While original video game music is generally awesome, the regular stuff has its place in games as well -- especially in trailers! A song with at least some popularity serves to amp up the viewer with instant familiarity, and helps shape his or her conception of the game. Here are just five songs I think work really great in their respective trailers -- more to come!
Bayonetta
Short but sweet, a single verse from La Roux -- In for the Kill (Skream’s Lets Get Ravey Remix) paints a perfect image of what to expect from Bayonetta. I want gun-shoes.
Watch
Borderlands (first trailer)
We begin our journey into Pandora with Cage the Elephant -- Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked, which helps illustrate a world where nothing’s right and everybody’s out for a buck.
Watch
Borderlands (second trailer)
The second Borderlands trailer thumps along with DJ Champion -- No Heaven in the background. This trailer continues the musical imagery of a post-apocalyptic world with nothing above.
Watch
Dead Space
Wow. An initially mellow track, Sigur Ros -- Death Song (part 1) helps create the most haunting game trailer I’ve ever seen. If you don’t have a pit in your stomach and an unexplainable feeling of dread after watching it, your brain may need some recalibration.
Watch
Gears of War
Gary Jules -- Mad World is on my short-list of songs that make me want to hurl myself off the nearest bridge. It’s still a great song despite it being so depressing, and it has been put to very good use by this trailer. Few tracks are able to invoke such a hopeless, defeatist view of the world.
- Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead - January 11th, 2010
- Rygar - Den of Sagila Music - January 5th, 2010
Hey there! I'm the resident web developer and site administrator. I like fixing stuff. I am also obsessed with retro gaming and sometimes wish I could see everything in 8 bits. 
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook
I must submit one! This Assassin’s Creed 2 trailer that uses Genesis by Justice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a12e3iKzqlw
Totally using that for part 2! Thank you!
I still can’t get the Chu Chu Rocket ad song out of my head, all these years later. I hadn’t seen the 2nd Borderlands ad, but the first ad and the Bayonetta ad song are hypnotic. And Gears of War still has one of the best ads for a game yet. Oh also, don’t forget to put links to the YouTube videos for phones and browsers that hate embedding!
Ooh yeah! Stupid iPhone browser and its non-compliance!
There’s an extended version of that Bayonetta ad here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FMfX–jWBo
Awesome game, great trailer.