It’s possible that I may have missed some important points, or gotten something wrong. So please, if that’s the case let me know!
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Electronic entertainment technology is one of the fastest evolving forms of entertainment. Though there have been different forms of electronic gaming dating as far back as the 1950s, the first in-home console dedicated to rendering games entirely in video was released in 1972 by Magnavox, called Odyssey. Since then, ‘video games’ have grown to be one of the biggest entertainment industries, and is still growing. Many people born in the late-70s to late-80s remember the so-called “Golden Years of Gaming” or “8-Bit Era”, being the biggest boom of video game influence over the entire globe. However, though some people may out-grow playing the games they loved as they were children, or perhaps even forgotten what the game involved or was about, they will usually remember the music. And the best known example of this is the legendary Super Mario Bros. theme.
What was it that makes music from the 8-Bit Era (Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES) and SEGA Master System, most notably) so memorable? Is it the fond memories people had of playing the games? Is it the way the music was emotionally portrayed? Or is it the simplicity of the tunes due to the less-powered technology of the generation? Arguably, it is all of the above. Many people of the older generation(s) might argue that game music from the 80s conveyed little emotion. However people who grew up playing these games would argue otherwise. Due to the power of the technology at the time if a game’s character falls into a trap and dies, instead of a sound sample of screaming in absolutely agony as their life ends, the game would play a tune that would soon become imbedded into the player’s mind. The same for if a character jumped; instead of a sound of the character’s feet kicking off from the ground and the character perhaps grunting, a short glissando would be played to represent the movement. Eventually these MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) compositions would come to represent actions or emotional moments in gaming – ask anyone how proud they felt once the fanfare played after they completed their first level in Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
As time moved on and the technology within gaming consoles evolved, so did its music. Into the 16-Bit Era (launch of the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES)) the technology allowed composers to write more complex compositions, and they were able to write full orchestrations of works in MIDI. Adding to this, since this generation of consoles was at the turn of the 90s, the music reflected a lot of styles of the decade. Many games involving characters with ‘attitude’ such as Sonic the Hedgehog (mascot of SEGA) incorporated ideas from popular music at the time, like punk and rap/hip-hop. And as the install base grew for gaming, many more popular tunes came to fruition from games such as Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, Street Fighter, Dr Mario, Contra, and the Mega Man series.
One of the most notable games from this particular generation of gaming to feature music as part of its emotional make-up was Super Metroid by Nintendo for the SNES. Unlike most games of the time that used music to portray a sense of cheerfulness or intense action, Minako Hamano and Kenji Yamamato’s soundtrack portrayed the sense of mystery as the player was exploring an unknown and alien world. The Metroid series features the first female gaming heroine named Samus Aran, who wasn’t portrayed as your typical pretty-dress-wearing or scantily-clad female. The plot of these games is to hunt a race of alien predators named Metroids. The tone and scenery of Super Metroid in particular is very dark, as most of the time the game is spent inside caves/destroyed facilities. The huge emotional push, however, is that the player is immersed in a completely alien environment; by utilising a very atmospheric soundtrack (though its predecessor Metroid for the NES also attempted this with its main theme). A lot of the game is spent wondering what is beyond the next door, and the music constantly drives that sense of tension. However, the game and music’s pace quickly shifts to that sudden sense of urgency when presented with a boss battle – a challenge in which the player must defeat one of the game’s antagonists, usually by way of a climactic struggle.
Over time more games began to adopt this theatrical type of experience, and into the next generation of consoles (Nintendo 64, SEGA Saturn, and the new competitor Sony Playstation) around the mid-90s many more game developers were dramatic in the ways that they utilised music. Due to the increase in technological power and save space thanks to the transition from plastic cartridges to compact discs, this generation of game music composers began to include live recordings of works and sound effects onto their products.
This revolutionary transition from digital music to fully orchestrated/band recorded works eventually led to the distribution of video game soundtracks. Many games have had huge success in this regard, such as the critically acclaimed role playing adventure series Final Fantasy (most of the music being composed by Nobuo Uematsu) by Square Enix, the first-person shooter Halo series (Michael Salvatori and Martin O’Donnell) by Bungie, and the classic side-scrolling action/platforming series Mega Man by Capcom. As a matter of fact, some games such as WipEout by Psygnosis (now called Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Liverpool) were released on mixed mode CDs – a disc that held both game and audio data, but were also playable in CD players.
It was around this time when people not only acknowledged the creative minds behind the game, but also began to acknowledge the composers of these soundtracks. Today, it is not unusual if the composer(s) of a game’s album is/are usually much better known than the person who led production on the title itself. Some hit composers include Stephen Barton (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), Kazuki Muraoka (Metal Gear Solid series), Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie), Masato Nakamura (Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2), and the immensely famous Koji Kondo (Super Mario series, Legend of Zelda series).
Due to the increasing popularity, the eventual confirmation of video game music as a genre and then a sub-culture, some of the world’s best known symphony orchestras performed selected works at concerts – the London Symphony Orchestra once played a Super Mario Bros. medley, and the Boston Symphony orchestra once played the Legend of Zelda theme. Due to the huge success and response to live orchestrated versions of hit game works, concerts dedicated to live video game music began to take place across globe.
However, what a lot of people outside of Japan don’t realise is that orchestral performances of live game music actually began in 1991 with the annual concert tour titled Orchestral Game Music Concerts performed by various orchestras throughout Japan. The tour was an annual event that began in ’91 and ended in ’96, having produced five different programmes and recording an album of each one.
The next notable concert dedicated to game music was 20020220 Music from Final Fantasy featuring the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan. The performance, as the title explains, premiered on February 2nd 2002 and featured selected works spanning the entire Final Fantasy series. Next was the Symphonic Games Concerts series in Germany, which was the first of its kind outside of Japan. The concerts were used as opening ceremonies to the Leipzig Games Convention, the second biggest electronic entertainment convention next to the USA’s E3 (both are annual events). The biggest successes in live orchestral performances of video game works, are the Play! A Video Game Symphony and Video Games Live tours. The two tours travel the globe entertaining fans and classical music lovers alike with their impressive shows, featuring the local professional orchestra in that city. Though the latter is larger and more successful than the former, both are much respected and highly regarded concert tours to professional musicians, the classical audience, and gamers alike.
Video Games Live premiered at the Hollywood Bowl and featured the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on June 6th 2005. The project was put together by video game composers Jack Wall (Myst series, Mass Effect) and Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim, Prince of Persia) in the hopes of introducing gamers and the classical audience to each other’s respective genres. The shows continue to sell out in cities across the globe, including New York, London, Taipei, Brasilia, Paris, Wellington and Mexicali. Play! A Video Game Symphony premiered at the Rosemont Theatre in Illinois on May 27th 2006. It then continued to tour through Europe, Asia, South America, New Zealand and Australia.
A much more popular mainstream innovation that has helped sparked the interest of non-gamers is the music game genre and the use of licensed music. Games such as the Guitar Hero series by Activision and the more recent Rock Band series by Harmonix are prime examples of games utilising music to excite the experience. The developers of these games pay for a license to various recording labels to incorporate popular music into their games, giving people the opportunity to “rock out” to their favourite music, even if they have never played a musical instrument before. An earlier series of music games that have done well with this approach also were the Dance Dance Revolution arcade games by Konami. The games had licensed and original dance/techno music (mostly of Japanese pop music influence) and required the player to dance whilst stepping on the forward, back, left or right buttons on the dance pad with their feet.
On the topic of dance/game music, another massive fan-base of game music is the remixing scene – most notably in the styles of “8-bit music” or “chiptunes”. There are many websites dedicated to communities who re-arrange and remix video game music, some of the largest and most popular being OCRemix.org and 8bitcollective.com. Many of the site’s composers are people who have studied music and/or composition and have acquired internet fame through this digitally artistic hobby. There are also many bands around the world who dedicate much (if not most) of their repertoire to covering game tunes such as The Minibosses, NESkimos and Anamanaguchi.
Video game music has evolved and opened up to be experienced in many different and memorable ways. Though many people will try to disregard game music as a viable genre, there is no denying that it has evolved from ambiguous or monophonic melodies to something that completely enhances, or is the experience. The technological and intellectual innovations that help drive game music forward continue to bring people all over the world new and exciting experiences. Music from video games has seen so many different forms over the decades such as emotional, theatrical, obscure, intense and relaxing. Also, like all music, the styles change to fit the decades/eras that game is developed. Most people do not and probably will not look too much into video game music and what it represents but to a lot of us that do, we believe it to potentially be the classical music of the future.
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