Are there any villains who have such an awesome victory song that you’re tempted to fight them again and lose, just so that you can hear it again?
For me, it would have to be Citizen Dawn. That martial, pseudo-patriotic anthem she plays after beating you is just so perfect for the Citizens of the Sun, it makes me think that they really deserve to take over the world.
I can officially add La Capitan to this category. Like my first-favorite Environment music, the Mobile Defense Platform, the LC victory theme is slightly ruined by the inclusion of a Theramin section; I find this to be one of the most irritating musical instruments ever invented, and I really wish Jean-Marc didn’t use it so much, as it’s basically nails on a chalkboard to me. But with the exception of the theramin bit, both MDP and LC are extremely high on my favorite-music list.
It has been brought to my attention that I have an unfortunate habit of never thinking to make positive statements, since I am too busy making ones that are like 10 or 20 percent negative, which apparently qualifies as “having nothing nice to say” and so forth. Therefore, to prove that I am in fact capable of being entirely upbeat, on the rare occasions I legitimately have nothing to complain about…
Even though this thread was intended to be about villain songs, here are five, count 'em, FIVE environment themes which I absolutely love, think are completely perfect, and have absolutely nothing negative to say about them. I hope you’re happy about reading this.
Celestial Tribunal, my absolute favorite.
Ruins of Atlantis, a beautiful soothing melody.
Megalopolis, great pastiche of the Superman movie theme, and I like this one slightly better.
Maerynian Refuge. Wonderfully peaceful; I could listen to this for a solid hour if I were meditating or something.
The Final Wasteland. One of my most recent discoveries. Similar to other themes such as the Tomb of Anubis, but with a futuristic twist and a kick of action-movie-esque monster imagery that really takes it above and beyond many nearly-as-awesome songs.
Was that enough positive energy for everyone, or should I start listing favorite Star Trek episodes, restaurants I like eating in, and reciting entire chapters worth of genius writing in the Game of Thrones novels? If all you want is a cotton candy diet, I can be as sugary as the next guy. I like plenty of things, really I do. If my opinion that talking about them would be pointless self-indulgence is not held by others, then I’m more than happy to prattle on endlessly about literally thousands of subjects I think are super cool.
Plague Rat joins this list, now that I’ve managed to lose to him. The theme barely qualifies as music of course, but that’s the point; it’s a wonderful “urban jungle” ambience, and I for one find the squeaking rats as pleasant as any typical birdsong. All hail our glorious rodent overlords.
(Edit: looks at the posting delay Man, I could NOT have timed that better…)
Just for fun, I decided to rank all 27 environment theme songs from favorite to least favorite.
Keep in mind that out of all of these, there are no more than five which I’d say I dislike, and only two where that dislike is strong enough that I’m above a 50% probability of turning the music off when I play there (around five others are dependent on my mood, and the entire top twenty are basically guaranteed I want to hear them, though I might grit my teeth slightly on one small section for a couple otherwise excellent songs). Jean-Marc Giffen is definitely in my top ten, if not five, composers alive and working today; when I don’t like his work, it’s almost certainly due to an intentional style choice which I disagree with, rather than a failing of any sort on his part. If I object to anything about this modern genius, it’s only the fact he’s not getting more work. 
By the way, since I apparently neglected to mention this, my favorite villains music is probably Chokepoint. It’s actively hard to lose to her except on challenge mode, but every time I manage it, I just sit and listen for at least two loops through the song, because it’s just the coolest. Besides the aforementioned Dawn, Rat, and Cap, my other faves are Deadline and the Ennead, with of course an honorable mention for Oblivaeon and his three awesome songs. Not going to list all the villains though, as they’re much more debatable in quality than the environment themes IMO (where would I even begin with the VOTM ones?).
Well, there’s a reason I bought the soundtrack albums. Hoping he does a second “Heroes of the Multiverse” album. Love Expatriette’s song.
Personally, the Vengence themes are my favorite. Fright Train, Proletariat, Hammer and Anvil, and Greezer take top spots, but there are others. Outside of Vengence, La Capitan is the one that’s on my normal playlist.
As for environments, the only ones that have appealed to me have been Wagner and Silver Gulch.
But, I’m a big fan of leitmotifs. That’s part of the reason Final Fantasy 6 is my favorite of the games. Or why Zimmer and Gou get praise for giving Wonder Woman a theme that can match William’s Superman and Elfman’s Batman themes.
I’ll always have a strong fondness for FF6, although personally I prefer FFV for having more depth of gameplay, as well as a story that’s a little more in line with my slightly warped tastes (the romance and tragedy aspects in 6 might work more for a “normal” person, but I’m not wired to appreciate such things, and prefer a straightfoward saving-the-world plot).
Not sure whether you’re referencing the Wonder Woman movie, which I believe had its music created by Rupert Gregson-Williams; that’s the one I think of. That’s one of several films where I’d pay full DVD price just to own the end credits sequence (other examples include Warcraft and Pacific Rim, both of which are by what I consider to be the single best composer in the world, Ramin Djawadi of Iron Man and Game of Thrones fame).
John Williams is still alive, man! 
I do love Jean-Marc’s ability to go all in on a theme. I find Mordengrad hilarious.
Yes, but her theme was created in Batman v Superman (the track is “Is She With You?”). Wonder Woman Main Theme (Official Music Video) - Tina Guo - YouTube
Not going to argue the 5 vs 6 thing. It is taste, but for me I played it when it first came out as FF3 on the SNES, so I 5 came MUCH later.
Gregson-Williams and Djawadi are great. So is Brian Tyler (Transformers Prime and the recent Power Rangers movie). A good new(ish) generation of WONDERFUL soundtrack composers, and gives me hope that things won’t go to crap when we eventually lose John Williams.
I won’t deny that Williams is good, but him and Hans Zimmer and the like don’t qualify to me as the best, and the reason why probably boils down to personal taste and generational differences. I’m sure that to someone who was 8 in 1977 and saw Star Wars for the first time, that music was indelibly awesome and branded on their brain forever. But for me, it is a pleasant but very familiar sort of music that kinda fades into the background and just enhances the experience of the film; I can’t really see myself sitting and listening just to the music. To me, a really great song is one that grabs my attention, not distracting from the work but pushing both it and itself further to the forefront. Djawadi does that, Giffen does that, Gregson does that, and numerous other examples exist, like Yoko Shimamura of Kingdom Hearts and Alan Silvestri of the Brendan Fraser Mummy films.
Interesting – personal choice indeed. For me, Williams clearly fits the bill you laid out and Djawadi fades into the background exactly as you described. I’ve listened to the Star Wars soundtracks countless times just for the music. The Final Duel from RotJ is my all time favorite movie/music emotional crescendo. And Williams is the unquestioned master of motif. The only motifs I can consistently identify from Game of Thrones are the main theme and the Rains of Castamere theme, and the rest all sounds generic to me. But hey, it takes all kinds! (And the GoT theme is terrific.)
Besides Williams, my current favorite composer is Michael Giacchino for the interesting reason that he seems to be able to imitate any style with original music. Want Williams? Rogue One. Want 60s spy thriller? The Incredibles. It took me absurdly long to realize that his 2009 Star Trek theme was not, in fact, a theme I’d been hearing forever in Star Trek but was an original theme of his own that just sounded exactly like it should be a Star Trek theme.
The main title theme from GoT is definitely the best one, but I’m also quite partial to the House Arryn theme, with the opening that sounds like wings beating furiously to take off. I admit that some of the others do blur together a bit.
If you want a master of imitation, look at Weird Al Yankovic’s backing band. His parody lyrics are clever and all, but the skill with which his instrumentalists can mimic a hundred different bands from a dozen genres of music is absolutely bonkers. Whatever he’s paying them, they deserve twice that.