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Game Music Concerts Spread Gamer Culture
The Escapist, this week, is all about game music. A featured article by Kyle Orland touches on the phenomenon of game music concerts. That they're popular with gamers is unsurprising, but the piece also discusses the ways in which these events can make non-gamers aware of gaming's unique culture. From the article: "The most e-mails we get, oddly enough, after a show, will be from the mom who brought the neighborhood kids or the grandmother who brought the grandson or the girlfriend who got dragged there by the boyfriend. Those are the letters we get that go 'Wow, I never knew that videogame music was this powerful. I never knew that the graphics were this amazing. Thank you for turning me on to this thing. I get it now.'"
I believe the comment about video game music. I was interested in game music as a child, without really being interested in playing games through.
However, I don't buy the comment "I never knew the graphics were this amazing!" Non-gamers I know don't really care about graphics. Music has a universal appeal. Polygonal rendering does not.
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Anyone who wants to spread video game music to others should check out OcRemix. They have good mixes, and have created full albums of certain games, like Metroid and Chrono Trigger, and Doom. http://www.ocremix.org/
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I do not like classical music, because the atmosphere and the stories just don't fit into my life. But I have great respect for the art and complexity of this music.
Game music often just combines the worst of both worlds. Endless tragic moments which you can easily compose with an orchestra and the stupidity of mass compatible simple melodies.
So that's supposed to be popular? This will be over as soon as enough parents discovered that most of the music is just junk, despite of being played by an orchestra and as soon as the young discover that this isn't even the original.
Unless they are playing the classics, but hey, why is it called game music then? They could call it "advertising" music too, as most of the classics are in one or another commercial.
I started http://gamersradio.com/ many years ago with the idea that I could mix gaming music with traditional music and gaming related interviews. Unfortunately, this did not work like I wanted and I scraped the idea in favor of a more traditional Rock station. While it has been a success, I really wanted to provide an outlet for Game Related music. I think the time is right, so I have been working on a third station for Gamers Radio that will be mainly Gaming Music. I have been collecting music for the station and I find there are some incredible symphonic tunes from games.
I still get shivers when I hear the theme from Battlefield 1942 and the theme to Baldur's Gate brings back great memories of hours and hours of entertainment.
The real question I have is can I bring in the mom's and grandmothers as well as the geeks?
Can the music carry itself beyond the association I have with the game's the music originated from?
I don't know, but it will be interesting to find out.
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Very few people have the musical talent to recognize music as junk. That's why junk is so popular.
There are two reasons I collect video game music. Some of it is for nostalgic purposes, some of it is genuinely good.
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After watching this YouTube video, I have more urge to go to one.
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They are spreading only a small and rather insignificant of gaming culture really. The music from the actual game being played is not spreading the gaming culture. Instead, they are spreading the music gamers are familiar with from the games they played. How many people are really going to have gained any real insight at all into gaming culture? None.
Gaming culture is not the game theme song as much as what pumps through the headphones as you frag and warm up for your tournament or next match at a LAN party. In between matches you drink some BAWLS and try to tap the skills you gained from your numerous sessions of gaming for more than 12 hours. After that match you might log on IRC to chat with your teammates or friends about said match.
Really LANs, Tournaments, and assorted TV shows/specials are spreading the gaming culture. Have some nerd take his girlfriend to a LAN for a couple hours and then ask her about what she learned from her visit... I bet you everything she learned at that game music concert is out the window and never coming back.
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There are two reasons I collect video game music. Some of it is for nostalgic purposes, some of it is genuinely good.
Sorry, I didn't mean to say that all game music is junk. I really love some game music too, but almost all my favorites are electronic music and not played by an orchestra!
Most game music that uses an orchestra is just nothing compared to "real" classical music. So why listen to that when you can have the real deal?
I just can't believe my eyes... people going bananas over VIDEOGAME music? Without actually playing the videogames, their music is the lamest stuff ever made, like most incidental music (with a few exceptions). Come on, try listening to Jeremy Soule without the game... it's the pop music of orchestras (bland and easy to swallow). It's damn boring. The kind of stuff you can hear (not listen to) while being concentrated in other matters. Of course there are exceptions (e.g., some Jesper Kyd stuff), but they are few and far between.
It could have been worse, though... it could have been "reggeton".
I took my brother, cousin, and even grandmother to a Play! A Videogame Symphony concert in Toronto. It was good fun, and the performances were solid (though admission was horribly overpriced). The pieces were of course all orchestral arrangements of the originals, since low-quality midi music just isn't worth paying $100 to listen to.
And naturally, while most of the audience already loves gaming, the concerts aim to create more exposure for games and their music. Game music has gotten to the level where it can be appreciated as a standalone medium, and it can therefore be used to attract new fans. Those that attend the concert at the very least become familiar with the big game titles such as Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda (and if they've been living under a rock for 20 years, Super Mario).
As for "spreading gamer culture," well, the concerts are indeed a testament to games becoming overall more "refined" when it comes to being viewed as an art form. Games are art, that much can't be argued, but it is much easier to defend them as *good* art when they have elements in them that even those unfamiliar with gaming would consider good. Of these elements, music is a major one. Visually impressive scenes are of course another, and that's why game concerts try to incorporate some into the performance (big screens hang over the stage that show cutscenes).
I for one was hoping Play! would add Final Fantasy XII's "opening movie" piece to their program and just play it in-sync with the actual cutscene as it's shown. From my experience that 6-min bit manages to get basically anyone at least intrigued and willing to give modern games a bit more respect from an artistic viewpoint.
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Music is universal. We may not always agree on which music we listen to, but nevertheless people form better relationships based on musical tastes. Now a few are complaining that this is hardly relevant, but i'll argue that any insight someone can gain on videogames is a good thing. They may never understand videogames, but atleast this brings them closer to understanding some of the appeal. You shouldn't be all proud because you're part of this videogame subculture that "they'll never get." Instead, embrace the fact that an outsider to gaming may see it as a better thing.
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initial offput associations of video game music from people that don't have a clue is that it is always some dude sitting in a room playing around with a synthesizer up untill he comes up with something 'cool,' and then proceeds to build it up from there. It's just a stereotype of a computer geek or programmer posing as a 'real' artist just so that something could be produced, to fulfill a gaping home. after all, you don't even know if the music is being made with a syntisizer at all, it could be just a series of nobs and whatnot, especially considering the majority of the time you are hearing the music, is out of your video game console, which "clearly are not real musical instruments."
I feel composers of video game music fall into the same realm as composers of movie music. Is it fair to say that someone like Nobuo Uematsu (who wrote all the music for final fantasy - including the old NES FFI) is not a 'real' composer, but John Williams and James Horner would be respected as such? Or perhaps Aaron Copland ("Appalachian Spring" as well as the "Beef! It's what's for dinner!" commercials, if you are not familiar), isn't he considered a 'real' composer?
The lack of respect for vg music clearly comes from the early context that video games are nothing more than entertainment for children, while movies are more oriented towards adults, or at the very least people of a certain maturity/education.
vg music is very much evolved back from the early days of the bleeps and zings the machines were capable of producing. It's mostly people that haven't bothered to watch the change in the video game era to see that evolution happen. I got a nongamer to listen to the music produced for the World of Warcraft promo trailers (like the recent Burning Crusade trailer, for example), and he was blown away, saying "jesus, is this a movie or something?"
Now, I'm not going to say that all vg music is like all good; there are clearly crappy vg music, just like there is clearly crappy music just like everything else. It just happens that the people remember music (composed for music's sake) based on it's own merit, and vg music has the fallback of being dependent on the video game to make it known. So an awesome video game is going to make that crappy video game soundtrack famous. Or infamous. But crapping musical compositions made long ago are going to disappear, because nobody wants to remember them in the first place.
The better question is where can we get copies of the orchestral music? You can't ask for a better expression of geek love.
I wish I could get my family to appreciate video game music, but they won't. They refuse to even listen to it, let alone appreciate it.
Disclosure: I'm the current webmaster of VGMusic.com, and have worked for the site as far back as 1997.
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But maybe this will give you something to think about:
Think of how much this applies to your favourite songs/musical style.
It also bears mentioning that there is more to the gaming culture than just LAN parties. Personally, I swing both ways. I played Unreal Tournament and played its sequels competitively, but I also burned time with single-player console titles. Now, it's true, I can't even hum an UT theme song (playing WITHOUT music seriously helped my performance). However, being a middling pianist, I can plunk out any of hundreds of console video game music tracks given just a minute to think about them. Castlevania, Metroid, Final Fantasy, Mario, Zelda (sorry for being mostly a Nintendo fanboy; it's how I was raised), whatever, the music was an integral part of the experience, especially in long single-player games.
Now, me entertaining a couple friends by doing requests over beers is one thing. Probably a dozen folks have heard me play, and I'm not a great performer. Getting an orchestra or marching band behind a video game music project is another thing entirely. These folks are highly skilled and reach fairly broad audiences; getting away from concerts, our college marching band wove several game themes into their halftime show last year. Regardless of what someone thinks of the music from a technical perspective (whole 'nother argument there), hearing it orchestrated in public DOES legitimate gaming.
Why is legitimation important? Foremost, because video games are difficult to turn into a mass spectacle. A baseball game was MADE to be watched; the players are in a stadium and the basic rules are easy to learn. A high-level video game match, on the other hand, is difficult to watch. First, the medium is hard to broadcast (yes, progress IS being made on that front, but it's not a spectator sport yet). Moreover, in high-level games, the players have mostly reached their limits as far as mechanical skills and reflexes go; at that point, the match ceases to be about who can get the crosshair onto their opponent faster and becomes a comparison of overall strategy. All of that makes for a great playing experience and a lousy viewing experience for most folks.
Music is useful as a medium because it transcends all these knowledge barriers. You don't have to understand (or even care about) game mechanics to appreciate a well-constructed musical interpretation. You don't have to spend hours to learn the controls or months to master the strategies of a game to enjoy a good concert, just as you don't have to juice up on steroids or spend a lifetime learning to read pitches to enjoy a baseball game. Until video games produce competitions that people will pay to watch in a stadium or on pay-per-view, appreciation of the media in games remains one of the best ways to reach out to non-gamers short of actually getting people to play.
Enjoying videogame music is no different than Enjoying movie, TV, or anime soundtracks.
The music helps you remember and relive those moments from that game/movie/show.
After all, who DOESN'T think of their favorite scene from Episode IV whenever they hear the main fanfare from the Star Wars theme? In fact, I bet there's a lot of people who can tell you what was happening on screen at the exact moment certain strains of music were playing.
Just because it doesn't contain the complexities of, say, Bach, or the melodic playfulness of Mozart doesn't change its emotional impact from within the game (or show/movie).
initial offput associations of video game music from people that don't have a clue is that it is always some dude sitting in a room playing around with a synthesizer up untill he comes up with something 'cool,' and then proceeds to build it up from there.
That's pretty much the process by which all music in history has been written, except sometimes the synthesizer is replaced by a piano, or guitar, or harpsichord.
Is it fair to say that someone like Nobuo Uematsu [...] is not a 'real' composer, but John Williams and James Horner would be respected as such?
I would consider all three of them to be great soundtrack composers, but I'm not sure I'd want to listen to a piece of standalone non-programmatic music from any of them. Their specialty lies in being able to take a event or emotion expressed in another medium and create music that complements it extremely well.
Not to denigrate soundtrack writing as a 'lesser' form of music, though, it's just as valid as any other.
Wrong. Some of it is quite different, some of it is very similar to earlier movements. The way you just to put "real" classical music into one pot shows how you simply have no Idea of the variety of different approaches in classical music.
I have been to one single concert in my life (I am 16), and I remember it as being pretty bland, mostly because I didn't recognize any of the musical pieces that they played. Last year, however, Play! A Video Game Concert came to Stockholm, but since I live a bit away from there I decided not to visit it.
However, when I heard the music that they had played, even though it had been recorded with a video camera, I immediately loved it since it both had the massive sound of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and the lovely tunes of the games I've played. When tickets were released for a new concert this year, I had a ticket within minutes, even though I have 650 km to travel to get there.
I have no doubt I will enjoy it.
And oh, the music is partly arranged by, in the video game world, big names like Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the Final Fantasy music. So I wouldn't call it junk.
girlfriend who got dragged there by the boyfriend
;)
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Everyone knows gamer geeks don't have girl/boyfriends
Tepp
What the hell are you talking about? Videogame music and classical music are two entirely different things. Just because both use the same instruments doesn't mean that they're the same. You might as well say "why listen to Led Zeppelin when you can have the real deal by listening to Alice Cooper?"
Besides, all the classical music I've heard has been very boring, unlike videogame music.
Agreed. But partially, this is an error in terminology. "Classical" music, technically refers to a period of about 75 years of western art music in the 18th century that basically stems from Hydan to Mozart. Bach is the tail end of the Baroque era, and Beethoven is basically the grandfather of the Romantic movement, which turned its back on the black & white philosophies of the classical era. Unfortunately, we've used the term "classical" to refer to ALL western art music from the Baroque era forward. Many times, it's not a problem, but it does betray a certain elitist ideal toward a certain, very dated, era of western art music, that holds mathamatics above all else, even creativity.
Modern orchestral cinema music, and by extension, orchestral game music, is largely post-romantic art music seen through the lens of neo-classicism, impressionism, expressionism, jazz, and classic rock. Very little of anything out of this past century can be directly owed to Bach, and even less can be owed to Mozart. Probably, least of all, in art music, which largely regards Mozart as a formula composer with about as much innovation as a dime novelist.
There is really very little difference between today's movie music, and the Opera of the 19th century, or the Ballet of the early 20th century, which makes up a significant portion of highly recieved art music. Collaborative and multimedia efforts are not a new thing. For almost as long as there has been music, there have been visual counterparts to accompany it, in some form or another. Sergei Diaghilev's commissioning of Stravinsky to compose the music to his ballet, "The Rite of Spring", is no different from Fritz Lang's commissioning of Sergei Prokofiev to compose the music for his movie "Alexander Nevsky", Tim Burton's comissioning of Danny Elfman to compose the music to "Edward Scissorhands", or Sakaguchi's comissioning of Nobuo Uematsu to compose the music for the game "Final Fantasy."
The fact that the scope of the production has changed has little effect on the composer, as it is still largely written by one composer, working directly in conjunction with one director. As for the audience? Well, today's world is simply yesterday's concert hall.
Even the arguement condemning cinematic music is no different from that of Brahms' disavowing of all music that has any visual or literary counterpart. You may agree with Brahms, but as long as you can accept the legitimacy of the ballet (a vast plurality of well-known 20th century compositions are from ballets) you should not have any trouble accepting the legitimacy of the cinema or game score.
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Game music often just combines the worst of both worlds. Endless tragic moments which you can easily compose with an orchestra and the stupidity of mass compatible simple melodies.
I don't know wtf you mean by mass compatible, but simple melodies are the foundations of great music. I've taken a music theory class, I've done a little bit of songwriting, and I've been playing music since I was pretty young. I can tell you one of the biggest mistakes beginner songwriter is making overly complex melodies when they don't need to be there.
Regardless, have you even listened to some of the soundtracks to video games that have been released today? They're hardly simple. And easily composing for an orchestra/symphony is an oxymoron. Blending dozens of different voices to create a desired effect/feeling without going outside the bounds of any insturments' abilities is never easy.
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It's nice to see someone who really knows what they're talking about here. I'd mod you up if I had the points.
Calling anything performed by an orchestra 'classical' is a pet peeve of mine. It makes as much sense as calling all video games 'platformers' even though there are several distinct genres of games.
I got into video games through music. I was studying composition at Oberlin Music Conservatory, and I had been delving into a lot of Progressive Rock on the side... listening to a lot of Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, and Genesis. A friend of mine, with similar tastes in music told me I had to check out this stuff by this guy Nobuo Uematsu, who was largely influenced by ELP and Yes. He played me some selections from FF8 and FF6, and I was blown away. I immediately downloaded an emulator (didn't have a console at the time), and played through FF6 and FF8 immediately, and from then on, I was hooked. Then, I started transcribing many of various themes and pieces for piano. I finished out my stay at Oberlin with a piano recital of arranged game music, and packed a small auditorium with gamers, musicians, and all interested folks, alike... one of the best shows I've ever had the privilage of performing in.
Since then, I've been studying film scoring, in hopes to one day go into film or game composition. And I still play my daily dose of video games.
I got involved with the site "VGMix", and had a lot of my work up there, unfortunately, the site went down about a year ago, and hasn't come back up since. I put a few things on OCRemix, but I don't tend to follow the site very much. I have an album of piano recordings I did in the studio, but the cost of licensing prohibits me from releasing the recordings publicly.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
What the hell are you talking about?
Forgive my lack of explanation. The missing point here is, that I think that most game music played by an orchestra uses really well known composing patterns.
The games that do something new, or at least good, with an orchestra are really rare (as in, I've never heard it)
They're not meant to do anything technically innovative (who even cares), and it's not a competition.
Agree with the overall comment, but a nit: "Alexander Nevsky" was directed by Sergei Eisenstein, not Fritz Lang. The movie? Dated and hokey, but as propaganda goes, it's good for a laugh - if you made a drinking game for every time a Hun commits an atrocity, or a Russian does something noble, you'd die of alcohol poisoning before the Battle on the Ice. "The Huns burned a baby...drink!" Prokofiev's score, on the other hand, is awesome.
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Reminds me a lot of a previous story on /. How many times can I read about how neat it is that normal people go to video game concerts?
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Lol, can't believe I made that mixup, but yeah, Nevsky is kinda hokey, although, it does have some good cinematography. The Battle on the Ice is still pretty incredible. But if you want REALLY hokey, try the other Eisenstein movie that Prokofiev did the score for, "Ivan the Terrible", which is absolutely atrocious, and the music isn't even all that interesting. Ivan is made to look threatening by having this gross, but long, little beard, and then freezing in stylized pozes with his eyes popping out at you. I could bearly finish it it was so bad.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
True, but video game music is meant to accompany video games. Why go listen to it on its own, other than out of nostalgia? A lot of this discussion seems to be about trying to turn people onto game music for the music's sake. But why, when there is so much better music out there?
My response:
:-).) This is the first half of the 1st movement of Tchakovsky's Violin Concerto (it continues in part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ym8KpznV08), played by Midori with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Claudio Abbado conducting).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e13bC2Gk2A
OK, this may seem the least exciting of the clips to you, the most typically "classical music" with pretty meoldies and all, but I think it is beautiful and (to me) thrilling enough to include. No, it doesn't start off with a bang (in fact, the opening bit is quite trivial, kind of a canard, as the rest of the work isn't really based on it), but it's worth listening to, and the soloist certainly is worth hearing (and seeing). (You may find in life that a bit of patience is required to realize what you've been missing. This isn't overtly fast or exciting music, but... don't give up on it; try to watch the whole thing, including part 2 where most of the violin fireworks are, before going to the "exciting stuff"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrYVnSPRoAE
This is an old (early-mid 60s?) video of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in the first movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony (in one of the iconic, cinematic, somewhat megalomaniac videos they used to make of him - and since when do you use 8 horns in Beethoven 5??? Or 11 basses? But it is glorious, if hardly as "classical" as when the piece was written). This music may be familiar to you, at least in a superficial sense, but you have to get past the first 10 seconds: the point isn't the opening idea so much as what Beethoven does with that idea for the next 7 minutes. (Which is one of the main points about classical music - the development, not the initial idea, is what makes it great.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqGJUeEZ80I
This is a portion of Bruckner's 9th Symphony, played by the Vienna Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein conducting. As someone points out in the comments: "(what's the) point (of) posting a minute from an hour long symphony"?, but you should be able to get some of the idea. (And yes, it is as loud as it seems. In a hall like the Musikvereinsaal it would be practically deafening, no amplification required.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_1XSVs9crc
This is Leonard Bernsteinn again, conducting part of the finale of Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony (with the Boston Symphony? Not in their usual concert hall though.). Bernstein has always been a little over the top (in very different ways from Karajan), but the effect can be incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dlpPzM6OC4
Some people might think the beginning of this clip seems a little "gay". But (you guessed it:) keep listening. Just a small bit from the end of a glorious, incredible 90-minute symphony: Simon Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham (UK) Symphony and Chorus in Mahler's 2nd Symphony. (And yes, in response to some of the comments: I always cry.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ13hgvQWaI
T
Why the fuck is it so difficult for some of you here to comprehend that others enjoy videogame music, even outside the game? Do you get out of bed every day and think "what the fuck man, how can some people listen to that shit?" And no, there is no "much better music out there" because you can't benchmark music and objectively determine that one is better than the other. I'm not going to compare a song from Megaman 3 with Tangerine Dream because that would be absolutely retarded, not to mention pointless.
As for nostalgia, I don't think it's really "nostalgia" when I listen to music from Guild Wars or World of Warcraft. You seem to have this notion that videogame music == "bleep bleep" from the year 1985. Your beliefs are so ridiculously outdated that you shouldn't even be commenting on the subject.
Press Play On Tape is a 6-person rock-ish band that performs live versions of Commodore 64 songs. They're Danish, but have performed several times in the UK and Norway.
There's a version of Cannon Fodder performed on game controllers here, and a boy-band cover of Comic Bakery here.
The "classics" are used in commercials because the music itself is in the public domain. It's dicey to use any music from the last century or so for commercials since you're in the copyright-clearing minefield. If the rights holders are dead or hard to find, the cost of compliance goes straight up.
Given that, you're better off grabbing a bit of, say, Verdi (I'm thinking of his "Dies Irae" from his Requiem), and handing it to musicians, and using that. You'd own copyright on the *recording* and save all the trouble of clearing rights.
As far as the quality of music goes--there has been bad music since the dawn of time. But orchestral music has been suffering a massive decline in the West simply because people's attention spans are much shorter. Hollywood has known for a long time that 90 minutes is about as long as most people will sit still for anything. A night at the concert hall is much longer, and involves no flashy special effects or other distractions.
The audience, in general, is no longer equipped to understand or enjoy orchestral music. The commercial radio environment has relegated music to something that is played in the background. Radio stations--commercial ones at least--that play classical music stress its *soothing* qualities, thus encouraging people to listen passively, or, worse, hear inattentively.
Finally: musical education has been taking a hit for years. When was the last time you knew anyone who played the cello on a regular basis, or even the piano? There's plenty of beautiful music written for the traditional orchestral instruments, but if there's no one left to play the instruments, the music goes unplayed, unheard, and unappreciated.
You are 100% right, this is the real problem of orchestral music nowadays. The audience is simply dying away and most people cannot appreciate it anymore. (I'm not really an exception to that)
And now we can discuss the real subject: Is it a good idea to play game music, just to drag young people to the orchestra?
There might be some benefits in doing this sometimes, because if there are at least some people who start getting interested in orchestral music, that would be a good thing.
But in the long run, it won't help anybody.
I'm from a family with a long tradition in music and my mother is working for an orchestra. She says: If there is no interest in that kind of music, even in the modern variations, you can't go ahead and just play what the masses want. Orchestra's are for preserving a tradition thats builds on hundreds of years of musical history. You cannot throw that away, to preserve it.
In germany most good orchestras are publicly funded, but can barely survive with less and less money. But I think this is something worth preserving, .