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[KingZog3]

I guess I understand your POV, in which the music is not separable from the game as a whole.  To me they are separable. 

Most computer games can be played by a deaf person without any workaround, but few games could be easily played by a blind person (without some intense hack).

You can play it, but sometimes the music is a part of the mechanics (for example, in many of Frictional Games' survival horror games, the music changes whenever an enemy is not present/mindlessly wandering/searching for you/chasing you, and that information is useful quite often when you're dealing with an actual enemy and sometimes it's used to trick you even when there isn't an actual enemy), and sometimes it has subtle meanings (can't think of an example from any specific game right now, but at least in theory it would be possible to use a theme associated with a character's death when another character finds out about a board game called Dominion to imply that his previous life has come to an end or something, and a lot of games use music that's inspired by other music to create connections, for example Jade Empire uses music that's clearly influenced by Far Eastern music).

Plus, there are games in which music is actually the primary thing (like music videos, but with games instead of videos).

Also think of Left 4 Dead. The various zombies make sounds. You'd almost always stumble on a witch if you weren't warned earlier. Left 4 Dead does include dialogue with subtitle though, but the point is that sound is vital to many games. Not board games, or strategy games, but action game and most puzzle games use sound to enhance the game, not just play mindlessly boring music on a infinite loop.

[flies]

Certainly *diegetic* sounds in FPS or RPGs or WoW or whatever often provide useful cues in addition to enhancing that "immersive" experience, and in puzzle games the sounds are content-ful.  I would distinguish both cases from background music, but I do acknowledge that "background music" can in fact track with the game action, as in different music for battle vs exploration as a simple example.  I agree that game designers can use music very intentionally, and i'm missing out on that when i turn the music off. 

I would never advocate anybody adopt my approach, and I totally understand that it would harm the gaming experience for some.  I just really don't like the majority of music I find in games.  Perhaps also coloring my experience is the fact that I play very few high-end games.