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Video Games Music: Survey of Western Music Final Paper

Video games music provides atmosphere and mood to enhance the gaming experience. It sets suspense for difficult levels or signals victory. This encourages sales as music engages players. There are two types: action music with fast tempo creates excitement, while strategy/adventure has catchy, calming tunes. Initially using synthesizers, technology advanced to include orchestral pieces and commercial sales. While styles evolved, looping pieces without lyrics remain core features that atmospherically engage players.

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Christian Hoayek
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66 views2 pages

Video Games Music: Survey of Western Music Final Paper

Video games music provides atmosphere and mood to enhance the gaming experience. It sets suspense for difficult levels or signals victory. This encourages sales as music engages players. There are two types: action music with fast tempo creates excitement, while strategy/adventure has catchy, calming tunes. Initially using synthesizers, technology advanced to include orchestral pieces and commercial sales. While styles evolved, looping pieces without lyrics remain core features that atmospherically engage players.

Uploaded by

Christian Hoayek
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Elissa Younan ID:201703766

Christian El Hoayek ID:

Survey of Western Music Final Paper

Video Games Music

Introduction
Video games music is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Music is included in
the background of the game in addition to the title, menu, and victory/game-over screens.
In the old days, synthesizer technology (also known as chiptunes) was used in order to
create video games music. As technology advanced, orchestral pieces were added into this
type of music which made it more popular and allowed it to become performed in concerts.
Moreover, game music started to be sold commercially and many awards were given out to
the best composers.

Purpose
There are several reasons for implementing music in video games. The main purpose is to
set a suitable atmosphere or mood for every phase of the game. For example, if a certain
level of a game is hard and there needs to be suspense, the music would be suspenseful so
that the player would feel the tension and become nervous. Also, when the player wins,
victory music is played so that he/she would feel and enjoy the success. Another important
reason is that music encourages the selling of the game. For example, if a video game did
not have any music the gamer will get bored after a while and therefore he will no longer be
interested in the game. He may not encourage others to play it nor will he buy its new
releases. Therefore, the game may not sell well. While if the game actually had music the
player would feel more enjoyment while playing and more engaged with the game. Thus,
the selling of the game will increase.

Types of Video Game Music


Video games music can be divided into two types: action and strategy/adventure. Action
music has a fast tempo, higher treble line, more powerful bass, and a higher pitched main
melody. Therefore, it creates an exciting and thrilling mood for the player during the game.
On the other hand, strategy and adventure game music is less active, has a catchy tune, and
a realistic tone. Therefore, it creates a calming and pleasing mood for the player.

Video Games Music as a Genre


Video games music genre was founded in the early 90s and it continues to influence certain
music today. However, modern game soundtracks are very different than the older ones
since the ways of creating video games music have changed due to the improvement of
technology.
The following are some features that were significantly present in the genre back then and
are still adapted today:
– Looping pieces
– Pieces without any lyrics (but some exceptions exist)
– Restricted polyphony
– Atmospheric engagement in the game
– Dynamic and lively enjoyment

The tones of the 8-bit era can be thought of as a 4 piece rock band characterized by: Bass
triangle wave, 2 pulse guitar waves, and white noise channel for percussion. However, many
composers used to arrange complex sequences of notes together and overcome the
restrictions to notes. Similarly, composers in the Baroque era integrated musical
ornamentation into their pieces since the famous instrument of that time was the
harpsichord which didn’t have dynamics and therefore limited expression.
After several years of technological progress, there were no more limitations which allowed
composers to have the freedom to use pre-recorded CD-ROM soundtracks of any type of
audio.

Elissa’s opinion
In my opinion, I find video games music interesting and different than other types of music.
Although I am not a huge fan of video games, I have played a few games but I never really
thought that much about the music or the sounds playing in the background. However, after
researching about this topic, I have learnt a lot of new information about this type of music
and I listened again to some of the most famous tracks. After I listened to “God of War”, I
realized that this type of music is underrated and should get more attention. I found out
that we focus too much on the game itself and we take its music for granted. We do not
think about details like who created this music, what influenced it, and how was it created.
Personally, I really like the music of many games but I prefer to listen to them only while
playing the game rather than downloading them and listening to them in the car or while
studying like other types of music. I believe the reason is because most game music do not
have lyrics therefore I cannot sing along to them like pop or rock music. For example, I really
love the track “Gerudo Valley” from “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time” and I find it
calming and joyful but I hate the fact that I cannot sing to it. Also, I believe that a game and
its music should always be played together and they should be inseparable. In my opinion,
just like a game is not enjoyable when its music is not playing, the music is not enjoyable
when heard separately without the game.

All in all, even though I prefer music with lyrics, I consider game music one of the best and
most creative types that I have been exposed to so far.

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