The reason why we're suddenly seeing a bunch of indie video games – particularly American indie video games – using vintage music is because the US finally has a public domain in sound recordings.
For context, until 1972, there was no federal copyright regime in the US for sound recordings; intellectual property law for sound recordings was devolved to the individual states, meaning there were fifty different sets of rules that might apply to any given recording, and some states allowed sound recordings to be protected for an indefinite term – i.e., in essence, perpetual copyright without expiration.
What changed in 1972 was the Sound Recording Amendment, which established unified federal copyright on sound recordings for the first time, but which allowed any pre-existing state-level copyrights for sound recordings published prior to February 15th, 1972 to run for their full term. Since most state-level sound recording copyrights had no fixed term (see above), this was capped at the "publication plus 95 years" rule which applies to other federal copyrights – with the twist that the 95-year cap on previously perpetual sound recording copyrights would count from 1972, not from the date of publication.
This effectively meant that no sound recordings in the US would enter the public domain until February 15th, 2067 – which doesn't do anyone a whole lot of good right now!
Fast forward to 2018, when another piece of federal legislation, the Music Modernisation Act, was passed. Though this act was mainly concerned with streaming royalties and such, it also contained provisions to grandfather certain sound recordings into the public domain earlier than the Sound Recording Amendment's all-or-nothing 2067 deadline. Specifically:
On January 1st, 2022, all sound recordings published before 1923 would enter the public domain
Sound recording published from 1923 through 1946 will enter the public domain 100 years after the date of first publication
Sound recordings published from 1947 through 1956 will enter the public domain 110 years after the date of first publication
In practice, what this means is:
All sound recordings first published before 1923 entered the public domain last year, on January 1st, 2022;
This year, 2023, is a "gap year" in which no sound recordings enter the public domain (i.e., being the 100th and final year of protection for sound recordings first published in 1923); and
On January 1st of next year – that is, January 1st of 2024 – new batches of sound recordings will begin to enter the US public domain on a yearly basis for the first time in history, starting with sound recordings first published in 1923.
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