Music to Your Virtual Ears

Video games have been a part of entertainment culture for the past four decades, ranging in a variety of genres, from puzzle games, to girly cooking games (blah), to of course, the alpha-male, bloody and (at times hilariously) violent. Whether we like it or not, the industry is huge and growing, as is the need for video game music. A lot of noteworthy music has emerged, including scores from Final Fantasy and Mass Effect, and I love the music from the iPhone game Eliss (which I beat! Truly one of my top 3 accomplishments in life thus far).

Little has been written about video game music, as video games are still relatively new, as compared with film, Broadway shows, etc., and also because some might question its artistic merit. Not to get all philosophical and state any *big ideas* about anything, but art that is created for anything that reaches people, and especially something with as massive a reach as video games, is to me, artistically relevant.

What made me think about this is a Kickstarter project, ‘Videogame Music in Context,’ a Japanese DVD series that will investigate videogame soundtracks. Featured composers include Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill), Hip Tanaka (Game Boy Camera) interview by Baiyon, Hideyuki Fukasawa (Super Street Fighter IV), Hideki Sakamoto (echochrome ii), Noriyuki Asakura (Tenchu 4), Takashi Tokita & Naoshi Mizuta (Final Fantasy Legends.

There are only 8 days left to pledge, and there are really cool rewards!  Check out the Kickstarter page here.