The (Critically Disregarded) Evolution of Video Game Music
The other day I was driving back from the mall listening to the radio and I tuned into NPR at the part in "All Things Considered" where they run clips of readers responding to prior segments. I came in late, but what I caught was a letter written by someone claiming to be a musician, reacting negatively to a segment on the evolution of video game music that aired on April 12, and basically blasting away at the medium as junk that gets too much attention, where "serious" music gets virtually none.
At which point I nearly spit out my drink and half-reached for the phone to call in. I totally respect NPR's attempt to play good cop, bad cop with the letters, and to be fair, they had one other that was reasonably positive about the segment. But in terms of the dissenter's opinion...talk about not seeing the forest for the tree trunk.
What's interesting to me about video game music in the 21st century, speaking as someone who's been academically involved with the piano since the age of four, is that the stuff on exhibition today and particularly in cinematic games, is just as theoretically sophisticated and thematically interesting as some of the very best film scores. Also interesting? That no one on the academic side of the music industry I've talked to seems to entirely get that.
The NPR story talks about Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu who could certainly be accused of occasionally soaking his compositions in sentimental schmaltz. But has anyone taken a listen to "Decisive Battle," track 14 on the piano collection compilation of songs from Final Fantasy X? How about "Besaid Island" or "Song of Prayer" from the same disc? Sure, it's obvious to anyone with any music training at all that he's a disciple of Debussy, but on a scale that runs from Row-Row-Row-Your-Boat all the way out to John Cage's and back again, Uematsu's in my opinion doing some remarkable, largely unnoticed (by at least Western establishments) things. Does anyone care? Is anyone that thinks video game music is still nerdy "beeps" and "boops" even paying attention?
If these people did more listening instead of "Space Invaders? Seriously?" knee-jerking, I think they'd find there's a hugely important new medium practically exploding all around them, one in which composers like Hitoshi Sakimoto and Kumi Tanioka and Takeharu Ishimoto are turning out amazingly ear-opening stuff, to say nothing of BAFTA Award-winning composer Jeremy Soule, whose contributions to a game like Oblivion are right up there with anything Howard Shore or James Horner or John Williams are up to.
All I'm saying, is that whether you can subdivide a Bach Invention into theoretical "cells" and think Arnold Schoenberg's the dodecaphonic bee's knees or not, you have no business pedantically dismissing wholesale an idiom you've never even bothered to take the time to get to know, or to understand, in terms of its astoundingly broad (and exploding) international breadth.
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Interestingly, I find that I liked Final Fantasy X and XII better when I replaced the music with Phillip Glass. There just seemed to be a lot more depth to the music that the original soundtrack didn't provide. (I also replaced WoW's music with Final Fantasy Symphony music).
I think video game music is just as valid as movie scores. I can't see how someone could embrace music scroes and not video game scores at this point. I'm thinking your hitting it on the nose with the "Pong syndrome" formt he old guard.
Also a lot of high profile games use pop/rock/hip hop instead of musical scores. Final Fantasy is a big game, but it doesn't get thrown on cans of orange mountain dew nor given an MTV party. Therefore, people get the pop glimpse of games and generalize, etc. etc.
yeah well the critics are critically full of themselves!
I'm a classical music nerd (the thing about being academically involved with the piano since age four runs true for me, too), but I don't think I'm advanced enough to appreciate Schoenberg or certain Alban Berg pieces.
Still, I love some computer game scores. Chief among them Final Fantasy VII, XI and X, as well as a rather less-known but nonetheless wonderful score: That for the game A.D. 1701 (my favorite video game, incidentally).
People yammering about what a disgrace certain areas of composition are... well, they will always exist, and like the judges at a competition I attended once said: "I think it was very well done, but it wasn't what is NORMALLY done, so you understand why we can't mark it like we'd like to?"
As a final remark: Certain Anime scores are great as well, but only in recent years have people even been willing to look at something animated that isn't Disney. I think all game music needs is time.
Sorry if I am joining this discussion a little late, but some video game music is actually good and does as great a job "setting the mood" or theme of that particular segment of the game. There is some sucky video game music out there, but there is a whole lot of sucky music period everywhere, just look at any recent pop star "success."
The point is that music is easier to make now that it can be done entirely digital. Anyone in their basement can lay down tracks, but this is not how video game makers are doing it. They actually bring in accomplished conductors and classical writers to write the music. True, most of them are Japanese, but what are you supposed to if John Williams and Michael Kaman and James Horner don't return phone calls?
One more great soundtrack I would add to the list is Bioshock. Fantasic soundtrack that can actually be listened to separate from the game and still remind you of the segment in the game it is from. I downloaded onto CD it was so good.
I meant to say that some video game music "sets the mood" as well as some TV shows and movies and those are accepted mediums for these critics we are talking about. I am sure the same bad things were said about those back in the day as well.