The History of Video Game Music
Video game music has always been interactive, but it’s grown more complex over the years, which has made it less memorable. Let me show you this by taking you on a journey of the history of video game music.
The first video games were Tennis for Two (1958) and Spacewar! (1962), and neither of them had sounds or music. It wasn’t until Space Invaders (1978) when the first game had the first soundtrack, and the melody was just a continuous loop of four descending chromatic bass notes. More importantly, though, the tempo increased as the game’s speed increased1,2, meaning video game music interacted with the game from the first use of music in the game .
Early arcade games had music on loops through only one or two channels, meaning they could only play one or two notes at the same time. They could, however, do more when the game wasn’t rendering graphics in real time. For example, Pac-man introduced the first cut-scene, which was more musical than the in-game melody2.
As technology improved, the capacity to have better in-game music also improved. Where the arcade games could only do one or two channels, the NES had three-tone channels complete with slight variations, percussion, looping, and more channels, meaning there was capacity to play a full chord. Music was melody-based2 but was still simple enough to be remembered. For example, Super Mario Bros. (1983) had much more complex music than the arcade games, but it still interactive with the game by changing through world changes and actions5.
Each action corresponded to its own unique sound, which was always in time with the music. For example, the jump sound was a simple glissando, but it didn’t matter when you jumped, the glissando was always in time with the music. The Super Nintendo even had a rudimentary system that allowed you to write your own music using action sounds.
With even more improved technology, the N64 could blend musical phrases from one world to the next, foreshadow themes, change its music based on encountering an enemy, overlap themes, and allow the player to play an instrument5. The perfect example of these abilities is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), which had music that faded in and out as your changed regions or encountered enemies and let you play an in-game ocarina. By the late 1990s, the consoles (PlayStation 2, Game Cube, etc.) had DVD quality audio that included multichannel surround sound2.
Current generation systems have music recorded by full orchestras and choirs. Video game music has become so complex that the memorable melodies have faded away4.
Interactivity still exists (e.g., Dance Dance Revolution, Vid Ribbon) but the complexity of the scores make interactivity much harder to accomplish2. The Los Angeles Philharmonic performed a Final Fantasy Series to sold-out concerts, but interactivity is just starting to be explored.1 Personally, I once went to see the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess concert. Although it was an amazing concert, the only interactivity they had was a screen display in-game video footage.
Famous composers (e.g., Hans Zimmer) often write for video game music4, and video game music now sells records on its own and as genres, such as bitcore, bithop, and micromusic1, but the academic study of video game music is lacking2,3,5. Academicians often view video game music as too basic to study1,2,3. Because of this perception, search is missing out on information for marketing, culture, nostalgia, performing live game sounds, and associated interactive audio for real life3. Because of the lack of research, theoretical frameworks are not in place to address interactive music1.
Overall, music in video games has followed a consistent pattern: simple, one-note melodies; two-note, repetitive loops; more complex chord progressions; and even more complex, complete scores. They’re all built around how the music needs to interact within the game, but this pattern, to me, mimics the history of music in the non-virtual world in general.
1)Collins (2005); 2) Collins (2008); 3) Collins, Karen (2007); 4) Portnow & Floyd.(2012); 5)Whalen (2004).
