Video game music as a medium is something that has been very important to me for a very long time - since I was about fifteen. It began like any other art form - cutting edge, but with a moderate hint of distaste from the contemporary artists.
And, like most art forms, it would be the youth of a generation exposed to it that would really bring onto the scholar’s desk. While composers were writing music that’s never been written for a medium that also, has never been written for, the struggle for legitimacy has been a long one.
“Into the Score” seeks to be an in-depth and academic look at video game music, exploring the composers, the pieces and the games that they’re written for. That credo is written throughout the website and mentioned throughout many podcasts, but there is one question that must naturally follow any mantra, message or credo:”Why?” To me, the reason is something that I’ve said during my teachings of music and my own musical studies: “Because the music demands it.” There is so much passion and life in video game music; but even beyond that, there is artistry, complexity and organization that surpasses the listener’s ear - like any good organization, the system works without anyone realizing it.
When ballet began, its music came with a sense of distaste until a Russian composer named Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky began writing legendary orchestral works for the medium. A similar event happened with film until the early-middle 20th-century when American composer, Aaron Copland put thoughtfulness and artistic musical writing into his film scores. Now, we have John Williams with Star Wars or Indiana Jones that are standards in motion picture repertoire, similarly with Howard Shore’s works for Lord of the Rings and Nino Rota’s music from the Godfather films. Television has undergone similar scrutiny, as has jazz, rock and popular music. Only in recent years (within the last two decades) have universities began offering classes in “History of Popular Music,” for example.
Scholars of popular music (it’s true, they exist!) often cite the Beatles as being some of the greatest songwriters in the history of popular music, as do many music lovers. Was music different after the Beatles? I think that it is a dual answer: It is both ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ ‘Yes’ in the means of a pop-culture-consciousness being exposed to very high level songwriting that was not only well-crafted, but very catchy as well; and ‘no’ in the means that maybe they were not the first people to write in such a way, they were just the ones to popularize it. Similarly with Elvis Presley: Did the blues exist before Elvis? Absolutely, they did, but had the popular culture heard the blues before the hip-shaking King of Rock and Roll…?
This is precisely the case with video game music: It has taken almost 30 years, but Mother culture is beginning to catch up. The generation that grew up with Sega Master System, the first Apple-2s and the Nintendo Entertainment System are growing up and have fond memories of Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. Now, their children get to enjoy video games as well…
Furthermore, the musicians who grew up playing those games and listening to scores by Kondo and Uematsu are becoming musicians and composers of video game music themselves, like Yasunori Mitsuda or Christopher Tin. The trails blazed by games like Final Fantasy or Ninja Gaiden have set the standard for video game music by exploring a realm that had never previously been explored. Some of these composers… Uematsu, Kondo, Mitsuda… they are composers of video game music masterpieces and their work deserves to be studied for the art that it is.
“Into the Score” is the only podcast solely devoted to the academic study of video game music. Why? Because the music demands it. The artistry is too strong; the craftsmanship is too great to be ignored or avoided. The scholarly study of video game music exists not only because the music demands it, but because the music deserves it.
- Kenley Kristofferson
February 24, 2008