulu did make it to the modern era? What if Lincoln was never assassinated and decided to be an emperor? (Also he started somehow in the ancient era but we're not going to talk about that..... XD) and because every game is on a randomly generated world, each game can change depending on what strategies you decide to pursue. ^•^

The civ intro when paired with the song always makes you feel, i highly recommend rewatching dreams of flight as the civ 6 intro instead of the version you did. Very inspirational. The good news is civ 7 is next year, the better news is we will get another trailer and intro song.

People have already kinda talked to the nature of the game, it's absolutely about humanity and what we are as a species. What's cool is just how deeply the music reflects that. Each civilization has music based on traditional songs from that culture, and as your progress through time in the game, the versions of these themes change as well, from bare-bones with just one or two instruments in the Stone Age to big Orchestral scores in the Industrial Age and then even building on top of that with electronic instrumentation and modern flair for the Modern / Nuclear Age (8-Bit Music Theory has a great quick video showing an example). That, combined with the high production value, really helps the immersion and gives each civilization an identity beyond differently colored units, and also makes it feel like you really are progressing through time as you unlock new technologies in the game. Baba Yetu is incredible and is also part of an awesome album called "Calling All Dawns" by Christopher Tin, which follows the cycle of life, death, and rebirth (Baba Yetu is the opener), with each song flowing into the next. His music spans tons of languages and similarly pulls from cultural texts for the lyrics, with Baba Yetu being the Lord's Prayer in Swahili, as others have mentioned.

Civ 3 was my first civ game that my dad introduced to me when I was 6. Civ (and Sid Meier’s games in general) always have great soundtracks.

Since Christopher Tin produced Baba Yetu for IV and the first big musical vibes for the franchise it's a bit like FF in a way, top notch music is part of the core identity of the game, so they tend to go full steam on it for every title now. Christopher Tin was back for VI and composed Sogno di Volare which you listened to a while ago. Those are actually part of wider albums he did (Calling of All Dawns for Baba Yetu and To Shiver The Sky for Sogno). World music is underrated. I strongly suggest to listen to the Maori themes (industrial/atomic) for Civ VI. It's just... :chef's kiss: Or if you're more after how turning a lullaby into an evil sounding empire theme (Norway, industrial/atomic), there is that too.

I was lucky enough to see the Civ6 album performed in concert some years back, with Christopher Tin and everything. Such a good soundtrack and I've never even played any Civ games. There are some other tracks that are really excellent. One has a French title, think it's called Rassemblens nous, or something. Another off the top of my head is Kia Hora.

one of the things i love about Civ is that while it is a strategy game you dont have to conquer if you dont want to, my favorite victory is the science victory. its also just fun to build your cities, connect them and interact with your neighbors (in so much as you can interact with them)

Civ is just goated in terms of paying respect to cultures even in gameplay and osts

"I feel like this whole game is about human existence" Its called Civilization, no? :P Civ 5's Baba Yetu is definitely worthy of being the first grammy winner for OST Such a beautiful and uplifting song that just makes you want to build stuff and enjoy life

Music so good it gave you an existential revelation

Civilization might be the first PC game I recall playing. Sid Meier certainly keyed in on the human experience with this series.

To explain what Civ is simply, you're not building a city you're building a Nation. Economy, Technology, Human Resources, Historical Progress, Military Innovations are all Factors you both utilize and advance as you play. Your nation, which are all based on our current world (and some that are no longer with us) are including, Zulu for example, also India, Germany, Russia, the Mayans, Romans, the Egyptians. It's very in-depth. There's a city building mechanic, but it's a LOT more bare bones than something like Sim City. The inner workings of the city are done in a more "overview" way, you can make a "Mining City" or a "Cultural Hub" but it's very hands off, they've expanded cities a LOT in recent entries.

Yeah math was harder for me in school, but history was one of my favorite subjects. God knows I've only submerged myself in as much world history as I could get my hands on throughout my life. The more you learn, the less you realize you know. If I was more confident I'd like this genre of games, I'd have been all over the Civ series by now.

To your question about Grammys, they recently added the "Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media" in 2023. Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok won in 2023, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor won in 2024. Many would argue the nominee lists were missing most of the best soundtracks, but it's still nice that there's at least a dedicated category now.

I haven't heard the Zulu theme until now, it has such a 'welcome home' feeling. Baba Yetu has always been my fav theme in the series. I remember booting up the game and 4 hours went by and I hadn't played at all, just listened to the song and the beautiful cutscene

I'm always up for some civ!

As far as genres go, I'd say that Civilization is a 4X game (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate)

"Does anyone know what language this is?" I'm pretty sure it is Zulu. Which, you know, makes sense given it is meant to be for the Zulu, otherwise it would be pretty weird. And yeah, clicks are common in Bantu languages, at least southern Bantu languages. Civ IV is a 4X game (short for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate). Basically, you start in 4000 BCE, build different cities, learn technology, and compete with (or perhaps go to war with) other civilizations. Honestly, this version of Baba Yetu I don't like very much. It's the Soweto Gospel Choir version, which IMO lacks a lot of the instrumental characterization of the original, leaving a lot of sections feeling more flat. The original version is one of my favorite video game tracks of all time though.

It's less city builder, more empire builder... And it's less of a sim, more of a large turn-based strategy game lol... Although there is a management aspect... You set your tax rate, where you invest your funds, you chose something for your settlements to build... Just be careful of Ghandi, he'll nuke you to dust if you let him lol... Well he used to, they might have fixed that bug now ^_^;;... But yeah, you start in like the stone age and try to expand and survive into the near future... I think in the original games it was like 2100 AD that the game finished on... In the original game I think the main three victory conditions were to take over the world, destroying all opposition, surviving with the highest score or building a colony ship to send to Alpha Centauri or whatever lol... And you'd have to do it before any of the other civilisations too... Later games added in things like diplomatic victory (I think you had to build the United Nations then get voted as the chairman or something), cultural victory (where people love your culture and join you by choice) and Religious victory (you can set up a religion that the world adopts or something)... I think the original came out on MSDos, though we had it on the Commodore Amiga... I think the original PC version used the internal PC noises for sound... I forget... Either way, I don't think the sound in it was particularly great lol. The sequel was a CD-Rom though, with recorded CD tracks used for music, dramatically upping the quality over the original... I forget when the games came out, but I think Civ 2 was around the mid-90s, so the first game was probably early 90s? I can't be bothered to double check ^_^;;

Duuuuude I LOVE the Zulu's them from Civ 6 and I'm glad to see others finally experiencing its greatness. Hopefully the Maori's themes come up soon on here.

Hey Jesse! Do you react to video game music for a currently unreleased game at all?

Sometimes I would fire up Civilization Revolution and just let Baba Yetu play on loop because it's just that good. Ngl, still upset Civ Rev never got a sequel. It was so well done.

I guess that gets asked a lot, but how does he make sure the recommendations aren't shit without listening to them beforehand?

Looking forward to the finale of xenoblade..glad you been enjoying it..hope to see you play 2 soon

I wish if you can hear Waloyo Yamoni from him. It's not from a game, though.

My dude, you are absolutely sleeping on stellar blade ost, just a fact.

Did people ask to listen to Zulu track because of amongus?

I feel like you are often given questionable song suggestions from great soundtracks, but not this time. Zulu rules