Video Game Music As Art
There is something really special about video game music to the people who have played the games. The songs from your favorite games live as much larger versions of themselves because they are attached to the memories from the games themselves. A simple song can be more than just a melody, it captures the mood of a story and characters that you grow attached to while playing these games. There are also iconic songs from games that serve to summarize an entire franchise, and just hearing the familiar notes calls forth a wave of emotion from our memory banks. It is important to remember that when you are dealing with video game music that there is so much passion that is attached to it. What may seem to be just a silly song can actually be a piece of music that was a backing track to moments that changed a persons life.
We are at a point where enough time has passed that the same people who were playing Nintendo as kids are grown adults who have defined themselves as human beings, and part of what they define themselves as pulls from the experience of video games. You don't just passively listen to video game music, you live it, you experience it. Video games almost serve as a modern day musical in these regards, but a musical where we as gamers had an active part as the author of the story. Even the casual gamer knows a handful of songs from their childhoods, themes to games like Zelda, Mario, or Sonic. Even if you don't know the melody off the top of your head, the second the song starts you realize that you know the tune by heart.
It is in this way that we run into a slight issue with dealing with a concert with such a broad scope in song selection. There were sections of the show that focused on games that didn't hold that level of importance to me, so I found myself fidgeting in my seat just waiting for the band to move onto the next song. This isn't to say I have such a messiah complex that I feel the entire show should be tailored around me, it's just a simple fact that when dealing with such a vast selection of songs, there is no way to please everyone in the audience at all times.
This factor of personal preference was made bearable by the incorporation of large projection screens though. During the show, whenever songs were being played, massive screens were playing footage from the games that were being featured. It made it possible for me to not completely lose my interest while listening to music from God of War (I'm not debating the validity of the game, it just doesn't happen to be my cup of tea). These screens were also used in between songs to play short video clips that dealt with dogma of video game culture, and served to unite us all in our nerdom.
Uniting the audience was the part of the experience that I found most gratifying. Treating video game music as legitimate music is a movement that is gaining speed, but does not have the widespread support that it deserves. It exists as a niche corner of the musical world, often misunderstood. Listing video game music as my favorite musical genre isn't something that I do quite often, even though the more thought I put into it, am realizing to be the truth. I felt really good to be in a room full of people who had a similar level of understand as to how special the night we were all sharing truly was.
There was a moment where the band played one of the songs from the Opera sequence of Final Fantasy VI, and as the song came to a close I was about to shout out (in my usual, slightly belligerent social self) "I wonder is Ultros is going to pop out!" (during the closing of the Opera sequence, the mini boss Ultros pops up, ruining the theater and causing a battle to ensue). Before the words could come out of my mouth, someone a few rows in front of me shouted nearly those exact words. I laughed a true belly laugh, before myself responding "We are such fucking nerds." I felt at home
Video Games Live is a pioneer in the realm of live video game music, and hopefully their work will help pave the way for many other live performances of the same vein. They are the proof of concept that people actually care about this art form, the theater was packed full of people who were excited to see the performance. Unlike a mainstream show, It didn't seem as though anyone in the audience was there just because it was a cool thing to do on a monday night. There was passion filling all the seats. The simple fact that the audience cared so much to be there is reason enough for the performance of live video game music to continue.
No comments:
Post a Comment