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Video Game Musicians: Not Playing Around
23-Aug-2008
Written by: Dean Stattmann
Video game music is a growing industry that many have failed to recognize.
After debuting at No. 10 on Billboard’s Classical Crossover Chart a few weeks ago, Video Games Live: Volume One, an album made up entirely of, you guessed it, video game music, soon proved that it was not playing around when it boxed out John Williams’s newest Indiana Jones composition.
And Tommy Tallarico, the collection’s producer, couldn’t have been happier, seeing the album’s success as a victory for video game music composers everywhere.
"I challenge anyone to pick up the album and tell me that it's not as artistic and culturally significant as any piece of classical music that's been around for 300 years," he said to Variety. "Video game music is the soundtrack of our generation. This is only the beginning."
Many video game music composers have gone on to write scores for feature films, and vice-versa. Howard Shore, John Debney and Harry Gregson-Williams are just some major film composers that have lent their talents to video games. The appeal: unbridled creative freedom.
Anyone who has picked up a video game controller in the last few years will testify to the amazing evolution that the medium has undergone since its two-tone Pac-Man days, and the phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by Hollywood producers. According to Variety, amongst the first to make the transition from console to cinema was Michael Giacchino, a name that gamers will remember from Medal of Honor. Giacchino, who can now expand his resume to include composition for Alias, Lost and Ratatouille, was discovered by producer J. J. Abrams, who discovered the artist through one of the games that he had scored.
Video game soundtrack composer Christopher Lennertz tells a similar story. "I got my opportunity to write big, sweeping, epic-style music for a videogame in 2003," Lennertz told Variety, "but I didn't get my chance to write big, theatrical motion-picture music with a huge orchestra until a year and a half ago. The CD I gave (the producers of The Comebacks) was 80 percent game music." Amongst Lennertz’s latest projects is the soundtrack to the upcoming James Bond game, Quantum of Solace.
The advantages of composing video game music are undeniable. According to Variety, composers are often given deadlines as loose as one year to deliver the goods, and track lengths are rarely an issue. Plus, the opportunity to work with big orchestras and choirs is one that’s hard to pass. But the job is by no means something to be executed casually, and in many instances, the music is key to the overall experience.
"Music is much more critical to the entertainment experience in games than in any other medium," Clint Bajakian, senior music manager for Sony Computer Entertainment America, told Variety. "Music in TV and film plays a supportive role. The music in videogames plays a very upfront role. It helps to drive the players' actions and even the physical action of playing the game."
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