6 ms·

How Video Games Changed Popular Music

58 points by simulate 11y ago

JonnieCache 11y ago
The influence on UK urban music particularly cannot be doubted. Check out this mix: https://soundcloud.com/kodenine/kode9-sinogrime-minimix-2005 https://soundcloud.com/kodenine/kode9-sinogrime-minimix-2005 Especially the tune that comes in just after 6 minutes, and the one which follows it at around 8:30. They could be straight out of a (S)NES game, as could much of grime records from those days. While its now coveted by hipsters/nerds, at the time it was ghetto music. There's still nothing like it out there which has the same effect. EDIT: heres another couple. these could be straight from the secret of mana soundtrack or something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2dLHrpOlY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2dLHrpOlY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vehT9HG6gbo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vehT9HG6gbo as a bonus heres that first one in its natural habitat, with vocals :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQra9nENdzA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQra9nENdzA One of the MCs in that clip is now a chart-topping pop star. This one actually reached number 31 in the charts itself, and I'm pretty sure some of the percussion is actually sampled from a gameboy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8PeDsO0vGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8PeDsO0vGo
drcode 11y ago
Strange to write an article like this without mentioning the SID chip (though I suppose SID chip-inspired music is more of an underground phenomenon, with less influence on popular culture.)
- Roboprog 11y ago
  C-64, right? I loved playing with the 64's sound back in the college lab.
- tokenrove 11y ago
  Especially to omit things like the several appropriations of SID tunes by popular musicians; Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation might be the most successful example, but there were a few scandals around pop artists sampling tunes from the demo scene, too, as I recall.
- Malstrond 11y ago
  >SID chip-inspired [...] with less influence on popular culture. If you count straight up plagiarism as less influence, certainly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbaland_plagiarism_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbaland_plagiarism_controver...
synthmeat 11y ago
The article goes from adoration of few particular video game composers/engineers (not undeserved one, mind you), to presenting few tidbits that attempt to show very tentative link to pop music and blowing it up to "changed popular music" doesn't do justice to either creative genres. One just needs to listen to few Japanese synthpop bands from the 70s like P-Model or Yellow Magic Orchestra to see which direction stream of influence was flowing back then. I'm pressed very hard to believe that bleeps and blops of the 70s arcade cabinets impressed any musician, when you had much more powerful tools to do synthesis far more advanced and relatively inexpensive. After its peak in the late 80s, as far as pop music was concerned, synth went in sort of hiatus, to come back slowly in last decade or less, and still, bleeps and blops are just a single drawer in an immense cabinet of instruments employed. I admit not to play too many games recently, but from what I've seen in AAA titles, it's dominated with bland orchestral ambientals. There's still no adaptive phrasing, AI composition, and really no intelligence behind it all. The medium holds immense potential, but I'm still waiting for it to unlock itself. We had serialism (though I don't enjoy it myself) almost 100 years ago. What's the hold-up? I hope this doesn't fall under gratuitous negativity. I just don't see it.
- chillingeffect 11y ago
  > I hope this doesn't fall under gratuitous negativity. I just don't see it. I agree. I love chiptunes and the demoscene to death, but people (nostalgically) overstate their influence and underestimate the musical ability of early video game designers. The simple fact is that the space of video games and pop music is too damn large to nail down any large veins in 11 paragraphs. Since about 1992, there has been so much activity in this space fueled by technological advances in audio hardware and software driving composition, publishing, synthesis, gameplay, etc. that a dissertation could be written about every five year period over the last 25 years. The VGM world has taken at least three major shifts since SMB. 1. The shift to using whole mp3 tracks, a la PS1. 2. The shift to multi-track recorded audio, instead of chiptune/wave synthesis. 3. The shift to dynamically generated audio (see SSX for great examples). The first quite simply was pop music (with a techno edge). The second certainly lagged pop music. The third one has nothing to do with pop music. > bleeps and blops of the 70s arcade cabinets impressed any musician, agree. > still no adaptive phrasing, AI composition, It doesn't exactly exist, but there is at least adaption through bringing in layers, changing volumes, triggering phrases, scene synthesis through location/reverb, etc. Although this has even less to do with pop music which is still blocks of 3.5 minute audio, although there was a remix/mashup trend a few years ago, it's faded.
Zikes 11y ago
While the article focuses on older videogame music, I think more recent examples show the complex relationship between mainstream popular music and videogames. Artists like Austin Wintory (composer for TGC's Journey and Monaco), Darren Korb (Bastion, Transistor), and Michael McCann (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) have created music that would not be out of place on the radio, but create a distinct ambience and mood intended to enhance a setting rather than make the music itself the primary focus. Because it can be so entertaining without being too distracting, videogame soundtracks are primarily what I listen to while I'm writing code.
- talles 11y ago
  I love Deus Ex: Human Revolution theme song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7fNPiNiNc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7fNPiNiNc
  - Zikes 11y ago
    I'm looking forward to more from the new Mankind Divided game!
- Roboprog 11y ago
  My 19 year old daughter has a big collection of video game music she uses to stay in flow while she is studying, also. She is rather fond of the stuff. I don't, but I do appreciate that sometimes a long instrumental piece is better background for working than a "sing along anthem" type of music.
- joshburgess 11y ago
  Bastion and Transistor have amazing atmosphere for being such simple games. The music and narration adds so much.
- scott_s 11y ago
  Modern Western games tend to be closer to movie soundtracks in that regard. Personally, some of my recent favorites for just that thing are the work of Skyrim (Jeremy Soule), Darksiders II (Jesper Kyd) and Dishonored (Daniel Licht, Jon Licht, Voodoo Highway, and Copilot Strategic Sound).
Dirlewanger 11y ago
Not a whole lot of supporting evidence for how it "changed popular music", rather it just becoming more sophisticated as time went on by the technology allowing for more complex structures and bringing in well-known artists. Video game music is still very much a niche genre, regardless of how complex it is. Surprised Michael Jackson wasn't mentioned for his helping out with the Sonic 3 soundtrack, probably one of the greatest from the 16 bit era.
mrampton 11y ago
There's a pretty awesome documentary series 'Diggin' in the Carts' done by Red Bull that traces the impact of 8 and 16 bit era music. From the youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtbJmr1WtatcUO5smuoPDUEATfYZ1V6mt https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtbJmr1WtatcUO5smuoPD... "Diggin' in the Carts" is the untold story of the men and women behind the most globally influential music to come out of Japan. This six-part documentary series will delve into the history of 8-bit and 16-bit music, and the impact it has left in the world of video games and music."
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

58 points by simulate 11y ago

The influence on UK urban music particularly cannot be doubted. Check out this mix: https://soundcloud.com/kodenine/kode9-sinogrime-minimix-2005 https://soundcloud.com/kodenine/kode9-sinogrime-minimix-2005 Especially the tune that comes in just after 6 minutes, and the one which follows it at around 8:30. They could be straight out of a (S)NES game, as could much of grime records from those days. While its now coveted by hipsters/nerds, at the time it was ghetto music. There's still nothing like it out there which has the same effect. EDIT: heres another couple. these could be straight from the secret of mana soundtrack or something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2dLHrpOlY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2dLHrpOlY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vehT9HG6gbo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vehT9HG6gbo as a bonus heres that first one in its natural habitat, with vocals :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQra9nENdzA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQra9nENdzA One of the MCs in that clip is now a chart-topping pop star. This one actually reached number 31 in the charts itself, and I'm pretty sure some of the percussion is actually sampled from a gameboy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8PeDsO0vGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8PeDsO0vGo

drcode 11y ago

Strange to write an article like this without mentioning the SID chip (though I suppose SID chip-inspired music is more of an underground phenomenon, with less influence on popular culture.)

Roboprog 11y ago
C-64, right? I loved playing with the 64's sound back in the college lab.
tokenrove 11y ago
Especially to omit things like the several appropriations of SID tunes by popular musicians; Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation might be the most successful example, but there were a few scandals around pop artists sampling tunes from the demo scene, too, as I recall.
Malstrond 11y ago
>SID chip-inspired [...] with less influence on popular culture. If you count straight up plagiarism as less influence, certainly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbaland_plagiarism_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbaland_plagiarism_controver...

synthmeat 11y ago

The article goes from adoration of few particular video game composers/engineers (not undeserved one, mind you), to presenting few tidbits that attempt to show very tentative link to pop music and blowing it up to "changed popular music" doesn't do justice to either creative genres. One just needs to listen to few Japanese synthpop bands from the 70s like P-Model or Yellow Magic Orchestra to see which direction stream of influence was flowing back then. I'm pressed very hard to believe that bleeps and blops of the 70s arcade cabinets impressed any musician, when you had much more powerful tools to do synthesis far more advanced and relatively inexpensive. After its peak in the late 80s, as far as pop music was concerned, synth went in sort of hiatus, to come back slowly in last decade or less, and still, bleeps and blops are just a single drawer in an immense cabinet of instruments employed. I admit not to play too many games recently, but from what I've seen in AAA titles, it's dominated with bland orchestral ambientals. There's still no adaptive phrasing, AI composition, and really no intelligence behind it all. The medium holds immense potential, but I'm still waiting for it to unlock itself. We had serialism (though I don't enjoy it myself) almost 100 years ago. What's the hold-up? I hope this doesn't fall under gratuitous negativity. I just don't see it.

chillingeffect 11y ago
> I hope this doesn't fall under gratuitous negativity. I just don't see it. I agree. I love chiptunes and the demoscene to death, but people (nostalgically) overstate their influence and underestimate the musical ability of early video game designers. The simple fact is that the space of video games and pop music is too damn large to nail down any large veins in 11 paragraphs. Since about 1992, there has been so much activity in this space fueled by technological advances in audio hardware and software driving composition, publishing, synthesis, gameplay, etc. that a dissertation could be written about every five year period over the last 25 years. The VGM world has taken at least three major shifts since SMB. 1. The shift to using whole mp3 tracks, a la PS1. 2. The shift to multi-track recorded audio, instead of chiptune/wave synthesis. 3. The shift to dynamically generated audio (see SSX for great examples). The first quite simply was pop music (with a techno edge). The second certainly lagged pop music. The third one has nothing to do with pop music. > bleeps and blops of the 70s arcade cabinets impressed any musician, agree. > still no adaptive phrasing, AI composition, It doesn't exactly exist, but there is at least adaption through bringing in layers, changing volumes, triggering phrases, scene synthesis through location/reverb, etc. Although this has even less to do with pop music which is still blocks of 3.5 minute audio, although there was a remix/mashup trend a few years ago, it's faded.

Zikes 11y ago

While the article focuses on older videogame music, I think more recent examples show the complex relationship between mainstream popular music and videogames. Artists like Austin Wintory (composer for TGC's Journey and Monaco), Darren Korb (Bastion, Transistor), and Michael McCann (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) have created music that would not be out of place on the radio, but create a distinct ambience and mood intended to enhance a setting rather than make the music itself the primary focus. Because it can be so entertaining without being too distracting, videogame soundtracks are primarily what I listen to while I'm writing code.

talles 11y ago
I love Deus Ex: Human Revolution theme song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7fNPiNiNc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7fNPiNiNc
- Zikes 11y ago
  I'm looking forward to more from the new Mankind Divided game!
Roboprog 11y ago
My 19 year old daughter has a big collection of video game music she uses to stay in flow while she is studying, also. She is rather fond of the stuff. I don't, but I do appreciate that sometimes a long instrumental piece is better background for working than a "sing along anthem" type of music.
joshburgess 11y ago
Bastion and Transistor have amazing atmosphere for being such simple games. The music and narration adds so much.
scott_s 11y ago
Modern Western games tend to be closer to movie soundtracks in that regard. Personally, some of my recent favorites for just that thing are the work of Skyrim (Jeremy Soule), Darksiders II (Jesper Kyd) and Dishonored (Daniel Licht, Jon Licht, Voodoo Highway, and Copilot Strategic Sound).

Dirlewanger 11y ago

Not a whole lot of supporting evidence for how it "changed popular music", rather it just becoming more sophisticated as time went on by the technology allowing for more complex structures and bringing in well-known artists. Video game music is still very much a niche genre, regardless of how complex it is. Surprised Michael Jackson wasn't mentioned for his helping out with the Sonic 3 soundtrack, probably one of the greatest from the 16 bit era.

mrampton 11y ago

There's a pretty awesome documentary series 'Diggin' in the Carts' done by Red Bull that traces the impact of 8 and 16 bit era music. From the youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtbJmr1WtatcUO5smuoPDUEATfYZ1V6mt https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtbJmr1WtatcUO5smuoPD... "Diggin' in the Carts" is the untold story of the men and women behind the most globally influential music to come out of Japan. This six-part documentary series will delve into the history of 8-bit and 16-bit music, and the impact it has left in the world of video games and music."

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]