MUS345

Music Project

Computer games characteristics separate them from other genres and how the environments in which they are played are unique in media/textual studies... The reading and writing spaces that computer games inspire already complex phenomenon and productive ones to study will increasingly become part of the younger generations cultural experience and shape the way writers use and produce texts.
Matthew S. S. Johnson (2006)
The subject at play: Computer games and composition studies, [Online]. 1, 94

Music Project
Video-Game Music and Film Music:
A Comparative Study

Stefan Putt (Music BA Hons)

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Video Games Live a prestigious concert where an orchestra will play popular music from Video Games

Ta b l e of Co n t e n t s

Preface & Acknowledgments

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1. Introduction

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A short section illustrating the subject matter and the distinctive points that this dissertation will cover. This chapter will cover a basic overview of the method I will be using within my analysis, whilst also focussing on covering the explaining rudimentary unique qualities that this medium holds within the genre of moving image.

2. Analysis
The core bulk of the dissertation; it contains an array of unique chapter headings that illustrates the distinctiveness of Video Game Music; within each Chapter heading there also four subsequent sub-headings that explain themselves through a variety of Visual, Audible and Academic means. The sections are listed below:

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a. From Bleeps & Bloops to Strings & Flutes Background & History b. Brothers In Arms Individualities within Video Game Music & Film Music c. The X-Box Factor Distinctive effects on Popular Culture d. Modern Warfare Differences in the Production Process e. Endgame Conclusion & Summary

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Bibliography & References

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Appendix

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A collection of scores that are contained in the Analysis sections of the essay to create an easier and tidier access to them. Also included is an interesting collection of additional documentation and information that expands on particular points that were raised in the dissertation.

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Preface

cknowledgements

First and foremost I would like to thank my fantastic tutor Dr. Nicholas Grew for listening and understanding my ideas whilst giving me an expert eye on my dissertation. I would also like to thank Dr. Michael McInerney and Armani Shepherd for helping me through this dissertation at every possible moment they could. I also extend a hand of thanks to Lee Whittock and Dr. Philip Hull for allowing me to run my initial ideas with them at the beginning of the 2011 Summer, whilst also sitting patiently and listening to my ideas and feeding me comments. It must also be noted that without Lee Whittocks help I would not have known how (or even been able) to get in contact with some fantastic video game composers such as Andy Brick, of which Andy Brick deserve a great thanks for sparing time in his busy schedule to allow me to interview him whilst pointing me in the right direction at some great academic works that he recommended. I would also like to thank my incredible partner Hanna Cooke for dedicating a lot of time and effort into helping me search for and through different areas of research, while also being incredibly empathetic and understanding towards the amount of work Ive had to put into this Dissertation. My two fantastic friends Melissa Brokenshire and Ross Yates also deserve acknowledgments for using their limited spare time to read over this dissertation even when they both had their degree examinations at the time. My parents have also been a fantastic help by proof-reading through multiple drafts of this dissertation and helping me resolve inevitable human error. Id also like to show my gratitude to the Plymouth University Library and the Plymouth City Library for having excellent facilities, and thus supplying me with copious amounts of research material whilst being extremely understanding about the length of time I checked out specific books for my research. I thank my helpful friends, of which are too numerous to mention, for their support, encouragement and any assistance they could possibly give. And finally, and most obviously, any error or inadequacies that may remain in this work, of course, the responsibility is entirely my own.

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CHAPTER 1

ntroduction
Though I have spent a considerable portion of my life interacting with the world of video games and the entertainment it provides, the main aspect of this medium that has completely fascinated me is the music and what purpose it has within the video game media. Ever since I obtained my first video game console (all those years ago), I have felt completely enthralled and almost obsessed with how the sound that has been created/arranged/composed (and more recently orchestrated) affects and shapes the players gameplay experience. It has captivated me how the composers use music as the catalyst to create emotional responses in order to achieve the desired response to certain parts of the game; whether it is a fast-paced repeated drone that creates tension, or a slow high pitched melodic passage that is used to evoke a sense of tranquillity within certain parts of gameplay. I blew into the bottom of the games cartridge (as was gaming custom for the Nintendo Entertainment System, as dust often blocked the connections inside) and placed it into the large, grey brick-like console. The first level of the game Super Mario Bros. began, and almost immediately a series of sounds started to beep and boop in an attempt to create background music, it started to make me tap my feet to the all too familiar rhythm, and even though I didnt think Nintendo Entertainment System much of it at the time, this melody would go on to become, undeniably, one of the most memorable pieces of music of the 20th Century, whilst continuing to be an inspiration to video game composers within the 21st Century; it has become so viral in fact that today, 66% of college students polled can hum its melody, even though many of them haven't played the game for years. (Belinkie, 1999 [pg. 1]) (1) As video games offer a rather unique field of study, I would argue that it is very difficult to compose academic theories without first confronting their production, consumption and practice. As Murray shows below, in her keynote talk titled, The Last Word on Ludology v. Narratology in Game Studies, that as a topic of academic inquiry, still in its infancy, video game music is uniquely free of prescriptive methodological approaches that would hinder my study. The advent of electronic games as a new entertainment and art form is sometimes treated as an event divorced from cultural history. Claims have been made for considering computer games studies as a field not merely differentiated by its objects of study, but as explicitly disconnected from the kinds of inquiry that have traditionally been applied to other cultural genres. (Murray, 2005 [pg. 1]) (2)
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Subsequently, due to the fragmentation of information about this burgeoning subject of music, the research and sources that are presented in this dissertation will be of a variegated nature; such as internet articles, academic studies and books, interviews, fan sites, video game magazines, and of course, the games themselves. The interviews and research that I have taken and used have come from a variety of professional staff that works within the field of video games; such as composers, and programmers, voice-over actors and sound designers; however these will be used as references to help supplement the academic research rather than being treated as academic verbatim per se. Video game music opens up a massively new and unique field of study compared to any other type of composition (especially in terms of composition for the moving image). For example, film music has a completely different method of audience participation; it tends to focus mainly on the visual and audible senses by giving a set of prearranged and fixed audio and video sequences that the audience can participate in. However, the music and subsequent participation is indistinguishable for every person (albeit a different singular experience for every person). The difference with video games is that the player actively participates within the media; the majority of video game music is determined by the players actions, for example, when a player actively enters a cave-like area the music will change in accordance to that specific action. Eugnie Shinkle confronts this by introducing the idea of musical diegesis in his paper titled, Feel It, Dont Think: The Significance of Affect in the Study of Digital Games. Both understand gameplay as a combination of diegetic and extradiegetic activity. Player activity, in other words, comprises both psychological and physiological responses, and involves two feedback loops which interact on complex levels. The diegetic loop refers to the players conscious interaction with an immediately responsive graphical and narrative interface. The extradiegetic loop involves the players corporeal response to the gaming environment as a whole. (Shinkle, 2005 [pg. 3]) (3)
* diegetic music that occurs within the narrative of the game.

Video game music also seems to illustrate its individuality, within composition for the moving image, by utilising interactivity, adaptability and dynamicity regarding the auditory aspects of the video game. Interactive Audio (Parfit, 2005 [29]) (4) is the term that describes audio that allow the player to actively control the sounds that are created; there is not fixed score, and thus, designated time for when these sounds are to be played. For example, in the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. (1985) when the player actively presses the button that operates the jumping action, a sound clip is played (See Track 1 of Video CD). (5) More examples of how the players/audience interacts with game sound are through actions such as, the time-limit running low, or the player running out of oxygen, such as in the Sega Megadrive game Sonic The Hedgehog 1 (1991) (See Track 2 of Video CD) (6), this is Adaptive Audio. (Berzins, 2009 [pg. 2]) (7) Dynamic Audio (Song, 2012) (8) deals with specific events influenced by the player that relates to changes in the environments, such as a transition to a snowy forested area, or an oceanic seabed etc. How the idea of interactive, adaptive and dynamic sounds creates inimitability within its field will be confronted further on in this Dissertation in much more detail in the subsequent chapters.
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CHAPTER 2

nalysis

From BLeeps and BLoops to Strings and Flutes

Background and History

Although I have mentioned how video games are still completely embryonic in terms of academic study, the video game medium has still been around long enough for the interest in their history and evolution to become prominent within both the academic world and the world of entertainment; each for their own specific objectives, which will be explored within this chapter. Whilst this academic studys purpose is to explore every tiny facet to prove that video game music and film music are different, they both have encountered comparable technological restraints and limitations that have disabled (and in some cases enabled) music from becoming successfully and appropriately integrated within their respective medium. One would believe that due to this technological restriction the compositional process had been intruded with, however this wasnt always the case; for example, in the 2004 Princeton Video Game Conference Robert Bowen claimed that: the limitations of early game systems encouraged early composers like Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) and Koji Kondo (Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda) to develop innovative techniques that resulted in what might be called the bleeps and bloops musical style. (Bowen, 2004) (9) It is actually these bleeps and bloops that Bowen refers to that have created such attractive musical artifices filled with rich tonalities, completely regardless of their pleasant simplicity very similar to the serialism of Schoenberg. (Bowen, 2004) (10) Nevertheless, even though there were many technical restraints at the conception of video games, that isnt to say that there are still many challenges that video game composers face at the present time, irrespective of the advanced high-quality media that can be used to incorporate mass amounts of data, video and music. Sexton describes that there is still a significant challenge that still exists in applying the narrative-enhancing features of film music to a game environment. (Sexton, 2008 [pg. 73]) (11) A comparable challenge emerges within film composition also, in the book Paradoxes of Interactivity: Perspectives for Media Theory, Seifert, Kim and Moore write how they have tried to create a visual [in this case, interactive] experience [within a film], one that bypasses pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious.
(Seifert/Kim/Moore, 2009 [pg. 272]) (12)

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If we were to look prior to the invention of the contemporary video game as we know it in the modern day, and looked at the more precursive games consoles it is clear that there were many differences behind the purposes of early film music and early video game music. The first occurrences of music in films or more precisely silent films were an indication of deterioration in the clearly engrained theatrical traditions in society. The main difference between the first video game music and early film music was their primary purpose, as Berndt shows in his book, The Functions of Music in Interactive Media; The primary task of musicians in movie theatres was to drown out the noise of the cinematograph. They were free to play any music that fits reasonably to the mood of the scene. Special Scores for the particular film were rare. The selection of music depended on personal favors, mood, musical repertoire and skills of the individual musicians. Classical works were performed next to banal pop songs and modern dances. They appeared in smaller and larger fragment and broke off in-between phrases quite often. (Sic) (Berndt, 2008 [pg. 3]) (13) For early film music, music really was purely auxiliary and used as a resolution to a problem rather than being a specific necessity that film producers required (although there were a few exceptions as there always is), this was different with video game music however. The first game to use music as a part of the gameplay was the arcade masterpiece known as Journey, of which exhibited music by the band Journey and features a variety of mini-games where the audience could travel to different planets with the band members to search for their missing instruments. This arcade game (along with the very first video games) was stored on simple analogue waveforms such as compact cassettes and phonograph records that were susceptible to breaking down and they often had to be either repaired or completely replaced. (Mitchell, 2012 [pg. 29]) (14) This became both expensive and Arcade game impracticable, which broke ground for the first home video game.
Journey (1985)

From now on the word video game will refer directly to the electronic home video game consoles rather than the large mechanical arcade machines etc. unless otherwise stated. The way that video game music was composed is in a completely different wavelength than film composition; whereas film producers looked towards traditional instruments and live performance, video game producers did not have this option due to the electronic video game being a home entertainment system, they thus had to rely on the sound effects and music that could be achieved by the current technology, as Belinkie illustrates in his online paper titled, Video Game Music: Not Just Kid Stuff: The original Nintendo system could produce one sine, one noise, and two pulse-wave voices, with one voice channel of 7-bit delta-modulated sample playback. *+ the machine could produce four simultaneous sounds. The early games used three channels for music, and reserved the fourth for sound effects. (Belinkie, 1999 [pg. 1]) (15)
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Within the video game industry, the sounds that were created by the electronic channels within the console itself was usually done by either the programmer of the video game, or someone in the (small) development team that had perhaps achieved an average grade at Music O-Level, it was often very difficult to distinguish the audio programmer from the professional figure of the composer. (Baccigalupo, 2003 [pg. 34]) (16) Although these technical boundaries did offer composers to confront music in a totally different way and offer a copious amount of benefits, in 1992, Charles Deenen wrote about a telephone interview he had with American video game developer Acclaims composer Mike Pummel where he remembers how troublesome these technological restraints were at times. Early on, you were just thankful to get any sound out of the thing. There were numerous challenges to overcome at every turn. For instance, how can one produce a four-voice chord if the hardware only allows three voices at once? Composers figured out a way to assign one voice to play arpeggios so quickly that listeners believed they were hearing sustained chords. This not only produced the chord, but it freed up the other two voices to play other things. (Baccigalupo, 2003 [pg. 34]) (17) It was certainly a challenge to create such a full sound with extensive textures with mediocre technology (in comparison to modern day equipment), however every voice had to be utilised to its maximum potential. (Belinkie, 1999 [pg. 2]) (18) There are many examples that show the capacity as to which the programmers/pseudo-composers pushed the limitations of their equipment, but one great example is the main theme in the video game The Legend of Zelda (1986) for the Nintendo Entertainment System, known as Overworld (as shown in Audio CD Track 1). In the attached score (See Appendix 3) I have arranged the Overworld piece to be audibly exact. The first track plays the melody line, the second is playing numerous countermelodies and harmonies, and the third is playing the bass-line. However in bars 17 and 19, the third track begins to play arpeggiated passages which create the illusion of a far more complex texture that it actually is. This is just one example of the techniques that video game composers had to utilise in order to overcome any technological restrictions. Implementing music in a video game was far more technical than musical at the time, and it didnt involve much (if any) creative composition, however in the early Nineties, due to the success of home video consoles such as the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (1989) and Nintendo SuperNES (1990), finally the long-suffering distinction between the programmer and composer took form. (Baccigalupo, 2003 [pg. 34]) (19) Programmers were now able to utilise all four of the channels for musical purposes by having only one dropping out when sound effects were needed. (Belinkie, 1999 [pg. 1]) (20) Video game programmers now had the technological ability to create new multifaceted textures and harmonies by utilising these channels effectively, not to mention the fact that these new consoles now supported sampled audio. Finally composers could create music with tangible instrumentation which could later be transferred onto the console; this bore the occupation of the video game composer as the video game could now contain, for the first time, musically adequate pieces of music.

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Similarly with film music, the medium entered a similar point of development a few years earlier when film producers realised that there should be neither an antagonism of character and expression between music and film, nor and indifferent relation. (Berndt, 2008 [pg. 3]) (21) This led film producers to create the talkie (Oxford Dictionary: a film with a soundtrack, as distinct from a silent film), and consequently, the talkie laid the technical base for the complete synchronization of picture and sound. It also introduced the layers of speech and sound to the film. The music, so far amongst other things having the task to remedy the spooky aloofness of the silent pictures, was now free for a more selective and dramaturgically sophisticated use. (Berndt, 2008 [pg. 4]) (22) It was at this moment in time that film producers could then begin to exploit the ability music has over human emotion within their medium, and as a result the occupation of film composer was created. The two fields of composition for the moving image had now reached a similar plateau in terms of using music in an advantageous manner, to both amplify and assist the narrative of each respective medium. It wasnt until 1995 with the introduction of the Sony PlayStation that video game composers could begin to approximate orchestral scoring, due to the fact that the technology now allowed for a massive 24 sampled voices. (Belinkie, 1999 [pg. 3]) (23) Similarly, following the invention of the Vitaphone in 1926 (a device that allowed recorded sounds including those of orchestral music to be synchronised with a projected film) and its successors, film producers were able to begin to coordinate full orchestrated scores with the visual film, even though the distance between the orchestration of film music and of video game music is very wide, it doesnt necessarily mean that video game music was slow at evolving. On the contrary, the span of time between the birth of video game music, with its fragmented and almost unmusical sound to the modern day beautiful orchestrated pieces of music is a considerably shorter space of time in comparison to how long film music took to develop. Besides, it would most certainly be unfair to evaluate the evolution of video game music purely in comparison to film music, due to them both developing in completely dissimilar societal environments, with its own cultural, economic and technological problems of the time. Collins writes about what factors have contributed to the evolution of video game music, and this can just as easily translate over the medium of film: The development of game audio can be seen as the result of a series of pressures of a technological, economic, ideological, social, and cultural nature. Audio is further constrained by genre and audience expectations, by the formal aspects of space, time, and narrative, and by the dynamic nature of gameplay. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 6]) (24) As I have shown in this chapter, it is quite evident that video game music and film music have touched upon the same ground at similar stages of their development (although the differences have been numerous also). It is the next chapter however, where I will be talking about at how both modern video game composers and modern film music composers operate their compositions in an entirely different way, whilst endeavouring to accomplish completely different musical objectives within their respective medium.
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Individualities within Video-Game Music and Film Music

Brothers in arms

It is important to realise that, although the media of the video game and the film both rely on similar corporeal senses, their musical and emotional purpose differ, subsequently, their evolutional and developmental stages are also unalike; this means that the way that they are confronted needs to be different. It is paramount to take into consideration that games are very different from other forms of cultural media, and in many ways the use of older forms of cultural theories is inappropriate for games. (Collins. 2009 [pg. 5]) (25) Although the distinctions between video game and filmic music are prominent, there are certain features of both that are confronted in a similar (if not, identical) way. Both film and game scores must have an interrelated score that connects their music to its media cohesively, rather than just to have random compositions without some sort of musical thread. (Zager. 2011 [pg. 144]) (26) There are many ways this consistency can be achieved, such as using theme and variation, orchestration and musical tone in a way where the audio, video and interactivity all sinuously collaborate to create the desired emotional reaction. That said, music does assume a common purpose in both film and games: eliciting an emotional response from the audience and establishing a stylistic tone for the onscreen content; how these goals are realized, however, is where the fundamental divergence can be found. (Berzins, 2009 [pg. 1]) (27) But as is obvious, there are countless areas in which both the evolution of film music and video game music have appropriately coincided, but the platform of evolution that they have reached in the modern day is something very different, and thus they need to be confronted within a diverse context of scrutiny; as Berzins stated above, how these goals are realized, however, is where the fundamental divergence can be found. As I stated during the introduction, diegesis plays an important part in musically distinguishing the two media. Whilst it is outside of the scope of this academic study to swot into how film composers write scores that are able to successfully accompany the narrative of the film, there are definitely a few fundamental concepts that are pertinent within a film music analysis that will definitely be beneficial when making a comparison across both of the media. Some would argue that the term accompany that I used earlier to describe the purpose of film music is incorrect and inaccurate due to the recent boom in film soundtracks becoming prominent within the digital and performative world (which will be confronted later on in this study); however, in its broadest sense, film musics principal purpose is to influence and participate within the films narrative. The predominant component within the medium of film is its visual elements, whereas the sonic elements are utilised in a way where they contrast, detract or enhance the visual elements.
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American composer, teacher and writer, Aaron Copland, describes in his book, What to Listen for in Music five key purposes of film music: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Creating a convincing atmosphere of time and place; Underlining psychological refinements the unspoken thoughts of a character; Serving as a kind of neutral background filler; Building a sense of continuity; Underpinning the theatrical build-up of a scene, and rounding it off with a sense of finality.
(Copland, 1999 [pg. 154-5]) (28)

The main commonality between these five rules is their alignment to the rules of Narratology rather than simply the music itself, although terminology such as tension, finality and continuity can easily be recognised as musical terminology, the origin of their meanings are directly related to functions or phenomena of narrative. It is perhaps this magnitude to which these terms efficiently describe music that reveals the inspiration of a narrative turn in music theory, which uses the grammars of Narratology for characteristics of music that are otherwise notoriously difficult to describe. (Sexton, 2008 [pg. 70]) (29) It has become clear that throughout my research that the idea of diegesis and narrativity within music is a very important part of successfully creating a cohesive piece of music within a film and video game score, however, it is Marie-Laure Ryan who states that: In the absence of specific semantic content and spatial dimension, the deep narrativity of music is an essentially metaphorical phenomenon. It eliminates characters and setting, retaining only the forward movement, the desire-forsomething-to-come, the false or fulfilled expectations, the rise and falls of tension, the sense of an ending, and the memories of something past that modulate the narrative experience. (Ryan, 2004 [pg. 268]) (30) It seems enormously possible (if not probable) that this vacuum in the equation could easily be occupied by video game music; as a multifaceted form of narrative exposition that includes both image and sound (Sexton, 2008 [pg. 70]) (31) Referring back to the notion of diegesis and non-diegesis (extradiegesis), video games usually contain music that is either diegetic or non-diegetic (music that is used for either supplementing an emotive or narrative purpose or background music). This doesnt differ from film music however as stated before, how these goals are realized, however, is where the fundamental divergence can be found. Diegesis in video games is utilised in a similar way to filmic music, however the desired goal is very different, as shown in Irrational Games video game BioShock (2007). The extract of the introduction of BioShock (See Track 3 of Video CD) (32) is a perfect example of how diegetic music is used in a video game composition in comparison to a filmic score. At approximately 2:40, the song Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin is played to the audience as an introduction to this new environment. This is a great example of how popular music (in this case diegetic) plays a crucial role in BioShock by chronologically situating the player, environment and overall game. As the bathysphere descends into this unknown area (known as Rapture) the service radio that
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can be heard reveals that all of the popular music heard is diegetic, which is physically heard by the visible sources such as jukeboxes, speakers, and Victrolas purposefully placed throughout the environment. The music plays an absolutely vital role in continuously reminding the player that, although there is futuristic science-fictional technology present within the game, the area of Rapture is very much a product of mid-century American aesthetics and cultural values (Gibbons, 2011) (33), therefore this musics primary (and only) purpose is to help make the player as "present" as possible in this world. Diegetic music is used in films albeit; it is not as prominent as non-diegesis, it is also not used as decisively as it is within the video game medium. One very well-known example of this is in George Lucass film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) when the characters Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker enter a cantina (See Track 4 of Video CD). (34) Film and Television composer, Peter Nickalls analyses the Mos Eisley Cantina Scene: The swing style of the music conveys a lot of information about the atmosphere of the location and the types of characters who inhabit it because a majority of the audience would be familiar with swing music and jazzs associations with smoky night clubs and sometimes seedy establishments. The music is a short-hand for setting up a scene and this is one of the reasons why using types of diegetic music which is familiar to the audience works so well in the context of the film. (Nickalls, 2010) (35) Even though diegetic music is used in both film music and game music, the difference is that video game composers use the advantage of interactivity as its main source of inspiration and thus utilise this to create a crucial part of the narrative, the diegesis is the difference between the player absorbing the music as simple background music or utilising it as an invaluable aid to understand the narrative. This differs to filmic music, of which uses diegesis as a subliminal supplement for the audience to understand a little more about the emotive location and/or situation at the time, such as by Nickalls as was elucidated above. As much as musical diegesis plays a crucial and yet individual role within both film and video game music: so too does musical non-diegesis. However, diegetic video game music is a term that came about by borrowing the terminology from film studies, and as a result it has become almost incompatible and incongruous to use within video game studies. This has shown to be particularly true when comparing the relationship between film and video game music in terms of non-diegetic music, due to the unique relationship the player has with the medium itself. Collins writes how: The unique relationship in games posed by the fact that the audience is engaging directly in the sound playback process on-screen requires a new type of categorization of the soundimage relationship. Game sound can be categorized broadly as diegetic or non-diegetic, but within these broad categories it can be separated further into nondynamic and dynamic sound, and then divided further still into the types of dynamic activity as they relate to the diegesis and to the player (Collins, 2009 [pg. 125]) (36)

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So by using Collins method of categorisation, I will look at both adaptive non-diegetic audio and interactive non- diegetic audio (it is also important to note that just by simply classifying these sub-categories, it clearly demonstrates the variance of non-diegetic music in video games in comparison to films). Adaptive Non- Diegetic Audio There are many examples of non-diegetic music changing according to specific parameters in within the game. For example, in the video game Pokmon Black (2011) for the Nintendo DS, most of the non-diegetic background music will change depending on what season the audience is playing the game in (Shown on Track 2, 3, 4 & 5 on the Audio CD) (37). With each of these tracks, they follow the same structure and have an almost identical melody and harmony, with the focal exception of the varied leitmotifs that are used to represent the seasonal changes within the tracks. Below I have notated the different motifs that occur right at the beginning of each piece. Each motif is played on a specific instrument that the composer Junichi Masuda felt represented each season appropriately. 1. Track 1: Route 2 (Spring) - Viola

2. Track 2: Route 2 (Summer) Legato Strings

3. Track 3: Route 2 (Autumn) - Piano

4. Track 4: Route 2 (Winter) - Glockenspiel

The above examples clearly shows how the use of non-diegetic audio completely differs from its use in film music; in this instance it shows that certain non-diegetic music can be utilised in such a way where a composer can program the music to play specific pieces of music once certain parameters and conditions are met. In this case, it is when the in-game seasons change. This completely highlights some of the distinctions between the linear qualities of film audio and the nonlinear qualities of games. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 125]) (38)
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Interactive Non- Diegetic Audio The majority of non-diegetic video game audio relies on interactivity to progress musically; this is shown most prominently when background music can be heard throughout the game and it changes when a player actively enters into a new location/situation. One great example of this is in the video game, Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 2 (see Track 6 on the Video CD). Within this scene, the character begins in a temple named Besaid Temple where a very sacrosanct vocal choral piece of music (entitled Song of Prayer) is playing to accompany the scene (see Track 6 of Audio CD) (39) (See Appendix 1). This gives the player a clear and yet non-narrative background to the location that they have been placed within.
Final Fantasy X Besaid Temple

Once the scene advances, the protagonist enters a door at the top of the stairs (shown above) within the temple; this location (and subsequent piece of music) is known as the Cloister of Trials (see Track 7 on the Audio CD) (40) (See Appendix 2). The music then changes to fit the appropriate description of trials whereby a collection of repetitive motifs begin to play continually. The audio now informs the player that, not only has the location changed, but the situation and objective have also transformed.

Final Fantasy X Cloister of Trials

It is apparent that, although this video game music is non-diegetic and acts as background music in the same way as it does within the film music medium, its use and intention completely differs from the way it is used within film music. There are a few examples where non-diegetic music in films is used pseudo-adaptively, such as to connect scenes in the story where a character progresses through numerous stages towards a final goal; such as in Rocky (1976) whereby the music serves and, at times, expands upon, the dramatic demands of the cinematic narrative. (Lipscomb & Tolchinsky, 2004 [pg. 392]) (41). Nevertheless, the medium of film is linear and thus is never truly adaptive, nor interactive. Rabowsky writes a fantastic summary of non-diegetic music within both of these media, in his book, Interactive Entertainment: A Videogame Industry Guide: Traditional media [in this case, specifically the medium of film] provide a passive experience where the story is told only one way without meaningful audience involvement. Interactive entertainment [in this case, specifically the medium of video games], by contrast, draws in its audience through the very fact of its interactivity, allowing players to experience exploring new worlds and to shape their own stories through their gameplay choices. (Rabowsky, 2010) (42)
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The x-box factor

Distinctive effects on popular culture

In the first chapter that concerned the development of both film and video game music, I mentioned how each had developed in their own specific societal, cultural, economic and technological environments; this chapter concludes this idea by looking into how film music and video game music have been both influenced by the popular culture of the time, and also how these unique mediums have influenced popular culture in their own distinct way. One principal connection between video games and popular culture is the fact that there is definitely an obvious and yet massive interdependent relationship growing between the music industry and the video game industry. Video games are now commonly being used to sell and promote music and artists, and reciprocally music artists are being used to market and sell video games. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 4]) (43) I will try to tackle the chapter in two different ways by forming two specific sub-chapter headings. First I will look at how popular culture has influenced video game music, and then finally I will talk about how video game music has influenced popular culture.

How has popular culture influenced VIDEO GAME music?

The primary difference between film music and video game music in regards to this subchapter is the fact that the most remunerative aspects of the film medium are its narrative and visual aspects, whilst the sonic elements are treated as supplementary (albeit necessary). Although there is a school of thought that believes video game music could be seen in the same light as film, due to the interactivity surrounding the video game medium, video game producers are able to utilise popular culture to their advantage. One early example of how video game producers exploited popular culture in their medium is in the video game, PaRappa the Rapper (1996) (See Track 6 Video CD) (44), of which the point of the game was to get past each level by performing rhythmic challenges in the form of rapping with hip-hop background music (non-diegetic of course). (Stealthborn, 2009) (45) During the mid-90s, when PaRappa the Rapper was released, Rap and Hip-Hop music were very prominent in the music charts at the time, artists such as Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg, Tupac and Dr. Dre became viral around the planet; this was the perfect opportunity for video game developers to latch onto this success. Film music however, doesnt contain the superfluity of being able to adapt to popular culture without first changing the cinematic elements also. Rap is quite a genre in and of itself. Whether a music lover enjoys it or not they cannot deny that it has spread like wildfire to other genres of music and has become a mainstay in popular culture. But who could have ever imagined that it would be used for a rhythm game? That's where the 1997 release of PaRappa the Rapper comes in. It became one of the first rhythm games ever released and would be there to jump start a new video game genre. It also was one of the titles that made the PlayStation One very hip for the 1990s. (Stealthborn, 2009) (46)
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Another more recent music-based video game, Guitar Hero (2005) and its successors, have not only taken the opportunity to utilise popular music within the video game, but it has also amplified the genre of the Rhythm Game and created a series of games that was so popular that it spawned a colossal twenty three sequels, won five Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Awards in 2005, and nominated for seven D.I.C.E. awards, as well as several Game Audio Network Guild awards. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 4]) (47) This video game is a brilliant example of how video game developers have achieved success by using popular music within their medium; so much so that according to Hollywood Reporter.com, James Hibberd wrote how the video game Guitar Hero could even become a reality show and/or have live concert tours in the future! (Hibberd 2009) (48) The Guitar Hero series of video games obtained so much admiration for their ingenuity that many famous musicians and singers have participated in the advertisements for these games. For example, the American heavy metal band Metallica participated into two commercials to promote the video game (See Track 7 of Video CD) (49) as did many other modern popular singers such as David Archuleta and David Cook. This unique method of advertising has enabled certain video games (and moreover, the genre itself) to reach a level of recognition that could only be achieved via this method. Ignoring the recent movement concerning a growing number of popular musicians such as Mick Jagger, Cher, Phil Collins, Sting, David Bowie, Madonna and Adam Ant all attempting to become serious actors in non-musical films (Inglis, 2003 [pg. 3]) (50), the use of the popular music culture within the film genre doesnt span as far as it does within the video game genre, due to the fact that (as I have previously stated) music within films are almost always a secondary medium that enhances the visual element of a film. Nevertheless, there are definitely a select few films that have effectively used popular music to both enhance the range of their audiences to those who enjoy the utilised artists/bands music, whilst augmenting the visual elements of the film by assuming the audiences preconceptions and partialities within popular music culture. A great example of this is in the Transformers series of films whereby the American rock band Linkin Park wrote a song for all three of the films (See Track 8 of Video CD) (51). The way that Michael Bay, the director of the Transformers series, used Linkin Park within the film, was very similar to how the developers of Guitar Hero utilised Metallica in their advertisements; the Guitar Hero video game contained music that was predominantly rock music that involved a lot of musical idioms relating to the guitar (such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, long guitar riffs and solos etc.) and having Metallica to advertise this game was a very astute idea due to their connection to most, if not all, of these features. Michael Bay used a very similar train of thought when choosing a band to feature within the soundtrack of the movie according to MTV senior writer Gil Kaufman: On the surface, it makes perfect sense that Linkin Park would contribute a song to the third instalment in the Transformers film franchise, Dark of the Moon. Both the band and the film are known for their thunderous, metallic noise and postapocalyptic vibe. (Kaufman, 2011) (52)
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How has Video Game music influenced Popular Culture?

One of the predominant footprints that video games have left on modern culture is the concept of the video game concert. Famous video game composer, Jesper Kyd says how composing a video game score is a very lengthy process and it can take anywhere between two months and two years, it can often be a very lonesome procedure. At least rock musicians get to have fun when they go on tour until now. Similarly to rock and pop concerts, video game music now receives a similar yet distinctively titanic audience in terms of live shows. Visualise this scene: A giant stadium with a massive stage illuminated by rows of par cans (type of light used in concerts), a gigantic video screen, and colourful, sweeping lasers. People of all ages cram the turnstiles to get in. The venue fills up quickly. Its a sold-out show. It could be an Aerosmith concert, but its not. Up on stage are chairs for a full-fledged symphony not stacks of Marshall. (Stang, 2007 [pg. 62]) (53) Uniquely, video game music has completely revolutionised and modernised the use of the concert/symphony hall. In 1995 Lawrence Kramer wrote a book titled, Classical Music and Postmodern Knowledge and within the book he writes how Classical Music in terms of the social event of listening to it being performed at an event, cherishable though it is, is losing Video Games Live PONG cultural ground at an alarming rate. (Kramer, 1995 [pg. xiv]) (54) Its clear that from the date of Kramers book that video game music hadnt yet reached its zenith in terms of live performative popularity and due to this, it is quite obvious that the rise of video game music has completely revitalised the social event of listening to a live symphony orchestra within the concert setting. It isnt difficult to find certain pompous cultural elitists with a certain scornful propensity towards the idea of hiring local symphony orchestras to play music that is composed for video games, but what those pretentious egotists arent aware of is that these concerts expose gamers (and others interested in the genre) to classical music in an unpretentious setting. The well-respected and admired composer Chance Thomas once told GameDaily (a video game journalism site) that video game music had, in effect, countered the counter-culture with culture. Its coming full circle back to a time when orchestras played the popular music of the day. (Stang, 2007 [pg. 64]) (55) One of the leading video game concerts that sells out almost immediately after tickets launch is Video Games Live created by Tommy Tallarico (cousin of Steve Tyler, the lead singer of famous American Hard Rock band Aerosmith). In the gaming magazine GameAxis Unwired, author Zachary Chan speaks about the Video Games Live concerts and explains how it continues to amaze with its repertoire of classics and greats in the gaming world, from old school familiar tunes such as Tetris, Pac Man and PONG, all the way to more recent video game compositions such as Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid. (Chan, 2008 [pg. 64]) (56)
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Just as countless musicians and artists have helped to promote certain video games and thus showing how popular culture has influenced video games, on the contrary, many video game developers have allowed their medium to help advertise certain artists and bands, and in some cases bring publicity to entirely new artists and/or bands. The video game Madden NFL 2003 (2003) contained the song The Anthem by Good Charlotte (See Track 8 on Audio CD) (57), and it was after this video game release that brought the band to the public eye. Similarly in 2005, the well-known band Fall Out Boy had their song, Start Today (See Track 9 on Audio CD) (58) included within the video game Tony Hawks American Wasteland (2005). Following the release of the video game, they sold over 70,000 copies of their album, without even having received any radio airplay at all. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 116]) (59) A lot of video game developers are actually quite aware of how much their medium can help endorse artists and some video game developers even go out of their way to promote their famous artists and bands. I really do not care much about furthering the career of big bands. They already have the privilege of steering their own destiny so long as they keep hard at it. My aim for Driv3r was to create a soundtrack that was a collection of new acts from around the world that I liked, plus a selection of original material that I wanted other people to like too [...] We had managed to obtain several exclusives on the soundtrack, meaning that we had new or unreleased tracks from the bands involved such as Phantom Planet and Hope of the States which was amazing marketing fodder for the music press. (Canham 2006) (60) As I have referred to in previous chapters, the predominant difference between the film medium and the video game medium (especially in regards to this unique style of marketing) is their primary function; within the film medium the visual elements are almost always seen as more important than any other corporeal aspect, whereas the video game genre is able to allow both the sonic and visual elements to work symbiotically without any one element being less important. The main difference between these two distinctive mediums however, is that film music (with the exception of leitmotifs and recurring themes) tends to just happen just once, whereas video game music tends to be cyclic which allows the audience to have much more time to become attached (or conversely detached) to the music. (Stang, 2007 [pg. 61]) (61) In regards to this, due to the increased span of time that the gaming audience is able to spend listening to the music within the video game medium, it is evident how much video games can and has influenced popular music and vice versa. In Bendik Stangs book, The Book of Games Volume 2: The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games he writes about the difference between video games and films in terms of popularity: The average movie soundtrack with an original score might sell 10,000 copies, while the average video game soundtrack can sell 20,000 copies, according to Greg OConnor-Read, *+ Gamers sit there for maybe 100 hours, so they grow attached to the music, Kyd says. (Stang, 2007 [pg. 61]) (62)
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Modern warfare
Individualities in the Production process

As I have revealed throughout the previous chapters, there are many ways in which those people who work within the media of both video games and films confront composition. For an effective musical composition to come to fruition with the field of moving image there are many developmental stages that the music enters, these can be within pre-production, midproduction and/or post-production, and it is within these three categories that I will be confronting this chapter to create a chronological approach. There are many ways in which the game audio production process resembles that of the film audio process; there are many comparable recording techniques for live sounds and identical tools in terms of recording and musical software. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 88]) (63) In terms of comparison of film and video game music, the video game composer John Debney elaborates: The process is similar. There are definitely scenes that one has to compose specific music for. A lot of the game play, i.e. the battles or the big set pieces, essentially has to be scored in some form or fashion. So thats all similar to a film. *+ Aesthetically the biggest difference for me in scoring a video game is that you dont have as much finished product. Much of the time I would be writing to a description of a battle *+ literally just a one or two line description. I would also be writing to maybe twenty seconds of game play that in reality is going to become ten to twenty minutes of game play. That was the biggest difference for me. It was more about writing to a concept or description rather than writing to anything specific. (ScoreKeeper, 2007) (64)

PRE- PRODUCTION
Although there are many commonalities between composing for films and video games, conceiving a score for a video game provides many different challenges and consequently requires different approaches, and it is also important to remember that production varies massively from one company to another, from one games console to the other and also from genre to genre; this analysis represents an examination of the average video game and film production. In terms of pre-production film composers arent typically involved in this stage of development, largely due to the fact that film composers are inclined to view a film after the visual elements are complete (or at least near completion) and compose to the (near-) complete film, whereas a video game composer will receive numerous sketches of the game characters and/or storyboards, An example of Storyboards given to video game a description of the characters and how the game composers in the Pre-production stage.
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will be played. These video game companies also employ specific music supervisors to oversee the compositions to validate that the music is both pertinent and appropriate to the visual and narrative elements. (Zager, 2011 [pg. 128]) (65) Depending on many factors such as size and budget, many video game companies can have an audio development team of varying size. As I had shown in the first chapter, many smaller companies tended to have just one staff member dedicated to the audio of the video game that would work on all aspects of sound that would include sound effects, music, voice work and implementation. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 87]) (66) Before video game composers get to work on scoring music for the video game, the developer/s and the audio team work together to create what is known as an audio design document which details the design and implementation of the games audio. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 89]) (67) However, though the audio design document can prove to be extremely useful in the creation of the video game, a video games production doesnt always follow the original deigned route, and the document can often be used just to assist the audio developers as a basic guideline as to what the video game developers are looking for in terms of audio. Keith Zizza elucidates on the Audio Design Document in his article titled, Important Items to Consider in Audio Design, Production, and Support: Designers will want to absorb it, programmers will demand it, and producers, along with just about anyone else who is involved on the project, will want to at least skim it. Whether its one page or one hundred, it should be as descriptive as it needs to be for you and your development team. The end result, hopefully, is a harmonious one working with and enhancing graphics, writing, game design, and the overall gaming experience (Zizza, 2000) (68)

MID- PRODUCTION
Once the musical concepts, thematic ideas and leitmotifs are designed with the assistance of the Audio Design Document a mock-up (synthesised version) of the material [has been created], the supervisors will, hopefully, choose one or several themes [that they believe are suitable within the video game] (Zager, 2011 [pg. 144]) (69), one of the most common ways that video game composers then begin writing music is by placing down what is known as a temp. track, which places pre-existing music in a temporary place which works as a quasiskeleton score of basic parameters from which the composer can work. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 90]) (70) However, it is obvious that, as there are many different ways to compose music there are also different many different ways that video game composers approach their work. For example, the renowned veteran video game composer Koji Kondo (composer of Super Mario Bros. [1985] and The Legend of Zelda [1986]) has a very specific way of looking at video game composition. When Kondo reaches this mid-production phase of development he doesnt like to focus purely on one composition as a singular piece of music, but more as a part of a larger complete work. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 90]) (71) In an interview from The Legend of Zelda: Super Best Collection, a Legend of Zelda Piano songbook recently released, the arranger of the song book, Shinobu Amayake, talks to Koji Kondo where he elucidates upon his compositional process:
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Amayake: In addition, there are many well-known songs that reappear numerous times in different arrangements. Kondo: At the time I wasnt aware of it, but perhaps it was something about the obligato that kept things from getting tiresome. And not just the melody, by composing so that the counterpoint was audible in the phrasing, I think I managed to come up with tunes that didnt get old. (GlitterBerri, 2010) (72) According to Michael Zagers book Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students, one of the most important parts of the mid-production stage of development is to compose around the proposed thematic ideas and to make sure that the themes and motifs are able to be dissected. If a theme is written in musical phrases (sections), those phrases are able to be removed from the complete them and the phrase can then be used as basic material for a brand new section; this is extremely efficacious due to the fact that the underlying theme still being present within the new piece/s of music; this allows for a more fluid gameplay and a unobtrusive musical accompaniment. This method of composing completely differs from Film Music due to the level of interactivity that is involved with the medium of Video Games, and as I have shown in previous chapters, the music will change in accordance the games progression; this means that the music must have a completely seamless transition between scenes. One of the ways that a video game composer will achieve this sinuous consistency is by keeping a motif or theme in one particular key (or perhaps a related key) (Zager, 2010 [pg. 144]) (73) This is particularly apparent in the Sony PlayStation game, Final Fantasy VII (1997) in one of the most famous video game moments in history (See Track 8 of Video CD) (74). The scene begins with a track titled, Anxious Heart (See Track 10 on Audio CD) (75), which begins in the key of F minor, but ends up transposing to F major shortly before the track changes, as shown below:

(76)

This is really effective, as the next piece of music that plays, Who Am I? (See Track 11 on Audio CD) (77) is in the key of A minor, which is conveniently Chord 3 (III) of the F major from the previous track, as shown below. This works really well, as the recurring leitmotif of a call-and-response concept in the melody can be heard clearly in the melodies of both tracks, despite the fact that the key has changed (appropriately) allowing the audience knowledge that something new is going to happen whilst still keeping a musical fluidity.

(78)

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N.B. - The full scores for Anxious Heart and Who Am I? can be found in the Appendix. (See Appendix 4 & 5)

POST- PRODUCTION
Although both the visual and sonic elements are near enough complete there is still a vast amount of work that needs to be done in terms of audio integration in the post-production stage of development. The ideal time to begin post-production on game audio is once the visual and design elements have been completely finished (official term locked-down). This means that the game is able to be played from beginning to end and bug fixing is the only job that the game team would need to undertake. The reason for this is that it would be extremely unrealistic for the audio team to work whilst the visual and design elements are still unsolidified and frequently changing. One of the first things that the audio team tackle in this stage of development are the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) cut-scenes that are described as any non-interactive storytelling or scene-setting element of the game (Hancock, 2002) (79) and it is during this time that these cut-scenes are implemented into the video game; this is usually quite an easy job to do as they can simply be separated from the game itself. What makes the phase of interactive audio post-production so distinctive and crucial is how the composers create a succinct aesthetic balance between the pre-rendered cut-scenes and the in-game action. In an academic article titled, Post-production sound: a new production model for interactive media, Rob Bridgett, a post-production sound designer illuminated his own opinion concerning a principal variance between video games and film in terms of post-production: Video-game production is so embryonic compared to cinema that it has yet to evolve a standardized production process. *+ Yet the similarities between film and narrative games, particularly in terms of digital production, are becoming more marked *+ [In terms of post-production] giving a mixer tactile control over every sound played back in the game, in real time, has traditionally been overlooked by game developers and where the biggest qualitative improvements are to be made. As far as the user (or audience) is concerned, until very recently games have been too loud and over-compressed; they have exhibited little dynamic range when compared with cinema. (Bridgett, 2007 [pg. 30]) (80) It is at this point in development where all sonic elements are in place but are able to be tweaked, mixed, replaced and removed in terms of the completed product. Although there is no specific formalised process in terms of video game production, a common practice for an audio team is to have the audio be post-produced off-site (as in film) or in a different inhouse location. (Bridgett, 2007 [p. 32]) (81) Not only does a new and different location and change of scene provide a completely altered perspective on the game, but by taking the opportunity to work with audio professionals (such as film sound developers or sound effect mixers) who havent been a part of the complete process can deliver a completely fresh position and viewpoint on the project. This is extremely beneficial as it brings an element of objectivity and neutrality to the piece; giving it that concluding lustre that the postproduction stage of development offers to game audio.
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Endgame
Conclusion and summary

The purpose of this project was intended to increase awareness of the individualities and distinctions of the video game medium within the field of composition for the moving image, and I feel that by exploring every facet of this genre, I have achieved my purpose. By first looking into the History and Background of video game music in comparison to its filmic counterpart, I have showed through a number of resources, that although there are many similarities in terms of their evolution, such as the challenges that both media faced, there were many differences in terms of both technological limitations and a lack of professional audio dedicated staff. These medium-specific restrictions began the video game music genre on a path that would eventually become one of the most exciting and interesting varieties of composition. In the book, Sound Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity James Lastra writes his opinion on how media has evolved, and although the books main focus is on American Cinema, Lastra perfectly sums up the evolution of popular media and explains how its current stage of development is no coincidence: Individual studies of specific media tell us [...] that their technological and cultural forms were by no means historical inevitabilities, but rather the result of complex interactions between technical possibilities, economic incentives, representational norms, and cultural demands (Lastra, 2000 [p. 13]) (82) My second chapter evidenced how the way music works, and how diegetic and nondiegetic music is used inimitably within both video game music and film music. By looking at specific video games such as BioShock (2007) and Final Fantasy X (2001) in comparison with films such as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) and Rocky (1976) it was clear that there is and has been a definite distinction between the two in terms of background music (non-diegetic music) from their foundation all the way through to their modern incarnation. By thoroughly reading through a number of academic pieces of writing that looked at the background music of both video games and films, such as Karen Collins, Game Sound an Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design and Jamie Sextons, Music, Sound & Multimedia, I was able to show the many different ways that video game music uses background music to augment, enhance and support the visual media in such a distinct way. Although the book, Film Music: Perspectives from Cognitive Psychology focuses on filmic elements, Cohen writes a fantastic sentence that really epitomises how diegesis works in all brands of media including both film, and video games: Music adds meaning to these stories, either by confirming the visual message, or by resolving the ambiguities in an unclear message. (Cohen, 2000 [p. 363-4]) (83)

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My third chapter focused on the intimate and unique relationship that video game music has with popular culture. One of the most obvious ways that video games have influenced popular culture is the idea of live video game music concerts such as Video Games Live (See Track 10 of Video CD). (84) This incredible event has successfully rejuvenated the classical symphony orchestra and the idea of listening to music in a concert hall environment. Karen Collins confronted how video game music has affected the classical genre of music in her book, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design.: The power of video game music to attract such an enthusiastic crowdmany of whom dressed up in costumes for the occasionwas in many ways remarkable. After all, symphony orchestras have for years been struggling to survive financially amid dwindling attendance and increasing costs. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 1]) (85) My final chapter looked at how the production process of video games completely differs to that of any other contemporary media. As I have shown above, owing to the fact that videogames have a unique interactivity, the development of the medium holds many different stages to achieve its finalised creation. By looking at specific academic works that explores the intricate production process of all different types of media, such as Important Items to Consider in Audio Design, Production, and Support by Keith Zizza and Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students by Michael Zager, I successfully showed the individual way that video game composers write their music and whats involved in their development. Rob Bridgett brilliantly abridges the idea of video game audio production in his academic article, Post-production sound: a new production model for interactive media: One of the most profound differences between film sound design and game sound design is that where film contains linear visual footage against which any number of sounds can be synchronized and blended, a game triggers individual sounds based on events occurring in the game at non-specified times. Broadly speaking, films are about emotional immersion within a narrative, where video games concern physical immersion in a universe of action and reaction. Games therefore require a radically different production philosophy from that of film. (Bridgett, 2007 [pg. 29]) (86) With the wide range of resources and academic studies that have been used within this Dissertation, I strongly believe that I have successfully proven my original point; that the genre of video-game music is as original and individual as any other comparative genre in the field of composition for the moving image. The reason I have compared the me200dium of video games with the medium of film in terms of audio is because there have always been common misconceptions concerning their similarity and importance in regards to their independence and individuality; I find that Collins perfectly summarises this study below: Understanding how and why games are different from or similar to film or other linear audiovisual media in terms of the needs of audio production and consumption is useful to our understanding of game audio in general. (Collins, 2008 [pg. 5]) (87)
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r
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

EFERENCES
Annotated Bibliography

Matthew Belinkie, Video game music: not just kid stuff. (1999) (pg. 1) Janet H. Murray, The Last Word on Ludology v. Narratology in Game Studies. (2005). (pg. 1) Eugnie Shinkle, Feel It, Dont Think: The Significance of Affect in the Study of Digital Games. (2005). (pg. 3) David Parfit, Interactive Sound, Environment, and Music Design for a 3D Immersive Video Game. (2005). (pg. 29) Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo Entertainment System) (1985), An example of the interactivity between player and audio; illustrates the jumping sound. Sonic The Hedgehog 1 (Sega Mega Drive) (1991), An example of adaptivness between player and audio; illustrates the drowning sound. Eric Berzins, Game Music | Film Music: Concurrence, Divergence, Transformation. (2009) (pg. 2) David Song, Mass Effect 2: A Study in Dynamic Music. (2012) Robert Bowen, Princeton Video Game Conference (2004) Robert Bowen, Princeton Video Game Conference (2004) Jamie Sexton, Music, Sound and Multimedia. (pg. 73) Uwe Seifert, Jin Hyun Kim, Anthony Moore, Paradoxes of Interactivity:Perspectives for Media Theory, Human-Computer Interaction and Artistic Investigations (2009) (pg. 272) Axel Berndt, Knut Hartmann, The Functions Of Music In Interactive Media. (2008) (pg. 3) Briar Lee Mitchell, Game Design Essentials. (2012) (pg. 29) Matthew Belinkie, Video game music: not just kid stuff (1999) (pg. 1) Claudio Baccigalupo, Design and Production of Audio Technologies for Video Games Development (2003) (pg. 34) Claudio Baccigalupo, Design and Production of Audio Technologies for Video Games Development (2003) (pg. 34) Matthew Belinkie, Video game music: not just kid stuff (1999) (pg. 2)

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19. Claudio Baccigalupo, Design and Production of Audio Technologies for Video Games Development (2003) (pg. 34) 20. Matthew Belinkie, Video game music: not just kid stuff (1999) (pg. 1) 21. Axel Berndt & Knut Hardmann The Functions Of Music In Interactive Media (2008) (pg. 3) 22. Axel Berndt & Knut Hardmann The Functions Of Music In Interactive Media (2008) (pg. 4) 23. Matthew Belinkie, Video game music: not just kid stuff (1999) (pg. 3) 24. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 6) 25. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 5) 26. Michael Zager, Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students. (2011) (pg. 144) 27. Eric Berzins, Game Music | Film Music: Concurrence, Divergence, Transformation. (2009) (pg. 1) 28. Aaron Copland, What to listen for in Music. (1999) (pg. 154-5) 29. Jamie Sexton, Music, Sound and Multimedia. (2008) (pg. 70) 30. Marie-Laude Ryan, Narrative across media: The Languages of Storytelling. (2004) (pg. 268) 31. Jamie Sexton, Music, Sound and Multimedia. (pg. 70) 32. BioShock (Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Microsoft Windows/Mac OS X/BlackBerry) (2007), An example of diegesis in video games. 33. William Gibbons, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams: Popular Music, Narrative, and Dystopia in Bioshock. (2011) 34. Star Wars IV: A New Hope (Lucasfilms) (1977), An example of diegesis in films. 35. Peter Nickalls, Williams and the Cantina the diegetic music of Tatooine. (2010) 36. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 125) 37. Pokmon Black Original Soundtrack (Junichi Masuda) (2011), Route 2 (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter) 38. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 125) 39. Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack (Nobuo Uematsu) (2001), Hymn Of The Fayth 40. Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack (Nobuo Uematsu) (2001), Cloister Of Trials 41. Scott Lipscomb & David Tolchinsky, The role of music communication in cinema. (2004) (pg. 392)

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42. Brent Rabowsky, Interactive Entertainment: A Videogame Industry Guide. (2010) (pg. 2) 43. Karen Collins, Grand Theft Audio?: Video Games and Licensed IP. Music and the Moving Image. (2008) (pg. 4) 44. PaRappa The Rapper (1996), Developer: NanaOn-Sha. Background Music. 45. Stealthborn, GameON - A look back...PaRappa the Rapper. (2009) 46. Stealthborn, GameON - A look back...PaRappa the Rapper. (2009) 47. Karen Collins, Grand Theft Audio?: Video Games and Licensed IP. Music and the Moving Image. (2008) (pg. 4) 48. James Hibberd, 'Guitar Hero': Reality show? (2009) 49. Guitar Hero Metallica (2005), Developer: Activision. Advertisement. 50. Ian Inglis, Popular Music and Film. (2003) (pg. 3) 51. Transformers, Linkin Park New Divide (2009). 52. Gil Kaufman, MTV News Linkin Park Say Iridescent Was A Natural Fit For Transformers Soundtrack. (2011) 53. Bendik Stang, The Book of Games Volume 2: The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games (Book of Games series). (2007) (pg. 62) 54. Lawrence Kramer, Classical Music and Postmodern Knowledge. (1995) (pg. xiv) 55. Bendik Stang, The Book of Games Volume 2: The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games (Book of Games series). (2007) (pg. 64) 56. Zachary Chan, GameAxis Unwired: MusicBox A Very Special Video Games Live Concert. (2008) (pg. 64) 57. Madden NFL 2003 (2003), Developer: EA Tiburon. Good Charlotte The Anthem. 58. Tony Hawks American Wasteland (2005), Developer: Neversoft. Fall Out Boy Start Today. 59. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 116) 60. Mark Canham, The Driv3r soundtrack: Be good, be bad, be something new? (2006) 61. Bendik Stang, The Book of Games Volume 2: The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games (Book of Games series). (2007) (pg. 61) 62. Bendik Stang, The Book of Games Volume 2: The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games (Book of Games series). (2007) (pg. 61) 63. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 88) 64. ScoreKeeper, ScoreKeeper with Composer John Debney about Scoring LAIR for PlayStation 3, Maybe IRON MAN, & More!! (2007) 65. Michael Zager, Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students. (2011) (pg. 128)

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66. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 87) 67. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 89) 68. Keith Zizza, Important Items to Consider in Audio Design, Production, and Support. (2000) 69. Michael Zager, Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students. (2011) (pg. 144) 70. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 90) 71. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 90) 72. GlitterBerri, Special Interview: Koji Kondo. (2010) 73. Michael Zager, Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students. (2010) (pg. 144) 74. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation/PC) (1997), A short video showing the transition between scenes and how the music adapts to this change effectively. 75. Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack (1997), Disc 1: Track 4 - Anxious Heart 76. Final Fantasy VII Piano Collections (1997), Sheet Music - Anxious Heart 77. Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack (1997), Disc 3: Track 23 - Who Am I? 78. Final Fantasy VII Piano Collections (1997), Sheet Music - Who Am I? 79. Hugh Hancock, Better game design through cut-scenes (2002). 80. Rob Bridgett, Post-production sound: a new production model for interactive media. (2007) (pg. 30) 81. Rob Bridgett, Post-production sound: a new production model for interactive media. (2007) (pg. 32) 82. James Lastra, Sound Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity. (2000) (pg. 13) 83. Annabel Cohen, Film Music: Perspectives from Cognitive Psychology. (2000) (pg. 363-4) 84. Video Games Live; Tommy Tallarico & Jack Wall (2009), A video showing how video game music has evolved the concert hall experience. 85. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 1) 86. Rob Bridgett, Post-production sound: a new production model for interactive media. (2007) (pg. 29) 87. Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. (2008) (pg. 5)

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IBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography
Baccigalupo, Claudio (2003). Design and Production of Audio Technologies for Video Games Development. M.S. Thesis, University of Milan. st Berger, Arthur Asa. (2002). Video Games: A Popular Culture Phenomenon. 1 Edition. Transaction Publishers Berndt, Axel & Hartmann, Knut. (2008). The Functions Of Music In Interactive Media. Berlin, Heidelberg. ICIDS '08 Proceedings of the 1st Joint International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling: Interactive Storytelling Berndt, Axel. Hartmann, Knut. Rber, Niklas. Masuch, Maic. (2006). Composition and Arrangement Techniques for Music In Interactive Immersive Environments. Department of Simulation and Graphics. University of Magdeburg, Germany. Bridgett, Rob (2007) Post-production sound: A new production model for interactive media. The Soundtrack 1(1). Chan, Zachary (2008). A Very Special Video Games Live Concert. MusicBox, October 2008. Cohen, Annabel. J. (2000), Film Music: Perspectives from Cognitive Psychology, in Buhler, C. Flinn and D. Neumeyer (eds), Music and Cinema (Hanover, NH, and London: Wesleyan University Press). Copland, Aaron. (1999). What to Listen for in Music. Edition. Signet. Collins, Karen (2008). Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. 1 Edition. The MIT Press. Collins, Karen. (2008). Grand Theft Audio?: Video Games and Licensed IP. Music and the Moving Image, Vol 1/1, University of Illinois Press. st Inglis, Ian. (2003). Popular Music and Film. 1 Edition. Columbia University Press. Kaufman, Gil (2011). Linkin Park Say 'Iridescent' Was A 'Natural Fit' For 'Transformers' Soundtrack. MTV, April 15 2011. Kerr, Aphra (2006). The Business and Culture of Digital Games: Gamework/Gameplay. London: Sage. nd Kramer, Lawrence. (1995). Classical Music and Postmodern Knowledge. 2 Edition. University of California Press. Lastra, James (2000). Sound Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press. Lipscomb, Scott & Tolchinsky, David. (2004). The role of music communication in cinema. Pre-Press Version. Northwestern University. Oxford Press. Mitchell, Briar Lee. (2012). Game Design Essentials. 1st Edition. Sybex. John Wiley & Sons Rabowsky, Brent. (2010). Interactive Entertainment: A Videogame Industry Guide. Edition. Radiosity Press nd Ryan, Marie-Laude. (2004). Narrative across Media: The Languages of Storytelling (Frontiers of Narrative). 2 Edition. University of Nebraska Press. Spradley, James. (1980). The Ehtnographic Research Cycle. In: Participant Observation. New York, Reinhart and Winston, pp. 26-36

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Seifert, Uwe. Kim, Jin Hyun. Moore, Anthony. (2008). Paradoxes of Interactivity: Perspectives for Media Theory, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artistic Investigations. Edition. Transcript Verlag. Sexton, Jamie. (2008). Music, Sound and Multimedia: From the Live to the Virtual (Music and the Moving rd Image). 3 Edition. Edinburgh University Press. Shinkle, Eugnie (2005). Feel It, Dont Think: The Significance of Affect in the Study of Digital Games. Paper presented at the 2005 Digital Games Research Association conference. Stang, Bendik (2007). The Book of Games Volume 2: The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games (Book of Games series). Edition. gameXplore N.A. Inc. Winters, Ben. (2010). The non-diegetic fallacy: lm, music, and narrative space. Music & Letters, 91(2), pp. 224244 Wolf, Mark J.P. (2007). The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond. Edition. Greenwood Zager, Michael. (2011). Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students. 2nd Edition. Scarecrow Press.

Webography
Belinkie, Matthew. (1999). Video game music: not just kid stuff. - [Online]. Available at: http://www.vgmusic.com/vgpaper.shtml. [Accessed 15 January 2012]. Canham, Mark. (2006) The Driv3r soundtrack: Be good, be bad, be something new? [Online] Available at: http://music4games.net/Features_Index.aspx?t=Archives&p=7 [Accessed 19 March 2012). Consalvo, Mia. Dutton, Nathan. (2007). Game analysis: Developing a methodological toolkit for the qualitative study of games. [Online]. Available at: http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/consalvo_dutton [Accessed 02 March 2012] Edwards, Ralph. (2006) The Game Production Pipeline: Concept to Completion What goes into making a game? [Online] IGN article. Available at: http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/696/696273p1.html. [Accessed 16 March 2012] Gibbons, Williams. (2011). Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams: Popular Music, Narrative, and Dystopia in Bioshock. [Online]. Available at: http://gamestudies.org/1103/articles/gibbons [Accessed 14 March 2012] GlitterBerri. (2010) Special Interview - Koji Kondo. [Online] Available at: http://www.glitterberri.com/ja/ocarina-of-time/special-interview-koji-kondo/ [Accessed 18 April 2012]. Hibberd, James. (2009). 'Guitar Hero': Reality show? [Online] Available at: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/guitar-hero-reality-show-51580. [Accessed 15 April 2012]. Hugh Hancock. (2002). Better Game Design Through Cutscenes. [Online]. Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3001/better_game_design_through_.php [Accessed 19 April 2012]. McDonald, Glenn. 2008. A History Of Videogame Music. [Online] Available at: http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6092391/index.html. [Accessed 15 February 2012]. Nickalls, Peter. (2010). Williams and the Cantina the diegetic music of Tatooine. [Online] Available at: http://www.peternickalls.com/?p=114 [Accessed 14 March 2012] nprMusic. (2008). The Evolution of Video Game Music. [Online] Available at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89565567. [16 February 2012] ScoreKeeper, (2007) ScoreKeeper With Composer John Debney About Scoring LAIR For PlayStation 3, Maybe IRON MAN, And More!!. [Online] Published at: 06 March 2007. Available at: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31783. [Accessed 01 April 2012]. Simons, Jan. (2007). Narrative, Games, and Theory. [Online]. Available at: http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/simons [Accessed 02 March 2012].

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stealthborn (2009). GameON - A look back...PaRappa the Rapper [Online]. Available at: http://swiftor.com/f22/look-back-parappa-rapper-41922/ [Accessed 25 March 2012]. Whalen, Zach. 2004. Play Along An Approach to Videogame Music, [Online]. Available at: http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/whalen/" *Accessed 10 March 2012+. Zizza, Keith. (2000) Important Items to Consider in Audio Design, Production, and Support. [Online] Available at: http://www.dreamquakestudios.com/ADD.html. [Accessed 04 April 2012]

Videography
Avildsen, John. (1976). Rocky. [DVD]. Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler, Sylvester Stallone, United Artists Lucas, George. (1977). Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. [BluRay DVD]. Gary Kurtz, 20th Century Fox

Discography
Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack (1997) Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack. (1997). [CD-ROM]. DigiCube: Square-Enix. Nobuo Uematsu, Minoru Akao Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack (2010) Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack. (2001). [CD-ROM]. DigiCube: Square-Enix. Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, Junya Nakano Pokmon Black Original Soundtrack (2010) Nintendo DS Pocket Monsters Black and White Super Music Collection. (2010). [CD-ROM]. Media Factory: Pikachu Records.

Ludography
2K Boston (Irrational Games), (2007). BioShock. [HD-DVD Disc]. Xbox 360. Game Freak (Nintendo, The Pokmon Company), (2011). Pokmon Black. [DS Game Card]. Nintendo DS Nintendo Creative Department (Nintendo), (1985). Super Mario. Bros. [ROM Cartridge (Game Pak)]. Nintendo Entertainment System Square Product Development Division 1 (Square Co., Ltd), (2002). Final Fantasy X [DVD-ROM]. Playstation 2. Square Product Development Division 1 (Square Co., Ltd), (1997). Final Fantasy VII [CD-ROM]. Playstation 1. Sonic Team (Sega), (1991). Sonic The Hedgehog. [4-megabit cartridge]. Sega Megadrive.

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ppendix

Appendix
1 Appendix 1 Score Final Fantasy X Song of Prayer (Composed by Nobuo Uematsu) nd nd 2 Appendix 2 Score Final Fantasy X Cloister of Trials (Composed by Nobuo Uematsu) rd rd 3 Appendix 3 Score The Legend of Zelda Overworld (Composed by Koji Kondo) th th 4 Appendix 4 Score Final Fantasy VII Anxious Heart (Composed by Nobuo Uematsu) th th 5 Appendix 5 Score Final Fantasy VII Who Am I? (Composed by Nobuo Uematsu) th 6 Appendix Andy Brick Interview by Molly Sheridan
st st

CD Track Lists
Video CD List
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Super Mario Bros. Level 1 (Jumping Sound) Sonic The Hedgehog 1 Level 3 (Drowning Sound) BioShock - Introduction Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Mos Eisley Cantina Final Fantasy X Besaid Temple & Cloister Of Trials PaRappa The Rapper Chop Chop Master Onion Guitar Hero Metallica Advertisement Transformers Linkin Park New Divide Final Fantasy VII Aeris Death

Audio CD List
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. The Legend Of Zelda - Overworld Pokmon Black Route 2 (Spring) Pokmon Black Route 2 (Summer) Pokmon Black Route 2 (Autumn) Pokmon Black Route 2 (Winter) Final Fantasy X Hymn Of The Fayth Final Fantasy X Cloister Of Trials Madden NFL 2003 Good Charlotte The Anthem Tony Hawks American Wasteland Fall Out Boy Start Today Final Fantasy VII Anxious Heart Final Fantasy VII Who Am I?

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