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Music Media Entertainment Games

MTV Nominates Game Tracks, Misses Point 109

Posted by Zonk from the feh dept.
1up.com is reporting that MTV's Video Music Awards has a 'Best Video Game Soundtrack' in the mix this year. However, as usual, MTV misses the point. From the article: "Dance Dance Revolution Extreme, Madden NFL 2005, Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition, Def Jam Fight for NY, and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 have all been nominated. Unsurprisingly, the reason these games have been nominated isn't because they feature charming, interesting, moving symphonic scores." Good job for highlighting more cookie cutter Top 40's crap, MTV. Way to go.
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MTV Nominates Game Tracks, Misses Point More

MTV Nominates Game Tracks, Misses Point

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  • There's a reason it's top 40 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BlackCobra43 ( 596714 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @02:36PM (#13179043)
    Some people, brace yourself for this, enjoy it. I hate this illogical "If nobody likes it then it must be good" "underground" mentality shared by "counterculture" advocates. Get your favorites out there instead fo whining how nobody is giving your unpopular tastes the attention you feel they deserve.

    Man, this IS going to be a flamewar.

    • Re:There's a reason it's top 40 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ZephyrXero ( 750822 ) <zephyrxero AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @02:48PM (#13179159) Homepage Journal
      That's not the problem... That music is fine for a "licensed video game music" category...but we'd all much rather see actual video game scores nominated. Nominating those soundtracks is like nominating the NOW CDs and other compilations... When you see best soundtrack at the Oscars, they're talking about original music made specifically for that movie...but then again, Mtv's not that credible of a source for anything these days :P
      • Whattaya mean these days?
      • but we'd all much rather see actual video game scores nominated.

        Then they need to create a category called "Best Video Game Score".

        From what I'm reading here, this is a category for "Best Video Game Soundtrack", which is a completely different animal. Scores and soundtracks are not the same thing.

        It's fine if you want to complain about them not having a Best Score category, and if you want to petition them about that, go right ahead. But I don't see the point in complaining that scores aren't included in
        • Why do people keep saying that??? No. The score is any music created specifically for a game/movie. The soundtrack is merely what music was used in the movie/game. A soundtrack can contain just the score, licensed music and the score, or just the licensed stuff. Some movies will release a seperate licensed/"inspired by" soundtrack and a score only soundtrack, but they're both soundtracks.

          Here's some quick references: Soundtrack (wikipedia) [wikipedia.org], Soundtrack (Dictionary.com) [reference.com], and Score (wikipedia) [wikipedia.org]
      • Mtv's not that credible of a source for anything these days

        MTV hasn't changed. The point of MTV has never been to be deep, but has always been, from day one, on the top 40 of music, video, movies, or anything else in pop culture. It is the vanillia tapioca that Ray Bradbury talked about in "Fahrenheit 451." It is the most popular, most shallow part of culture. It never has been, and never was intended to be, anything but the latest big thing and the newest fad.

        And there's nothing wrong with that. It is
        • ...well by that definition I grew out of it when I turned 14 ;P
        • I think most peoples' complaint is that MTV is now pretty much irrelevant to the music scene. I'd be surprised if they play an hour of music in an entire 24 hour period. When we were younger and MTV was playing the pop music of the day, they at least focused on music instead of "reality TV", celebrity wedding crap and the piss poor excuse for a music show called TRL. The biggest problem with MTV is not the music, but lack thereof.
      • By "we" you mean the 1% of us who actually like video game music, own Final Fantasy CDs, and maybe even attended the concert. I'm in that crowd.

        For the other 99%, there's MTV and their new "video game music" category.

        What we should all be doing, instead of complaining about MTV's crap, is asking more geek-oriented stations, magazines, and shows to consider an awards thing.
    • I think what he meant was they're doing a list of best music from games, when the games are just using the standard music that would otherwise be on the top 40 lists -- its not really 'game' music in the sense that a score from final fantasy or whatever is.
      • MTV is an equal employer for all those good looking people with no substance. Or people who know good looking people with no substance.

        Did you really expect them to make their judgement with their ears instead of their eyes. Last thing they want is some FAT ASS who made an original musical masterpiece and excepting an award on stage, bringing down ratings....

    • Personally I think it has more to do with the fact that these games typically tend to have similar styles or music that MTV itself would play, proivided it actually played music (sorry, but obligatory) or that the type of people who watch MTV most identify with or like listening to.

      If Chrono Cross (My favorite game soundtrack of all time) happened to be released this year, do you think it would have made the list despite the fact that I and a lot of other people think it's damned good? I don't think it wo

    • On the other side of the fence, are you implying that the "If everyone likes it then it must be good" "mainstream" mentality is good? Some people's taste in music just happens to not be what the public likes at the moment, and their are always going to be music snobs, but it doesn't make their opinions and statements any less valid just because they're arrogant and elitist about it.
    • The most informative sentence in the article is "This is MTV we're talking about, though".The games here are there strictly because of they have the same music you will find on M2 during the two hours a day they play music.

      They are not paid to encourage the underground. They aren't trying to expand our minds with anything new or revolutionary. If the candidates in this field were the kinds of scores that most of us would like to see, then the category wouldn't exist next year because the people who vote for
    • It's ok by me if a game uses pop music. Crazi Taxi featured some Bad Religion and Offspring, which matched the insane mood of the game perfectly. (DAMN I love that game!) Tony Hawk games do the same thing, using existing, high-engergy music that's *gasp* popular. That, I don't have a problem with. Some of us, myself included, might not get along real well with the kinds of disposable pop music that tend to be popular nowadays, and maybe that was your point, but I really think it's a seperate issue.

      It d
    • Yes, and I dare bet that any underground music awards will not include top-40 music, just like any classical music award show won't be nominating pop or underground.
      Similarly; Oscar awards go to popular hollywood movies whilst Cannes awards generally go to smaller budgetted flicks.

      We're talking MTV here, remember!
    • There's a reason it's top 40?

      Yeah. There sure is. [slashdot.org]

  • Don't you get it? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ivan256 ( 17499 ) * on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @02:43PM (#13179116)
    Good job for highlighting more cookie cutter Top 40's crap, MTV. Way to go.

    It's not about whether you like the music or hate it, or if it's popular or original or whatever... They get paid to advertise this music.
  • First off, I am, sadly, not particularly suprised at this development, simply because I rather suspect these games have soundtracks that are most accessible to MTV's audience, and from the sorts of games they would be most likely to be playing anyhow.

    This does not mean that I am not disappointed. After seeing increasing amounts of coverage and performance of more conventional video game soundtracks, I was under the impression that they had entered the mainstream far more than they actually have (for instan
  • Isn't there a difference between "Soundtrack" and "Score"?

    i.e., Something like "Best Score" should be included in a legitimate video game awards show. (Altho that doesn't exist).

    The article even says it..."Unsurprisingly, the reason these games have been nominated isn't because they feature charming, interesting, moving symphonic scores."

    Soundtrack is different and what this is representing.
    • nope.... Soundtrack simply means music used in the game/movie. It can be either score or licensed...you just see the licensed stuff more often in stores.
    • ...

      Wow. An intelligent comment on /..

      I think that the main beef the writer has about this is that it is a soundtrack category and not a score category. But, then again, a musical score tends to be, well, orchestral and instrumental, which are, sadly enough, not 'hip' or 'cool', just extremely well done and capable of playing with the viewer's emotions.

      Oh, and G4's award show, G-phoria (groan) two separate song categories: Best Liscenced Soundtrack (GTA:SA, Lumines, THUG2, Def Jam, Wipeout Pure) and Be

    • There is a legitimate video game awards ceremony. It's called the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (http://www.interactive.org/ [interactive.org]).

      It's not publicized much, broadcast on TV, nor is it open to the public.

      To be a voting member, you must have been actively employed in the games industry for at least 2 or more years, and be credited on 1 or more published commercial titles.

      The annual DICE summit is when the peer-based awards, the Interactive Achievement Awards, are given out, after months of voting. The
      • I guess I should clarify, since I moved things around before finalizing the post, and someone might decide to comment on my accidental misuse of terminology.

        There is a ceremony, which is part of the DICE summit. This is all run by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, which is the game industry equivalent of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
  • they're going to nominate games that feature pop music; this is MTV for crying out loud. It's the same with all the rest of their awards. "Best video" rarely goes to the really innovative videos (e.g., anything Tool has done); rather it goes to the latest Brittany revealing outfit trash. You want a real best video game soundtrack award, then you pay attention to the industry awards (interactive software association?), and not the popcorn awards...
    • I don't know if you've seen any of Kamelot's videos... They're a prog rock band. They do some crazy stuff too. They're kinda medieval fantasy themed, which is neat. Fairly talented too.

      Here's one: The Haunting [kamelot.com] Pardon the QuickTime, but it was either that or Real... And this is the lesser evil.

      I'd like to see these guys or Dream Theater score a game, that could get interesting.

      • Well, John Petrucci did do the score a Pinball videogame called "Necronomicon"...
        • Heh, neat. I'll ask him about that after the next show I go to - I know Mike Portnoy and am kinda acquainted with the rest of the band... They're hooking me up with tickets for the show in West Palm Beach on the 7th too. :D

          I know Rudess is really interested in doing movie scores, he's scored something before (don't remember what) and while we were talking about music (this was last year) he mentioned that he'd love to do another score. I dunno, I personally think that they could do a great job, or even jus

          • Kickass!! I saw Gigantour on the 26th, and they were fantastic.

            If you haven't heard them yet, I suggest you get *really* close for the Symphony X show too. They were excellent.
            • I definitely will check them out. I'm not too big on the other bands that are playing with them though, so I may only stay for part of the show. I'm not sure if my girl and my two pals that I'm bringing would want to sit through a whole bunch of other shows.

              Also, just curious, but how long did DT play? Was it one of their usual 2-3 hour sets or shorter because of all the other bands?

              Hehe, this thread is getting way off the topic of the article. Oh well.

              • The other bands weren't really all that good. Mostly that really heavy kind of metalcore full of growling voices and D-tuning. If they're DT fans, they might not want to stay for those. If you can, you might want to find out the schedule and show up later, as SyX and DT were later in the show.

                And yes, the DT set was one of their shorter, approx 1 hr. 30 min. ones, because of all the other bands. Fitting 7 bands into even 7 hours doesn't leave much time for all. The bands on the second stage (Bobaflex, D

  • Feh? (Score:2)

    by Otter ( 3800 )
    Where does this sudden surge in the usage of "Feh" come from? To anyone with any familiarity with Yiddish, it comes across as idiotically as if my grandmother started saying "Fo' shizzle!"
    • Fo Shizzle, ma shugenah

      peace, O.G. (Original Goyim)

    • Re:Feh? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Z0mb1eman ( 629653 )
      *geek mode on*

      Actually, one possible source of its popularity is that it's a favourite saying of Inuyasha, the main character in the anime of the same name, used generally along the same lines as "bah". It's a 3-letter exclamation, I suspect trying to track its many origins would be entirely futile... last time I checked Japanese != Yiddish.

      *geek mode off*

      (sadly, the above is the most interesting I can post given such an obvious troll of a story...)
  • I disagree. Like all the Hawk games, THUG 2 has a great soundtrack [ign.com]. If the author of this article disagrees so strongly why don't they list games that they feel were slighted along with some kind of justification?

    • Unless I'm mistaken, all of the tony hawk games use licensed music for the soundtrack. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a "best soundtrack" award when you consider soundtracks that aren't *original* music.

      I don't think the author cares who MTV picks, so long as they pick from actual video game scores, rather than existing recorded music.

      Of course, this whole discussion is pointless - nobody would expect MTV to do anything other than pick games that contain music that is popular on MTV. It's commerc

  • MTV _does_ put out cookie-cutter crap. Every time I hear or see that channel it is either some guy rapping about how he beats his bizitches and smokes weed, some sk8r grrl video or some emo dribble.

    Original music is gone. A very large portion of the people on that channel don't even write their own music (and in a lot of cases don't even perform it ala Ashlee Simpson). Channels like MTV seem to support the bastardization of America's youth.
    • Remember, MTV doesn't put out anything. They simply regurgitate the videos that their market research indicates will gain them the best advertising dollars based on the viewers they target.

      Basically, they play crap because the majority of teenagers want crap.

      • Re:Like the comment or not, it is true (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Momoru ( 837801 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @03:08PM (#13179364) Homepage Journal
        But the majority of teenagers want crap cuz crap is all that is on the radio. Anything played repeditively will gain people liking it. Even though I've hated Nelly and Killers songs at first, once you hear them enough they catch on...I think if Clear Channel played Badly Drawn Boy and Decemberists they would get on MTV too. (Modest Mouse's recent popularity as an example)
  • They have missed the point. They might as well call the award "Best group of songs we already gave awards to that happen to be in a video game" The best videogame soundtrack this past year, by FAR, has got to be God of War.
  • If there were a REAL video game music award, Katamari Damacy would have to be nominated. Each track is completely different, like a unique little jewel of pure musical joy.

    And the soundtrack's got EVERYTHING from techno to big band.

  • Different Meaning (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nytewynd ( 829901 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @03:01PM (#13179299)
    MTV isn't handing out the award for best video game composition or score. They are handing out an award that best represents the types of music that the audience of MTV would like in a video game.

    They are essentially awarding the song that is best licensed to be in a game that is already a favorite song of the MTV population. You can't fault them for it either. If this were a video game awards show, it would be different. This is a show about music videos though. People watching want to see Eminem get an award, not some random Japanese dude. You have to play to your target audience.
  • At least they're offering programming than is some way/shape/form relates to music, which they really haven't done much of since the early 90's. =O)
  • Good job for highlighting more cookie cutter Top 40's crap, MTV. Way to go.
    Hey, at least we know what to expect from them. That saves a whole lot of trouble in deciding what to do with your free time.

  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Ki Master George ( 768244 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @03:05PM (#13179345)
    Why wasn't GTA:SA nominated? It has lots of fun stuff on the radio--suprisingly for a video game, it actually got quite a few good song to put on the rock stations. It's fun listening to the hillbillies on the country stations, too....

    And after all, I'd think that MTV would like sex mini-games.

  • You know, if they want to put together this kind of an award, whatever. But it really irks my taters when they proceed to mess up the nominee list. I mean, did they even play Burnout 3!? That soundtrack rocked!
    • "I mean, did they even play Burnout 3!? That soundtrack rocked!"

      I agree, I just finished crossposting how much I loved the Atreyu, Finger Eleven, Funeral for a Friend, Futurehead, New Found Glory, The Von Bondies, and Yellowcard songs in both my MySpace profile and in my LiveJournal. (-1, sarcastic troll)

      Burnout 3 had the most irritating soundtrack I could ever imagine. I guess I just don't get the whole mallpunk scene. I replaced the soundtrack with the Katamari Damacy soundtrack, which made it a l
    • Sure, if you like cookie-cutter, everything sounds the same music. I guess it would have fit in with MTV.

  • Top 40 crap (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 77Punker ( 673758 ) <(spencr04) (at) (highpoint.edu)> on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @03:11PM (#13179401)
    Sure, most of that is boring standard MTV fare. However, some of the songs on the Tony Hawk games are incredibly obscure, although the latest version doesn't include anything that's all that hard to find. Go looking at any top 40 and see if Dead Boys or the Germs ever had a single hit song.
    • I was quite amazed to see some of my friends bands on the THUG and THUG2 soundtracks.

      The Browns (from Calgary) in THUG

      and Three Inches of Blood from Vancouver in THUG2

      I guess some skater out there liked the stuff enough to put em in the game.
  • This is news how?

    This matters how?

  • Good job for highlighting more cookie cutter Top 40's crap, MTV. Way to go.

    Uh, what exactly do you think MTV is for?

  • Is this really news? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Beer Moon ( 894244 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @03:47PM (#13179858)
    People still watch MTV? That's news to me!!
  • C'mon... this is MTV. Yeah they suck, but nobody should be acting surprised. It'll be a cold day in hell when MTV has Uematsu playing piano on stage.
  • Should say "Best Use of Licensed Music In A Game".

    Of course this IS MTV. It wouldn't know music even it bit MTV in the collective rear.
  • ...at least I don't think they are. I mean, look at the song list for THUG2. http://playstation.about.com/od/news/a/thug2sound t rack.htm [about.com] It's stuff like The Doors, Ramones, Handsome Boy Modeling School and Aesop Rock. These aren't the same songs you would hear on MTV or M2. It is a game track that fits into the MTV mold of what a game track is. They didn't pick the games because they feature all top 40 hits.
  • As everyone and their mother has pointed out, this is MTV, and these types of nominations are expected. But this is the MTV Video Music awards (not a fan of that name, btw), an awards show which is not even remotely centered around video games. In fact, their nominations are perfectly appropriate given the setting. I think that Zonk and the article's author "missed the point", in terms of the "point" and target audience of the MTV Video Music awards.

    Not that I don't think "Best videogame score" should be
  • Of course MTV is going to nominate music from games that have bands that MTV plays videos for. What do you think MTV's award shows are?

    They advertising that can sell advertisgin time.

    • Exactly, why is anyone surprised or appalled by MTV anymore? It's trashy tv which doesn't have anything to do with music, except maybe MTV2 or Hits.... I'll just skip this like I skipped SpikeTV's game awards show...
  • Any soundtrack nomination list for games from this last year that fails to include Katamari Damashii is clearly without merit.
  • They could have nominated Burnout 3.

    Holy hell, that's some obnoxious music. I mean, I like the Ramones and all, though after hearing "Blitzkrieg Bop" in the context of exploding cars, I'm prepared to burn my decades-old T-shirt. All the other music happens to be washed-out dreadful 1.5-chord flaming emo rock with white guys singing out of their noses.

    Great game, though. Plays like a dream.

  • I think the poster missed the point a bit (Score:3, Insightful)

    by quantax ( 12175 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2005 @10:49PM (#13182819) Homepage
    I can give a crap that its Top 40, Top 10 Classic Rock, or whatever; if the music was Led Zeppelin or something else not originally produced for video games, it does not matter: it is not original video game music, so dressing these awards up in this guise is a simple marketing plot. Much like the Oscars publically tries to recognize parts of production that you normally do not see a face for, I feel this should be the same for video games and should attempt to recognize some of those artists out there that are producing an original product for these games but we never get to see outside of perhaps an interview or game credit. Having 'pop' but original video game music would be a vast improvement to this marketing charade as atleast the contestants would be real.
  • you'd realize that, aside from a few token licenses, the vast majority of the music is created either in-house by Konami's musicians (many of whom are incredibly talented), or is done specifically for the game by freelancers. On top of that, it's not the kind of music you're going to hear on MTV anyway. I would agree that DDR Extreme does not belong on that list, but that's more due to Konami picking bad songs out of its library for that specific release (hands down the worst US DDR) than it being generic M
  • How can you expect MTV to get it right when the game industry itself can't get it right? Every year at GDC I go to the awards, and every year it's clear that far to many of the game industry musicians are would-be film composers trying to break in through gaming.

    The centerpoint of gaming is interactivity; not figuring out how to get your next project recorded by an orchestra. Thus, the focus should be as much on creative use of music in games to enhance the interactive experience as it is on the quality of
  • Darwinia has the most awesome soundtrack ive heard in a game in ages.

    Sort of 8bit infulenced progressive.

    http://www.darwinia.co.uk/store/soundtrack.html [darwinia.co.uk]

  • Ha! (Score:2)

    by Shanoyu ( 975 )
    The more they keep my music off MTV the better it remains.
  • Let me preface my comment by saying I haven't read the article (because I'm in a place that does not allow me access). But a lot of people are mentioning the Oscars as if they're some sort of award that isn't affected by marketing and what have you. Truth be known, it's actually quite the opposite. The winners of each year's Oscars are very much advertising influenced. Advertising of nominated movies is increased around Oscar time so the voters' choice of winners can be influenced. Here is a link [newyorkmetro.com] to a
  • They would have put Hitman: Contracts on that list. Now theres a game with a fantastic musical score, very well put together.
  • Honestly, Tales Of Symphonia for Gamecube had some of the damn best game music I've heard in a long time. But alas, you won't hear of this game being nominated on TV, and it's no suprise MTV nominated the shit that they did.

    Especially since it reminds me of the last time Spike TV had their own video game awards show, which was one hell of a disgrace and aimed at idiot's who don't know better. :p

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