Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- SECTION ONE: FANDOM AND MUSIC VIDEOS
- SECTION TWO: VIDEO-GAME MUSIC
- 3 Music in Video games
- 4 Case Study: Film Music vs. Video-Game Music: The Case of Silent Hill
- SECTION THREE: PERFORMANCE AND PRESENTATION
- SECTION FOUR: PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
- Index
3 - Music in Video games
from SECTION TWO: VIDEO-GAME MUSIC
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- SECTION ONE: FANDOM AND MUSIC VIDEOS
- SECTION TWO: VIDEO-GAME MUSIC
- 3 Music in Video games
- 4 Case Study: Film Music vs. Video-Game Music: The Case of Silent Hill
- SECTION THREE: PERFORMANCE AND PRESENTATION
- SECTION FOUR: PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
- Index
Summary
The first and perhaps most important observation one can make about contemporary video-game music is that there is no longer any such thing as video-game music. This was not always the case and whether it will be the case in the future is open to question. A few years ago the genre known as ‘Bitcore’ (Collins 2005: 2) or ‘Chiptune’ (Wikipedia) defined, to all intents and purposes, the phenomenon known as video-game music. This genre, usually characterised in negative terms by its rudimentary electronic timbres and restricted number of voices, nevertheless produced some extremely innovative and memorable tunes. Since the mid-1990s, the improved memory capacity and increased processor speeds of game consoles have freed video-game composers from the technological constraints which gave the work of their predecessors such an identifiable aesthetic. Today, video-game music inhabits every style imaginable, from baroque to bluegrass, rockabilly to symphonic (Belinkie 1999). It is for this reason that I claim it no longer exists. Today's video-game music is more accurately described as music that has been written for, or adapted to, video-games. Therefore the analytical focus must shift away from form and towards function.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Music, Sound and MultimediaFrom the Live to the Virtual, pp. 51 - 67Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2007