

Why video game music is different from every other kind of soundtrack - MarkN
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2008/20081201/1newheiser-a.shtml

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nihilocrat
In my own experience, from a creator's standpoint it's quite a bit different.
You have to make sure pretty much every track loops well, and for non-
cinematic music you don't really have the luxury of an "intro" section of a
song; you have to hit the hook or otherwise the "meat" after the first measure
at the latest. This is especially true of intro or menu music; the player is
probably only going to listen to 10-30 seconds of the music before they move
on to another screen that plays different music.

For someone who tends to make music based on "whatever sounds cool" and
experimentation, it's very jarring to actually have to make the music
accompany some on-screen, non-linear action and fit the theme of the game. It
forces you to use instruments you might not be comfortable with (ex: an
orchestra for a fantasy game) but also lets you explore instruments that would
never fit in one of your personal tracks (ex: panflute and mandolin in an
electro house track). It forces you to rethink your melodies and arrangements;
it's surprising how bad or unfitting some non-game music can sound when played
in a game, because it was designed to be the center of the audience's
attention. Thankfully, because of this and the fact that the player is
generally distracted with the game, the tracks only need to be about a minute
or two minutes long, which is a lot simpler to make than a five-minute or
longer track, and allows you to just focus on one set of patterns and be done
with it. It's sort of like how a short story doesn't allow the space to
develop subplots or excessive exposition, you've just got to get your point
across and be done with it.

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unalone
Great article.

I've always looked at video games at a form of gesamtkunstwerk: an artistic
medium where every element has to work to further the whole. It's unlike
movies because you can't skimp out on certain elements. Each song is played a
ton, the graphics will be severely tested, there needs to be a lot of writing
if you're telling a story.

(I actually just recently wrote a testament to my favorite video game
composer: <http://unalone.tumblr.com/post/80433745/uematsu>)

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michael_dorfman
Could you elaborate on how it is unlike film? I'm not sure I see the
distinction you are trying to make regarding the ability to "skimp out".

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unalone
Film soundtracks are rarely played continuously. They're used in snippets.
Very often, a movie soundtrack will consist of tracks that are 30-60 second
hooks, since that's all the director needs. In any event, the soundtracks are
tools to be used by the director.

In a video game, it doesn't work like that. Most tracks are played in their
entirety and looped. It means that a song from a video game very often
requires some integrity that a song in a movie doesn't need, because the song
has to be replayable again and again without losing its meaning. Furthermore,
game soundtracks are _long._ The Final Fantasy soundtracks started with 50
tracks in the original NES versions; the Playstation games ranged from 80
tracks to 160, which is _incredibly_ long. That's longer than a good deal of
operas, for instance (and back in Final Fantasy VI, an operetta was included
in the soundtrack itself).

 _Gesamtkunstwerk_ is a term Wagner used for his operas, actually, and it's
that operatic mindset that video games most remind me of. When you compose for
a video game, you've got enormous potential at your hands: your music
determines the mood of everything that happens. When you write, you're told
how your tracks will be used, how they'll blend together, and that gives you
an incredible freedom to really do whatever you can.

In my article, I mention how Nobuo Uematsu very frequently shifts genres: he's
written waltzes and ragtimes and celtic pieces and rock pieces and piano
ballads and he's had two pop hits, once of which (originally written for Final
Fantasy VIII) sold half a million singles. If he'd been writing for a movie,
that wouldn't have been possible: the best movie soundtracks all integrate
around a sonic theme, similarly to how a symphony works. A video game's music
is far grander: when you're writing over 4 hours of music for a single
soundtrack, you can create music that goes over and over themes, and _still_
have space for two hours' worth of whatever you see fit.

Because of the circumstances in which you're writing, you have a freedom to
use your mind in a way that no other composer today really gets a chance for.
It's similar to having a patron in some ways.

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alabut
I've found that video game music can make fantastic background music while
working - there's hardly ever any distracting vocals and it feels like you're
attacking something mythic.

Movie soundtracks have a similar effect on me: The Incredibles, Dark Knight,
Primer.

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kenver
I've done the same. I think the best group of game soundtracks I've heard are
by Jon Hallur Haraldsson, for Eve online. They really help to immerse you in
the game universe. I think you can listen to some of the composers stuff on
last.fm

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unalone
Eve Online's music is hauntingly beautiful. Definitely one of the things that
makes Eve so addicting: the music feels as vast as the game itself.

If anybody feels like importing the CD/torrenting it, Shadow of the Colossus's
soundtrack ( _Roar of the Earth_ in English) is superb. I'd put it above most
movie soundtracks. It's very subtle and very thrilling in all the right
places.

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triplefox
In my opinion the interactive form basically allows a kind of meaning that is
different from narratives. Environments, character designs, and other elements
that are tangential to a narrative experience(such as music), often come to
dominate a game more than anything in the story surrounding them.

Basically it comes down to the workings of the game mechanics; with repetition
and reward/penalty systems they point the way towards deeper inspection of any
desired element.

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scott_s
For a great retrospective on videogame music, listen to this Retronauts
podcast:
[http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://download.game...](http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://download.gamevideos.com/Podcasts/Retronauts/012507.mp3)

They start the discussion from the NES days, and the music they're talking
about is often spliced in. It's a fun listen.

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bo
You know what would be really cool? Not canned music played in dynamically
chosen snippets. Music that is dynamically generated.

