Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Ode to 16-bit Soundtracks!
Posted on: November 4, 2012
So, I love video game music.
I love it so much that today I’m going to talk only about video game music, specifically, about the game music I remember growing up in the ’90s.
I remember opening up my very first video console, Sega Genesis, one year around Christmas, and popping in my Sonic 2 cartridge with squeals of anticipation. And then, the bright blue streak of Sonic himself, suggesting the fun that would ensue! “Sega!!”
Something about that time was so magical for me. Maybe it was the bright, flashing colors that piqued my initial interest, but as I steadily found my 6-year-old self enraptured by the music in games for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. It wasn’t until years later when I dumpster dived an old Nintendo that I was introduced to some of the 8-bit gems from that era. But the 16-bit era… that was when I came onboard. Those two-minute songs, repeating ad nauseam, dug to my brain; the sunny synths and sampled drum sets… Over and over…
Looking back on it, my sharp and unfortunately steep decline into childhood video game addiction may have been fueled by many things: the ennui of growing up in suburban Detroit, lack of physical exercise (I tried T-ball and it did not work for me), social pressures… But, for me, video game music was what really sealed the deal. Video game music was my companion to the experience of gaming, a way to connect the technical to the emotional side of the game. For example, what’s Tetris without the delightful Russian “Korobeiniki” to bring with it a sense of comrade-ery and plodding productivity? Or what about that quirky hemiola in the Super Mario Bros. Theme? Like film and television before games, music has become as pivotal a component to the experience of the medium as graphics or design.
But just as graphics and design have been continually updated, so too has music been pushed to up-the-ante. Today’s games feature state-of-the-art sound effects and lush, fully-orchestrated musical scores that would make the efforts of early video game composers like Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu seem like child’s play. This changed happened really quickly; in less than 20 years. Video games have quickly reached the audial standards of the film and television industries and may even surpass them.
What this leads to is music that is so much more self-conscious than it was a few decades ago. Commercially-produced video game music today is made with different standards in mind, and highly formalized to meet certain conventions. In 1996, Final Fantasy VI’s integrative “Aria di Mezzo Carattere”, “sung” by synthesizer (literally), by game character, Celes (figuratively), and directed by the player (the player must enter lyrics correctly to receive in-game rewards), opened up new avenues for musical experience in gaming. Today, these kinds of musical experiences, like the interweaving of music into the narrative, have become a hallmark of entire genres of video games: rhythm-based games, music management games (or ‘raising sims’), among others.
But, I guess I just have a hankering for those old 16-bit days. Of course, Uematsu must have had some commercial intentions behind his compositions, but something about the lower budget and smaller production teams of those days was different than the musical creative environment in today’s game industry. For a brief time, different aspects of development converged synergistically to produce music that was uninhibitedly simple, repetitive and not concerned with the ears of the population at-large. But that has been largely abandoned in the corporatized gaming world of the past decade. Well, I don’t mean to say that all is lost, and that no one out there is making music that is just as creative and evocative, but, that, as opposed to in the ’80s and ’90s, when video game composers could feel that they were the trailblazers, today’s game composers have to stand in opposition to the normative conventions promoted by higher-budget games to do anything different. It feels like the avant-garde has to be decidedly avant-garde, but I want young video game composers today to create the music that they feel called to create, not music that fits neatly into industry standards.
Well, anyway, for now I can always dust off my old Genesis, blow out the cartridge a few times and get more of that synth-poppy “Emerald Hill Zone” goodness. I’ll still play my high-budget jRPGs… but muted, with the Chrono Trigger OST on repeat.
- In: Idol Culture | Uncategorized | Vocaloid
- 13 Comments
I doubt it.
But, we can hope so.
And it seems thousands of other people feel as strongly as I do. Or perhaps Vocaloid fans are just good at hacking. Even if this isn’t enough to bring Nebula to the Olympics, it’s definitely catching some attention. I heard about it from a friend online, but this article confirms it.
Frankly, I don’t think Queen Elizabeth II would quite know how to take that. I wonder if anyone watching would know the truth behind Vocaloid music producer’s intentions. Perhaps Hatsune Miku performing at that event could give this community a powerful voice.
As much as you can swing Vocaloid fans as being eerily obsessed with a not-quite-real, real-ish 16 year old Japanese girl named Hatsune Miku, it’s not really an accurate portrayal. Vocaloid fans are primarily anti-label, not anti-life. Their primary concern is being able to produce content without the influence of traditional record labels. Certainly, fanmade sexual content is floating around out there, but it’s really more about the ability of people to lay claim to their eternal right to make and share in musical activity. So, for starters, let’s just set that whole “strange Japan” bundle aside, and look at the real material issues out there that effect the works that created Hatsune Miku.
This doesn’t have to be done in a library or court house. We can solve this puzzle together just by listening. I like following along with Vocaloid lyrics, seeing if I can understand what they mean. Let’s not underestimate the P’s animacy in creation of their content here. Metaphors abound. And, there may be camps forming. Groups of P’s with varying philosophical stances toward music production, and the monetary value of music. We can listen to the production quality of the music. Is the texture of the music smooth? Does the song capture my attention? Could someone profit from this music? Let’s not forget that the cheapest labor is and has always been free labor.
Is there something that I’m missing out on? Obviously! There’s tons! Like, is there some tab of the transgressions noted by producers toward the record labels? What about producers who sign to major labels? Or is this, as Raymond Williams suggests, a “structure of feeling?” Is the micro-struggle between the concept of a virtual Japanese idol singer, supported by her producers/consumers, and the assumably conservative reaction in England to these results something worthy of attention? Or is it just a blip in history?
Be it by pure technological shock value or an expression of political-economic turmoil, Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid as a concept seem always to ensnare attention. But often this attention is misdirected toward unproductive means. Vocaloid is a powerful new technology that has the ability to change the game. Our macabre fascination with Hatsune Miku culminates in a question that society must address one day soon.
Chara – Crazy for You
Posted on: May 1, 2011
Today, I listened to Chara’s “Crazy for You,” released in 2006 on the Universal Music Japan label¹. To me, this song represents the collaborative spirit of Japanese popular music. The collaboration between Chara, Brilliant Green guitarist, Ryo Matsui, and Shibuya-kei DJ fantastic plastic machine or “FPM” (Tanaka Tomoyuki) works so well, and could potentially draw popularity in the West. Anyone who stumbles upon this song will find something that shines in a completely unconventional way.
Let’s start with the things I didn’t like (‘cuz I don’t play). The song’s tempo of 122 has a kinda neither-here-nor-there feel to it (though good for head-bobbing ala Haddaway’s immortal 1993, “What is Love?”) that leaves me a little flat at the end. FPM’s tasteful additions help keep things bouyant. There’s certainly a freshness to his sound, though I find myself recently yearning to hear something that isn’t quite so trademark FPM. I feel that he could have stretched himself further as a DJ, but the production value of this track is overall high. And, as soon as I get a little bit more quirk from Ryo Matsui in his bridge material, rife with chromaticism, the moment of freshness is quickly made stale by the frumpy chord progression in the chorus.
But, if it’s frumpilicious we’re serving, Chara’s got everything covered with her 森ギャル (forest gal) outfit in the hipster-sheened-out garden. I love it. I’ll have all of it: the vintage tableware, the pastel cotton balls, embroidered flowers and mossy AstroTurf. Her hair — texture, volume, insanity, nattiness. Yes. I think Chara’s hard work really shows in this single. Her lyrics are hauntingly poignant (呼んでいるの今／夢 is particularly heady) and relate well to the feeling of the video… WHAT IS A DOLL?!?! She unleashes quite a bit of creativity, but levels that with a technically brilliant vocal performance. Chara’s delivery as a performer and artist definitely come through, and obviously the Japanese public sensed that talent, as Chara’s following album, Union, achieved a record of 4th place in the weekly Oricon charts in 2007. After all of FPM’s bells and whistles, and Matsui’s hard rockin’, it’s Chara’s voice that keeps me engaged throughout the song. She pulls it off.
So, in short, definitely repping for Chara this week! To the Japanese music industry, I say, please keep supporting artistic collaboration!! And, if you live in Tokyo and you want to support Chara, you can do so at the Liquid Room on May 27th at 18:00². Remember, the fan power starts with… you!!! o(≧∇≦o)(o≧∇≦)o
———-
Today’s Japanese music term (which I may (or may not) continue from here on out):
彼はそのピアノ曲をバイオリン向きに編曲した。 He arranged that piano music for the violin.³
J-Pop Write-Up 