Slashdot Mirror
The Blending of Music and Games
Gamasutra has an opinion piece by the 'father of music games,' Masaya Matsuura, who questions the evolution of video game music (or the lack thereof) as the industry's technological advancements give rise to the capability for greater complexity. "Most games these days seem to use gorgeous orchestral soundtracks. While these large-scale soundtracks may generally be lovely to listen to, if we really think about it, isn't it all a bit lacking in imagination? Thinking about it from a simplistic visual perspective, while films are basically just watched, games are interactive." He also discusses the predilection for games to encourage "competitive fun," as opposed to "cooperative fun." GameSetWatch has a related article which talks about how excellent musical scores can help to create an emotionally charged experience, rather than simply occupying one's mind for a time.
Really? Do you really want to make an non-anonymous comment claiming that pop from the time of NES - mid-to-late 80s - wasn't as crappy as today and had a more positive emotional impact? I think #1s isn't the best measure - I'd rather see overall sales, as well as the singles charts - but because it's the first thing that turned up, let's look at some of the gems of '89:
Funny enough, those were consecutive #1 albums.
There were a lot of good pop albums made back then, but there are also a bunch of good ones made today. I've heard people dismiss the 80s as a shitty decade for music, others dismiss the 70s, others dismiss the current batch of music - whether it was in the 90s or now - and frankly their point has always been for shit. There's always good pop music being made, you just have to keep listening.