Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Music Media Entertainment Games

Game Music Continuing To Gain Recognition 57

Posted by simoniker from the bleep-to-orchestras dept.
Thanks to Yahoo/Chicago Tribune for their article charting the continued rise in popularity of videogame music. The piece quotes a music agent as saying: "Record companies are realizing that this is the new radio", and another commentator points out: "Consumers would rather download than pay $15 for a CD, leaving the record industry scrambling for revenue. How do they monetize music? License to video games." However, when it comes to stand-alone game soundtrack CDs, "sales aren't earth-shattering yet", and specific numbers are referenced for the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack, of which "...the most popular CD, 'V-Rock,' sold 42,300 copies."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Game Music Continuing To Gain Recognition More

Game Music Continuing To Gain Recognition

Comments Filter:

  • Even so... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 01, 2004 @09:08AM (#7852206)
    Call me the worst kind of geek, but about all I listen to are Game soundtracks. However this is ill news for myself and others who have similar taste, because it sounds more like companies targetting game platforms for their contemporary licensed crap, rather than original music from various titles getting recognition.

    I hope this doesn't phase out the querky and strange genre that is video game music, because it's definitely unique to itself. I'll take classic Zuntata over the lastest hot hits of record-label-X anyday, and I'll cry myself to sleep the next time I play a title who's full score is by some craptacular pop-group. (The Final Fantasy Series is well on it's way on that one).

    • Re:Even so... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Servo5678 ( 468237 ) on Thursday January 01, 2004 @10:44AM (#7852435)
      However this is ill news for myself and others who have similar taste, because it sounds more like companies targetting game platforms for their contemporary licensed crap, rather than original music from various titles getting recognition.

      I agree. At times like these we need more Koji Kondo (composer of some of the most classic Nintendo tunes including music from Zelda, Mario, and more) and less corporate synergy and licensing deals. I feel like I'm watching the lowly commoners invade another of my interests. First AOL brought the unwashed confused masses to the Internet, then Big Business moved in with its advertising and scumware, and before I knew it the good 'ol days of the anything-goes mostly-civilized web were gone.

      This just goes to show that when something goes mainstream, it starts to become crap. Koji Kondo, come home!

    • VGM = Pop music in U.S. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Webapprentice ( 608832 ) on Thursday January 01, 2004 @12:48PM (#7852963)
      As the other poster said, it seems the majority of game players, who are not hardcore gamers, don't care for original game music. Some people even turn the sound off and play their own music.

      Using licensed pop music that was not originally created for a game can create a mismatch with the game environment. I've often thought, "How does this song relate to the game?"

      I think using licensed soundtracks will apply mostly to U.S. created console games. The Japanese games will most likely still have
      original music. My musical tastes lean heavily toward Japanese game music, so I will ignore U.S. created game music.
    • "and I'll cry myself to sleep the next time I play a title who's full score is by some craptacular pop-group"

      Don't worry, they can do their worst and they'll still never be able to take our EarthBound away!

    • Yeah, same here. I really love soundtrack music, especially game music and game music remixes (RKO and OCRemix being my favorite music sites), and it's 90% of the music I listen to. And I've always thought that adding "external" music is nice, but the focus on the soundtracks should always be on the original score, not on these hit singles or whatever's on the radio. Recognizable tunes have their time and place, but that place isn't All Over The Thing.

      Personally I wish that there would be a Big Music Hit

  • I liked the Gran Turismo soundtracks -- they make great driving soundtracks (in real life).

  • Umm.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by eddy ( 18759 ) on Thursday January 01, 2004 @09:13AM (#7852220) Homepage Journal

    Not sure what to add to that, but Machinae Supremacy [machinaesupremacy.com] is inspired [gazonk.org] by game music and they've done game music [google.com]. But since you've reading this story you knew that already ;-)

    As for stand-alone soundtracks for Games I think that's going to be a niche for a very long time, but one that I think is worth having. Jeremy Soule [jeremysoule.com] and Inon Zur [inonzur.com] have done a lot of good music for games (BG, IWD, etc). Robert Holmes did good work on the GK games too (also available on soundtrack in the now somewhat-hard-to-get Gabriel Knight Mysteries (Limited Edition) package).

  • Game Inspired Bands? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gothic_Walrus ( 692125 ) on Thursday January 01, 2004 @09:41AM (#7852277) Journal
    Just a heads up for those of you who don't know...there are plenty of great bands that do covers of video game music.

    The Neskimos [neskimos.com] do punk rock covers of NES songs

    Te Minibossses [minibosses.com] are more of a ska band. Like the Neskimos, they mainly cover NES era game music.

    Hard rock more your style? Try Game Over [nintendometal.com], a self-described "Nintendo Metal" band. Not very much up for download on their site, but what's there is good.

    And let's not forget OC Remix [ocremix.org], the unofficial hub for remixes of game music.

    The cool thing is, a lot of this music is actually quite good. Give it a shot. And by the way...yes, all of the MP3s on these pages are legal to download. Enjoy. :)

  • I would buy more game soundtracks if they were available here. Residing in Aust, the only game soundtracks I have come from imported titles or came bundled with some PC games. I know for a fact that a lot of japanese games have soundtracks launched in conjunction with the release of the game, like how soundtracks come out in parallel with Hollywood movies. importing the soundtracks of out of the queston because they are just so damn expensive... yesasia [slashdot.org] has many japanese cds but check out the prices.

    Anothe
    • When I did research it seemed that cdjapan [cdjapan.co.jp] was the cheapest. There's also animejungle shop for used stuff, it can turn out somewhat cheaper. I'm not sure if they carry game OSTs, but probably cdjapan does.

      But yes, the new ones are quite expensive, around $24-30. However, the older are around 2000Y ~ $16-18.

    • Even if you try to cut out the importing portion of acquiring game soundtracks...you end up dropping mad coin. There's a store here in the Dallas-area that sells a lot of soundtracks, but they're generally 20-30 USD. It's called Anime POP!, if anyone cared...
  • vgmix [vgmix.com]. Only trouble is the guys who run that site are a real bunch of assholes....some clown named Jake (virt) and his girlfriend. There are some good tunes there, but the admins are the ideal pimply-faced nerds who have nothing better to do than go on lock posts and send you nasty PMs whenever you don't agree with them. They also had the exceptionally retarded idea of making the entire web site into a MMORPG, so they'll prohibit you from doing certain things on the site if you haven't "gained enough lev
  • Videogames are not the new radio (a free
    distribution channel which provides exposure
    to bands to sell a distinct medium), but the
    new CD (primary delivery vehicle for content
    licenses).

  • How about no, Scott (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lvdrproject ( 626577 ) on Thursday January 01, 2004 @01:40PM (#7853303) Homepage
    I hate to be an elitist, but most of this crap isn't 'game music', any more than DMX and 50 Cent are 'movie music'. What's happening is not game music gaining recognition. What's happening is (mostly American) game developers recognising that stealing songs off MTV and sticking them in games is profitable. HOORAY. I would have never guessed that the trash that stays at number one on TRL is the same kind of music that people would like in games!

    The real game music artists are the people like Nobuo Uematsu, Motoi Sakuraba, Sound Team jdk, and Yasunori Mitsuda. While the article mentions the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor soundtracks (composed by Michael Giacchino and Chris Lennertz, respectively), which is cool, those are definitely not the focus of the 'recognition' that game music is supposedly gaining. Compilations of licensed rubbish are the kind of 'game music' that's gaining recognition.

    The American game developers (primarily EA, of course, but EA probably owns 80% of the American game industry anyway) have discovered that it's not only easier and cheaper to license music, but it's also more profitable, because now they can make money off the compilation albums. When they start selling even the basest of real game soundtracks (like Final Fantasy) domestically, then we can talk about game music gaining recognition. :(

    • For some reason, U.S. publishers don't seem to want to release the *entire* Japanese soundtrack (minus vocals, which often have separate licensed examples)

      If you remember, TokyoPop used to release some game Square soundtracks, but they were all not complete soundtracks. Final Fantasy 9 is a 4 CD soundtrack in Japan, but when TokyoPop published it in the U.S., it was a 1 CD "Best of" album. Likewise, they did the same thing to Final Fantasy Chronicles. Instead of releasing the entire soundtracks to those
      • Yeah, they sometimes do release chopped-up soundtracks. They did that with Final Fantasy N Generation and Final Fantasy S generation. They had a small soundtrack with Final Fantasy Anthology, as well, and Silent Hill 3 also comes with a soundtrack (which is almost exactly the same thing as the Japanese OST, minus a song or two, i think). The thing is, i don't think it would matter, even if they did start releasing full OSTs to the 'general' public, especially in America. It would end up being a waste of mon
    • There is a whole world of music out there composed for North American games. Of course there is good music in Japanese games, but they have a different market and and game music soemtimes becomes pop tunes. Don't discount North American game music. Check out http://www.music4games.net/
      • Aye, there certainly is some good non-Japanese composing done. I can think of several domestic soundtracks that i've liked (SimCity 2000/3000, MoH, Earthworm Jim, &c....). If i came off as though i don't appreciate North-American composers, forgive me; i was focussing more on the licensed-music issue. Either way, good though American composers may be, the fact remains that most people don't care. There are no 20-inch rims and blunts and thongs in any of this sort of music, so nobody wants to listen to i
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Amen to that. My personal fav is Uematsu who looks a little different than I thought as seen in this photo from Time's 100 innovators [time.com].
  • people like game soundtracks? The music or muzak is the first thing I turn off when I install a game. It distracts me from the SFX.
    Its OK in cutsceens.
    But if the music is from pop or rock or whatever artists, it gets repetitive, thats where my own collection comes in.
  • Have you ever heard the Mario Bros. theme done by a 90-piece orchestra? It's beautiful.

    No, as it happens.
    A quick Altavista search [altavista.com] delivers the goods, I must try it out on my classical-music-snob associate, ask him if he can identify it:)

    • I must try it out on my classical-music-snob associate, ask him if he can identify it:)

      No need to check with him... the most common orchestrated version found on the Internet is from the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra's Orchestral Game Concert series of CDs (I think CD 1). Unfortunately... finding a legal copy of this is very hard... Soundtrack Central [altpop.com] rates it as being "extinct."

  • Are far better than licensed music in my opinion. Licenced music does take some talent and creativity to select suitable tracks, but it's nowhere near the talent adn work that goes into making a good original soundtrack. That's why I'm glad that all of our games have had music composed specifically for them. It makes the experience more immersive.
    • Some of the best game soundtracks were for 7th Guest and 11th Hour, courtesy of The Fat Man [fatman.com]. The music really added to the creepiness of the games.

      It's not often that the music developer is given as big a credit as George was given in these games' liner notes. It does help that he... wrote the first General MIDI soundtrack for a game, the first direct-to-MIDI live recording of musicians, the first redbook soundtrack included with the game as a separate disk, the first music for a game that was conside

  • game music, rather than music related to a game.
    " Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack, of which "...the most popular CD, 'V-Rock,' sold 42,300 copies.""

    I don't recall V-Rock being loaded with comositions I'd be familiar with if I played MegaMan, Devil May Cry, Contra, Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, Mario, Zelda, etc. In fact, I think it was loaded with that pop music stuff from the 1980s which I don't really care for except for nostalgia.

    Wake me when people know the composer for MegaMan's music withou
  • "If anyone musically-oriented actually thought Uematsu was any good, don't you think he'd have moved on from composing goddamn video game music?"
    --Jonathan McArthur [google.com]

    This, of course, refers to actual video game music, not music that was just put into a video game.

    Rob (waits patiently for VG music fans to mod this post down)
    • He is. He only contributed a few tracks to the past couple FF games.

      Contrast this with the absolutely brilliant Yasunori Mitsuda, who delivered amazing work with Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and a little for Xenosaga... but has largely moved on as well.

    • Um, I didn't know video game music was such an disreputable field that artists were hurried to "move on" from it. The game music is probably just as interesting to do as movie music, and probably just as challenging and artistically rewarding.

      Nobuo Uematsu is probably more than competent if he can create music that's memorable enough on a freaking NES. That box didn't exactly have the capacity to distract people with kewl soundz and composers needed to get the melody right. Horror.

      And back in the NES da

  • And Kids, remember Crapradio! [crapradio.com],
    your friendly-neighborhood-game-related-only-streaming- radio.
  • The Guilty Gear series has some awsome music.

  • I don't buy, I download. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I don't buy game sountracks. I download them. WHY? because they're not AVAILABLE TO BUY.

    The only game soundtrack I own is the one from Wipeout XL. And I only own that because by some stroke of luck I just HAPPENED to come across it once by accident.

    There IS no game sountrack section in music stores, and if you are lucky there will ONE game soundtrack available in the whole store to purchase. If you're VERY lucky you might find five.

    With no selection, I have no inclination to constantly go to the mus
    • As mentioned earlier on Slashdot [slashdot.org] in a similar discussion on videogame music and soundtracks and how music companies need to change their gameplan to survive, videogame soundtracks are available at your local Best Buy, Amazon.com, and other retail outlets. BB even advertised the SSX3 soundtrack in their sales flyer the week that it was released.
      • Right. Either the million sellers or the Niche* title which people spend money on importing anyway.

        Trying going into Best Buy and finding the Black Mages [gamemusic.com] CD. And thats one of many, many things that will more that likely never see a release stateside until VG music becomes profitable over the counter.

        *Read: Final Fantasy

        I don't have a problem downloading music for games I technically own. No one should have to pay 50$ just to hear music they technicaly own. I do try and import fun things like that,
  • Sure, its easy to point out the growing importance of music on the continental side of things. Some how though I think the person who wrote this thinks that all games are either made for America or made to suit Americas need.

    The quote:"Once an afterthought in the production process, video game soundtracks increasingly use original music to reach new listeners who blur traditional entertainment boundaries", followed directly by "Record companies are realizing that this is the new radio," and the use of sa

Slashdot Top Deals

"When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical." -- Jon Carroll

Close