Understanding Video Game Music

Research output: Book/ReportBook

Abstract

Understanding Video Game Music develops a musicology of video game music by providing methods and concepts for understanding music in this medium. From the practicalities of investigating the video game as a musical source to the critical perspectives on game music - using examples including Final Fantasy VII, Monkey Island 2, SSX Tricky and Silent Hill - these explorations not only illuminate aspects of game music, but also provide conceptual ideas valuable for future analysis. Music is not a redundant echo of other textual levels of the game, but central to the experience of interacting with video games. As the author likes to describe it, this book is about music for racing a rally car, music for evading zombies, music for dancing, music for solving puzzles, music for saving the Earth from aliens, music for managing a city, music for being a hero; in short, it is about music for playing.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationCambridge
PublisherCambridge University Press
Number of pages262
ISBN (Electronic)9781316337851 , 9781108110495
ISBN (Print)9781107116870, 9781108413428
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2016

Keywords

  • Video games
  • video game music
  • game audio
  • computer music
  • ludomusicology

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