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Game Music Continuing To Gain Recognition
Thanks to Yahoo/Chicago Tribune for their article charting the continued rise in popularity of videogame music. The piece quotes a music agent as saying: "Record companies are realizing that this is the new radio", and another commentator points out: "Consumers would rather download than pay $15 for a CD, leaving the record industry scrambling for revenue. How do they monetize music? License to video games." However, when it comes to stand-alone game soundtrack CDs, "sales aren't earth-shattering yet", and specific numbers are referenced for the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack, of which "...the most popular CD, 'V-Rock,' sold 42,300 copies."
Call me the worst kind of geek, but about all I listen to are Game soundtracks. However this is ill news for myself and others who have similar taste, because it sounds more like companies targetting game platforms for their contemporary licensed crap, rather than original music from various titles getting recognition.
I hope this doesn't phase out the querky and strange genre that is video game music, because it's definitely unique to itself. I'll take classic Zuntata over the lastest hot hits of record-label-X anyday, and I'll cry myself to sleep the next time I play a title who's full score is by some craptacular pop-group. (The Final Fantasy Series is well on it's way on that one).
I liked the Gran Turismo soundtracks -- they make great driving soundtracks (in real life).
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
Not sure what to add to that, but Machinae Supremacy is inspired by game music and they've done game music. But since you've reading this story you knew that already ;-)
As for stand-alone soundtracks for Games I think that's going to be a niche for a very long time, but one that I think is worth having. Jeremy Soule and Inon Zur have done a lot of good music for games (BG, IWD, etc). Robert Holmes did good work on the GK games too (also available on soundtrack in the now somewhat-hard-to-get Gabriel Knight Mysteries (Limited Edition) package).
Belief is the currency of delusion.
The Neskimos do punk rock covers of NES songs
Te Minibossses are more of a ska band. Like the Neskimos, they mainly cover NES era game music.
Hard rock more your style? Try Game Over, a self-described "Nintendo Metal" band. Not very much up for download on their site, but what's there is good.
And let's not forget OC Remix, the unofficial hub for remixes of game music.
The cool thing is, a lot of this music is actually quite good. Give it a shot. And by the way...yes, all of the MP3s on these pages are legal to download. Enjoy. :)
Goo goo g'joob.
I would buy more game soundtracks if they were available here. Residing in Aust, the only game soundtracks I have come from imported titles or came bundled with some PC games. I know for a fact that a lot of japanese games have soundtracks launched in conjunction with the release of the game, like how soundtracks come out in parallel with Hollywood movies. importing the soundtracks of out of the queston because they are just so damn expensive... yesasia has many japanese cds but check out the prices.
Another thing, this one concerns Riaa, if they intend to cash in on song revenues in games they better up their standard or they will be facing the same problems they have with selling cds. The original matrix sndtrk was awesome, the second was not.
http://www.yesasia.co.jp
As the other poster said, it seems the majority of game players, who are not hardcore gamers, don't care for original game music. Some people even turn the sound off and play their own music.
Using licensed pop music that was not originally created for a game can create a mismatch with the game environment. I've often thought, "How does this song relate to the game?"
I think using licensed soundtracks will apply mostly to U.S. created console games. The Japanese games will most likely still have
original music. My musical tastes lean heavily toward Japanese game music, so I will ignore U.S. created game music.
Remixes and covers are nice and all, but I want to see these bands write original music that could be used in a game. I don't want to keep hearing covers or remixes of existing music. If people continue to do this, they are doing what the RIAA bands are doing right now: re-doing older songs. Doing remixes and covers heavily leverages the original composer's creative talent, so "half the work is done for you" in a way. Western game musicians need to practice more with composing game music on their own. They can always use an existing game and write *new* music for it. The Japanese fandom does this, and they produce some spectacular results (for example: http://www.risingsun.net/mushi/index/index.htm) Currently, I find the West's approach to game music (Tommy Tollarico, et. al.) to be very different to Japanese approach. The Japanese seem to be able to use a variety of musical styles, while Western composers seem to use fewer styles.
Remixes and covers are nice and all, but I want to see these bands write original music that could be used in a game. I don't want to keep hearing covers or remixes of existing music. If people continue to do this, they are doing what the RIAA bands are doing right now: re-doing older songs.
Doing remixes and covers heavily leverages the original composer's creative talent, so "half the work is done for you" in a way. Western game musicians need to practice more with composing game music on their own. They can always use an existing game and write *new* music for it. The Japanese fandom does this, and they produce some spectacular results (for example: http://www.risingsun.net/mushi/index/index.htm)
Currently, I find the West's approach to game music (Tommy Tollarico, et. al.) to be very different to Japanese approach. The Japanese seem to be able to use a variety of musical styles, while Western composers seem to use fewer styles.
vgmix. Only trouble is the guys who run that site are a real bunch of assholes....some clown named Jake (virt) and his girlfriend. There are some good tunes there, but the admins are the ideal pimply-faced nerds who have nothing better to do than go on lock posts and send you nasty PMs whenever you don't agree with them. They also had the exceptionally retarded idea of making the entire web site into a MMORPG, so they'll prohibit you from doing certain things on the site if you haven't "gained enough levels." Go, leech his bandwith for some occasionally cool tunes, but when it comes to the freaks that inhabit that site, stay far, far away. If you don't believe me, just check out this picture. And if it's at all believable, he's one of the more normal ones...Yowzer. Tights...
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
is a musical genius...
A couple people I found on mp3.com a long time ago have some great game music. Edgen Animations (www.edgen.com/music/) and David Allen Young (can't find a Web site anymore, search for Swords and Sorcery).
Videogames are not the new radio (a free
distribution channel which provides exposure
to bands to sell a distinct medium), but the
new CD (primary delivery vehicle for content
licenses).
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
The real game music artists are the people like Nobuo Uematsu, Motoi Sakuraba, Sound Team jdk, and Yasunori Mitsuda. While the article mentions the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor soundtracks (composed by Michael Giacchino and Chris Lennertz, respectively), which is cool, those are definitely not the focus of the 'recognition' that game music is supposedly gaining. Compilations of licensed rubbish are the kind of 'game music' that's gaining recognition.
The American game developers (primarily EA, of course, but EA probably owns 80% of the American game industry anyway) have discovered that it's not only easier and cheaper to license music, but it's also more profitable, because now they can make money off the compilation albums. When they start selling even the basest of real game soundtracks (like Final Fantasy) domestically, then we can talk about game music gaining recognition. :(
people like game soundtracks? The music or muzak is the first thing I turn off when I install a game. It distracts me from the SFX.
Its OK in cutsceens.
But if the music is from pop or rock or whatever artists, it gets repetitive, thats where my own collection comes in.
For some reason, U.S. publishers don't seem to want to release the *entire* Japanese soundtrack (minus vocals, which often have separate licensed examples)
If you remember, TokyoPop used to release some game Square soundtracks, but they were all not complete soundtracks. Final Fantasy 9 is a 4 CD soundtrack in Japan, but when TokyoPop published it in the U.S., it was a 1 CD "Best of" album. Likewise, they did the same thing to Final Fantasy Chronicles. Instead of releasing the entire soundtracks to those two games (FF4 was 1 CD in Japan; Chrono Trigger was 3 CDs in Japan), TokyoPop releases 1 CD for both.
With that kind of mentality from U.S. publishers, how can Japanese game music EVER get a foothold in the West? People are missing out on a lot of music, and to the ones that play these games, they will notice the domestic soundtracks are missing music.
The ones that do are pretty content with ordering them from overseas, i think. (I am, anyway.) It's $10 shipping that way, or $10 over-priced at your local EB. Take your pick. :/
No, as it happens.
A quick Altavista search delivers the goods, I must try it out on my classical-music-snob associate, ask him if he can identify it:)
Oxford Dictionaries Online
Are far better than licensed music in my opinion. Licenced music does take some talent and creativity to select suitable tracks, but it's nowhere near the talent adn work that goes into making a good original soundtrack. That's why I'm glad that all of our games have had music composed specifically for them. It makes the experience more immersive.
game music, rather than music related to a game.
" Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack, of which "...the most popular CD, 'V-Rock,' sold 42,300 copies.""
I don't recall V-Rock being loaded with comositions I'd be familiar with if I played MegaMan, Devil May Cry, Contra, Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, Mario, Zelda, etc. In fact, I think it was loaded with that pop music stuff from the 1980s which I don't really care for except for nostalgia.
Wake me when people know the composer for MegaMan's music without me having to explain what MegaMan is and then tell them.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
"If anyone musically-oriented actually thought Uematsu was any good, don't you think he'd have moved on from composing goddamn video game music?"
--Jonathan McArthur
This, of course, refers to actual video game music, not music that was just put into a video game.
Rob (waits patiently for VG music fans to mod this post down)
And Kids, remember Crapradio!,- radio.
your friendly-neighborhood-game-related-only-streaming
The Guilty Gear series has some awsome music.
Jesper Kyd is one of my favorite game music composers. In fact, recently I just bought an original cart of Sub-terrainia, which is one of my favorite games of all time, partially becasue of the great soundtrack.
I don't buy game sountracks. I download them. WHY? because they're not AVAILABLE TO BUY.
The only game soundtrack I own is the one from Wipeout XL. And I only own that because by some stroke of luck I just HAPPENED to come across it once by accident.
There IS no game sountrack section in music stores, and if you are lucky there will ONE game soundtrack available in the whole store to purchase. If you're VERY lucky you might find five.
With no selection, I have no inclination to constantly go to the music store and see what random game music CD they happen to have in stock this month, if any. As I'm not interested in 95% of game music soundtracks that means my chances of actually finding a game soundtrack I want are incredibly slim.
So is it really a surprise that game soundtracks sell so poorly? THEY'RE NOT AVIALABLE TO BUY!
And I don't buy stuff online. I want instant gratification. If I can't download it immediately upon purchase, without any kind of copy protection potentially preveting me from moving my soundtracks to another PC or putting them on a CD so I can listen to them in my car, then I'm NOT INTERESTED.
God the music industry is so stupid. How can they not realise these simple facts.
The best way to sell game music CD's would be to get them into the game STORES. Put them right alongside the games they're for so people see them when purchasign the game and so may come back for them later if they like the soundtrack.
Of course I would much rather just get a CD with the game I buy that has the music on it. And I would pay $5 more a game to get that.
Of course I will not pay $15-$20 for a soundtrack for a game I have purchased. No way. $9.99. That's it. Any more and I'll download it instead. I wouldn't listen to a CD often enough to justify a higher price, but I do listen to my game music MP3's a lot.
Of course a thriving game music market would mean that I would not be able to have the 5,000+ game songs which I have right now sitting on my hard drive, because then the game comapnies would shut down sites which distribute the songs. And I wouldn't like that at all. I don't have time to play even 1% of the PC games out there so I'd never hear the music to games I have not played if I could not download them for free to hear them and decide if they are worth keeping.
Yes, I know its an EA Game. However, here they actually did a very decent job of picking good music. The menu music I am not too thrilled about, but the rock/alternative/punk that plays while you drive is awesome, adds to the feeling of the game. Titles like Crystal Method: Born Too Slow and Rob Zombie: Two-Lane Blacktop are great to listen to, have a fast beat that goes well with the game, and you can easily relate to the lyrics while driving. I don't know about you, but listening to the Crystal Method vocalist yell "Born just a little too slow" when you whizz past someone and leave them eating your dust (or smelling NOS fumes) is just great.
Sure, its easy to point out the growing importance of music on the continental side of things. Some how though I think the person who wrote this thinks that all games are either made for America or made to suit Americas need.
The quote:"Once an afterthought in the production process, video game soundtracks increasingly use original music to reach new listeners who blur traditional entertainment boundaries", followed directly by "Record companies are realizing that this is the new radio," and the use of sales figures for GTA vice city, a game who's precursor has semi-recently seen light of day in Japan are all figures in this line of thought. Also, all the companies mentioned are American. Well, not Namco, but even then consider Namco's (dwindling)arcades.
I will grant that the entire article isn't writen from the slant that I noticed, but focusing on how this is a 'starting' trend is an sign of ignorance. We're catching up to Asia if anything.
An interesting note is that digicube , Sqaure-Enix's own Sam Goody, went bankrupt. Or whatever the hell chain died over here recently. Goes to show that one markets up is anothers down. I'm just surprised that more people arn't reporting that.
X
Unfortunately, as time passes, such licensed music makes a game feel "dated". Also, the novelty wears off fast, since the the tracks included I've already heard hundreds of times on the radio. If the tracks were original, I wouldn't tire of them so fast...
I've had some fun sniffing the network around the office, around town, and at O'Reilly OSXCon, and I think the biggest security risk I see on wireless networks are plaintext POP passwords going out in-the-clear. It's amazing how many people who should know better are still using plain POP for grabbing their mail. Since most mail client recheck for mail every few minutes, it's quite simple to grab passwords. Using those password, a hacker can then try the same password to enter the network, read the person's e-mail to do subsequent social engineering, or just fish around the person's e-mail for interesting information. The second thing I think most people don't realize is that on a standard wireless network all the HTTP url's they are surfing to with a web browser are public. This may not be a security risk, but companies also may not want a hacker in the parking lot to know that a server named secretinternaldata.mycompany.com exists. I set up an SSH tunnel from my laptop to my squid proxy at home just for fun to see if I could fix the issue. It worked well, but of course it's not something the average end-user with a laptop on wireless could manage. Anyway, that's my .02.
found here