Classifying Game Music

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Video Game Music

This final chapter considers the ways in which video game music has rapidly entered the concert repertoire, and what that change might mean for how listeners, critics, and musicians understand classical music. In the wake of successful long-running concert tours such as Video Games Live (which pairs local orchestras with a traveling multimedia show) and Final Symphony, many financially strapped orchestras have embraced game music as a way of reaching out to millennial audiences, much to the chagrin of some traditionally minded audience members. Moreover, some groups have begun to advocate for reclassifying game music as classical, thus breaking down persistent barriers between high and low arts.

Ludomusicology

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-35
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Fernández-Cortés
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Video Game Music

In the past two decades, the study of video game music has come into its own and gained acceptance in the academic community. This subdiscipline, now commonly referred as ludomusicology, is still attempting basic questions concerning how it can be researched. This article aims to present the current situation and to reflect about some of the main lines of research related to the music of video games and their culture, a field of ongoing research that has received little attention in Hispanophone academia up to the present time. This article was originally published in Anuario Musical 75 (2020): 181–99 and has been translated for the Journal of Sound and Music in Games. https://doi.org/10.3989/anuariomusical.2020.75.09

The Atari VCS

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth B. McAlpine
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Hardware Design ◽  
Living Room ◽  
Home Video ◽  
Video Game Music ◽  
Sound Chip ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the Atari VCS, the machine that took video games out of the arcades and into the living room and established Atari as the dominant player in the home video games industry, at least for a time. It examines the context that surrounded the birth of the Atari VCS and how that influenced its hardware design, in turn shaping both the sound and people’s expectations of video game music. The Atari’s sound chip, the Television Interface Adaptor, gave the Atari VCS what might charitably be described as a ‘characterful’ voice. By reviewing the hardware, this chapter explores how and why the Atari VCS sounded just the way it did, and by exploring some of the games that were released for the platform the chapter shows how, while sound games did indeed sound dreadful, with a little musical ingenuity they could work wonderfully as game soundtracks.

scholarly journals Soaring Through the Sky

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Video Game Music ◽  
Analytical Potential

In this article, I explore the analytical potential of musical topics and tropes in the study of video game music. Following Neumeyer (2015), Almén (2008), and Hatten (1994), I establish a methodology with which to approach musical topics in video game music. By way of a case study, I begin by defining the soaring topic through a historical and cultural examination of flying in cinema and video games. Flying, and more specifically soaring, has been a staple in film from the earliest days of cinema, and the music that accompanies it is also found in video games that prominently feature flying. I then engage the music of flying sequences in two specific video games, Final Fantasy IV (1991) and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011). The resulting analyses demonstrate that this approach helps to unpack the complex narratives found in video games.

scholarly journals Use of Progressive Rock in Donkey Kong Country (1994)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Rock Music ◽  
Background Music ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Video Game Music ◽  
Strong Focus ◽  
Progressive Rock ◽  
Oxford University Press

Whereas most of Nintendo’s music from the 1990s used basic looping structure and simple chiptune-reminiscent sounds, Donkey Kong Country (1994), composed by British composer David Wise rather than by Nintendo’s in-house composition team, featured texturally more complex music, including features characteristic of the 1970s/80s progressive rock style such as short repeated melodies and chord progressions with layering (Collins 44).  For example, in “Fear Factory” (Figure 1), we hear a repeated chord progression of (VI, iv, i) underneath a faster eighth-note melody. Very little harmonic movement occurs and the focus is more on the melodic layers that occur in this top voice. In addition, “Fear Factory” includes unconventional punk, “mechanic/industrial”, and “glitch” noises that emphasize melodic content (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v18pEFQb3EM&t=45s). As William Cheng discusses in Sound Play, the use of such unconventional sounds often contribute to a feeling of dissociation and alienation in the player, and create a divide between diegetic (that is, music the characters are aware of) and non-diegetic (that is, “background” music) soundscapes (Cheng 98-9). While this is not a direct element of prog-rock, both industrial and prog-rock music styles feature a strong focus on texture. Collins speculates that this may have been an attempt by Nintendo to capitalize on the ‘edgier’ market of other game producers such as Sega (Collins 46). In this paper, an analysis of form, melodic structure, and instrumentation from Donkey Kong Country’s “Treetop Rock” and “Fear Factory” will demonstrate features atypical of Nintendo style, which normally features catchy tunes, simple instrumentation, and pop-inspired harmonies. Figure 1: e-:  VI               iv                      I                                       VI                    ivBibliography Cheng, William. Sound Play: Video Games and the Musical Imagination. The Oxford Music/media Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Collins, Karen. Game Sound an Introduction to the History, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008.

Canon Anxiety?

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-99
Author(s):  
Karen M. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Music History ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Music Video ◽  
Original Game ◽  
Video Game Music ◽  
The People

Canons—of music, video games, or people—can provide a shared pool of resources for scholars, practitioners, and fans; but the formation of canons can also lead to an obscuring or devaluing of materials and people outside of a canon. The four authors in this colloquy interrogate issues of canons relating to video game music and sound from a variety of perspectives. Each author considers an aspect of canonization and argues for a wider purview. In “Rewritable Memory: Concerts, Canons, and Game Music History,” William Gibbons examines the ways in which concerts of video game music may create canons and reinforce particular historical narratives. In “On Canons as Music and Muse,” Julianne Grasso views the music originally presented in a video game as itself a type of canon and argues that official and fan arrangements of original game music may provide windows into lived experiences of play. In “The Difficult, Uncomfortable, and Imperative Conversations Needed in Game Music and Sound Studies,” Hyeonjin Park highlights issues of diversity and representation in the field of video game music and sound studies, with respect to the people and music that make up the subjects of the field, the people who produce scholarship in the field, and the people who engage with game music and sound. In “Canon Anxiety?” Karen Cook pulls together various issues of academic canons to question the scope, focus, and diversity of the growing field in which the Journal of Sound and Music in Games exists.

The Difficult, Uncomfortable, and Imperative Conversations Needed in Game Music and Sound Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-94
Author(s):  
Hyeonjin Park
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Music History ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Music Video ◽  
Original Game ◽  
Video Game Music ◽  
The People

Canons—of music, video games, or people—can provide a shared pool of resources for scholars, practitioners, and fans; but the formation of canons can also lead to an obscuring or devaluing of materials and people outside of a canon. The four authors in this colloquy interrogate issues of canons relating to video game music and sound from a variety of perspectives. Each author considers an aspect of canonization and argues for a wider purview. In “Rewritable Memory: Concerts, Canons, and Game Music History,” William Gibbons examines the ways in which concerts of video game music may create canons and reinforce particular historical narratives. In “On Canons as Music and Muse,” Julianne Grasso views the music originally presented in a video game as itself a type of canon and argues that official and fan arrangements of original game music may provide windows into lived experiences of play. In “The Difficult, Uncomfortable, and Imperative Conversations Needed in Game Music and Sound Studies,” Hyeonjin Park highlights issues of diversity and representation in the field of video game music and sound studies, with respect to the people and music that make up the subjects of the field, the people who produce scholarship in the field, and the people who engage with game music and sound. In “Canon Anxiety?” Karen Cook pulls together various issues of academic canons to question the scope, focus, and diversity of the growing field in which the Journal of Sound and Music in Games exists.

On Canons as Music and Muse

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-86
Author(s):  
Julianne Grasso
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Music History ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Music Video ◽  
Original Game ◽  
Video Game Music ◽  
The People

Canons—of music, video games, or people—can provide a shared pool of resources for scholars, practitioners, and fans; but the formation of canons can also lead to an obscuring or devaluing of materials and people outside of a canon. The four authors in this colloquy interrogate issues of canons relating to video game music and sound from a variety of perspectives. Each author considers an aspect of canonization and argues for a wider purview. In “Rewritable Memory: Concerts, Canons, and Game Music History,” William Gibbons examines the ways in which concerts of video game music may create canons and reinforce particular historical narratives. In “On Canons as Music and Muse,” Julianne Grasso views the music originally presented in a video game as itself a type of canon and argues that official and fan arrangements of original game music may provide windows into lived experiences of play. In “The Difficult, Uncomfortable, and Imperative Conversations Needed in Game Music and Sound Studies,” Hyeonjin Park highlights issues of diversity and representation in the field of video game music and sound studies, with respect to the people and music that make up the subjects of the field, the people who produce scholarship in the field, and the people who engage with game music and sound. In “Canon Anxiety?” Karen Cook pulls together various issues of academic canons to question the scope, focus, and diversity of the growing field in which the Journal of Sound and Music in Games exists.

Scoring for Film and Video Games

2013 ◽  
pp. 662-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald H. Sadoff
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Film Music ◽  
Film Scores ◽  
Video Game Music ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
Post Production ◽  
Compositional Styles

This article appears in the Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media edited by Carol Vernallis, Amy Herzog, and John Richardson. The music for Hollywood feature films and “Triple A” video games has undergone an extraordinary transformation over the past decade. The proliferation of digital technologies has spawned innovative ways of creating film music and has redefined the post-production landscape. Through interviews with prominent practitioners, the soundtrack is illuminated by accounts of compositional and post-production processes drawn from real-world contexts. What becomes clear is that the collaborative efforts of composers and post-production professionals are now indispensible for the channeling of an expanding array of technologies that are being used toward creative ends. Answering to the demands of a dynamic nonlinear medium, the “adaptive music” composed for video games diverges notably in creative practices and modular workflow engaged in by its composers and programmers. These relatively new innovative ways of creating film scores and video game music cross-pollinate, drawing from their respective technologies, proprietary production techniques, and eclectic compositional styles.

scholarly journals Finding Untitled Goose Game’s Dynamic Music in the World of Silent Cinema

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Dan Golding
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Musical Performances ◽  
Solo Piano ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Musical Accompaniment

There are three unusual things about Untitled Goose Game’s music. First, for an independent video game produced by a small studio, the music is dynamic and reactive to a high degree. The game uses pre-recorded, non-generative musical performances and yet will respond to onscreen events within a buffer of only a few seconds at maximum. Second, the music takes inspiration not from other dynamic music systems in video games but from the varying practices of musical accompaniment for silent cinema and early comedy, aiming to replicate affect rather than process. Finally, the music for Untitled Goose Game takes the unusual step of adapting pre-existing classical music from the public domain—in this case, six of Claude Debussy’s Préludes for solo piano—rather than creating an original score intended from its conception to be dynamic. Accordingly, this article outlines the dynamic music system at work in Untitled Goose Game and the influence drawn on for this system from non–video game approaches to musical accompaniment. The article discusses the varying practices for music for the silent era of cinema, the theoretical frameworks used to conceptualize these many divergent approaches, and how closely we might recognize their legacy at work in Untitled Goose Game’s soundtrack. Ultimately, this article argues that by looking to approaches beyond more familiar debates about dynamic music for video games, Untitled Goose Game helped shortcut familiar problems that confront developers and composers when working with dynamic and reactive music.

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