What makes videogame music sound videogamey?

[J T]

I've been tossing around the question in my mind lately as to whether videogame music is a unique musical genre, for reasons other than its chipsets and and lo-fi synth timbres. In other words, if you replaced all of the beeps and boops with acoustic instruments, could videogame music still hold up as its own unique genre of music simply based on the types of melodies, song structures, and general musicality of the music we typically hear in videogames? Some 8-bit and 16-bit games still had music that could be identified as rock, or funk, or classical, but there were others that felt distinctly videogamey. Is there something beyond the chips that gives the melodies, rhythms, and harmonies of videogame music a clearly videogamey sound? If so, what is it? What are your thoughts?

[samsonlonghair]

When I think of video game music I think of music defined by the limitations of what the machine can produce.

It's not a stretch to say that genres of music are defined in large part by the materials and instruments available at the time of development. For example:
-Gregorian chants are possible because at the time of their introduction large choirs of men and boys were assembled in churches with high ceilings that echoed their voices.
-Likewise, J.S. Bach's Baroque style of music wouldn't have been possible without the development of the harpsichord.
-That harpsichord (along with similar keyboard-style instruments) evolved into an early piano just in time for Mozart to enter the classical musical scene.
-The relative ease and low cost of mass printing in the 19th century allowed for the popularization of Tin Pan Alley sheet music in the U.S. and across western Europe.
-In 20th century America, the electrification of New Orleans and Chicago, along with the invention of the electric guitar in the 1930s allowed for the development of the blues guitar style as we know it today (although acoustic country and folk blues traditions persist). Without this development, we wouldn't have have Rock-n-roll music.
-The development of Synthesizers in the 1960s and 1970s made disco possible.
-The plummeting cost of solid-state electronics, turntables, and drum machines in the 1970s and 1980s allowed DJs in the Bronx to develop rap music.

Granted, I am grossly oversimplifying music history for the purposes of this discussion. I just felt like I needed to give examples where popular styles of music would have been impossible without the invention of instruments at the right time.

Video game music isn't so different. Those "beeps and boops" made by CPU instruction sets in the 1980s and the Yamaha sound synth chips popular in the 1990s help define what video game music sounds like. Without the right technology at the right time, we wouldn't have video game music.

[PartridgeSenpai]

When I think of video game music I think of music defined by the limitations of what the machine can produce.

...

Video game music isn't so different. Those "beeps and boops" made by CPU instruction sets in the 1980s and the Yamaha sound synth chips popular in the 1990s help define what video game music sounds like. Without the right technology at the right time, we wouldn't have video game music.

This explanation is fairly brilliant in regards to older game music, but this question hit me in relation to newer games, not older ones.

For example, last fall I showed a group of classmates this song from the end of God Hand, thinking that it sounded enough like a standard enough J-pop song that it wouldn't be obvious that it was from a video game. However, they immediately picked up on the fact that it was from a video game, and I have no idea why. Maybe it's just a freak accident of chance on their and my part, or perhaps this is a bad example, but it's just a question that's lingered with me ever since.

[Ack]

Here's a question for you all: can we have video game music if there is no video game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T7TXVtGGFc

[Xeogred]

Should be a fascinating topic.

I think it goes pretty deep though. As someone that watches a lot of anime both old and new, I think Japanese composers in general favor a bigger emphasis on melody. Kenji Kawai being one of the best examples, whom has scored a lot of anime, some big anime movies, and then film over there. But there is like no way I could imagine someone like him and his style coming out of the West.

So with the Japanese dominating the early console generations, it feels like a storm of combos at the right time at the right place with them, the limitations on the hardware and what they had to do on trackers (probably favoring simplicity and repetition), and the strong influence of the rock/metal boom. Blended together and we have the beautifully melodic, thematic chiptunes that still hold up to this day and translate flawlessly into fully orchestrated scores. Just look at all the classic Nintendo franchises that have redone many of their old themes in newer installments, or go to Nobou Uematsu, so many chiptunes translate into real instruments and orchestras amazingly well. I think that's what makes me even more impressed with so many classic videogame composers than I would be with others, because a lot of them have evolved with the times and the hardware. The limitations didn't stop them from creating amazing things and having more options today didn't slow them down either.

Ack just had to throw out YMO haha, yeah I've heard they were a huge influence. That and probably things like T-Square.



It's a tough call though and can certainly get complicated with a blend of cultures. Just wanted to bring up the Japanese stuff.

[pierrot]

The great YmoH.S himself, Sakimoto Hitoshi, is a big fan of YMO. Rydeen was even good enough to be stolen for a Sega arcade game: Super Locomotive.

Nakamura Masato didn't seem to have a lot of trouble translating some of the Sonic OST into studio recordings like MARRY ME?, or, of course, "SWEET SWEET SWEET." (The horns in 'Kessen no Kinyoubi' sound a little bit like the BGM in Labyrinth Zone--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwjbki8SXbM--and I think the video is pretty fun to watch.) Finally, I think "SNOW DANCE"--especially in this form--wouldn't be out of place in many fifth generation JRPGs.

A lot of video game soundtracks for Japanese games are informed by popular Japanese music tropes, and maybe some Shibuya-kei. I don't think that's particularly surprising, personally. The existence of communities creating chiptune music, I think, validates the "genre" that might classify earlier video game music.

[marurun]

Here's a question for you all: can we have video game music if there is no video game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T7TXVtGGFc

According to Uematsu, YMO is just ripping off Kraftwerk.

[J T]

Kraftwerk was undoubtedly hugely influential, but I always think they get more credit than they deserve for the origins of electronic music. Here are several examples of important electronic musicians that pre-date Kraftwerk.

Bebe and Louis Barron: Forbidden Planet Soundtrack (1956)

Raymond Scott [50s and 60s]: Bass Line Generator (1966)

Gershon Kingsley: Hot Buttered Popcorn (1969)

And the one that I think sounds more ahead of his time than any of them
Jean-Jacques Perrey: E.V.A (1970)


That being said though, it is interesting how much the Yellow Magic Orchestra track that Ack posted does actually sound like NES music before the NES is released. A lot of it is in the stepping bassline and how it plays along with the main melody, which has a sort of soaring feel to it that captures the adventurous nature of the hero's journey in a video game, particularly RPGs.

[J T]

I also wanted to respond to Samsonlonghair's comment. I agree that the chips that define the timbres for videogame music are incredibly important for videogame music as genre. They are the most obvious component of the genre and the reason for the related chiptunes genre. But there is a difference between a game from the 8-bit or 16-bit eras that is attempting music from an established genre, and music that is part of a then-newly unfolding videogame genre. At least I think there is, but some of the points people are making about jpop, anime music, and other musical trends of Japan in the 80s and 90s may just sound videogamey to me because that was how I was first exposed to them. I'm not sure of that.

The limitations of the hardware did force unique style outside of timbre in some of the following ways. Only having 4 channels to record unique instruments on, needing to work across channels to develop harmonies, and employing melody and chord progressions that conveyed a sense of fun and whimsy aimed at children all seem to have influenced the videogame sound, and are part of what I would consider the genre defining aspects of this kind of music beyond the chip sets.

Some characteristic VGM conventions:
*Drums are simplified to being primarily snares and high hats, largely due to needing to use white noise from the chips to simulate percussion.
*Harmonies are done across instruments, rather than within instruments, due to the limitation of 4 channels of single-note recordings.
*Arpeggios are also frequently used to replace chords and for the ease at which they could be sequenced in the track.
*Low end bass notes were not well differentiated by the chips, so bass lines tend to be wide lumbering step patterns, or repetitive hits on the chord root. Sometimes bass lines are also used to hide the absence of a bass drum, which forces their rhythmic positioning into slots between the snare hits.
*Melodies came to the forefront, and are usually carried by higher pitched instruments. A lot of video game music is very melody focused since the music had to stay interesting despite being repeatedly looped, and because you couldn't coast on production values to hide melodic weaknesses.
*The necessity for repetitive loops, also meant that they usually had several passages that would resolve back to the beginning of the loop. Frequently there are some characteristic staccato stabs just before a loop repeats back to the beginning of the passages.
*More major chords/keys are used to keep games sounding happy and fun and appropriate for kids. There are important exceptions to this though, such as boss battle music, which is arguably its own sub-genre and is intentionally stressful and intense.

These are the kind of things that I think make music sound "videogamey". If I were to make an acoustic live band that played original "gamey" songs, I would have lots of arpeggios, lots of snares, limited 4-part arrangements, major keys, loping staccato bass lines, chrystaline instrumentation tinkling arpeggios for rhythm section, and whining leads with arithmetic LFO-style vibrato holds.

EDIT: I went back and arranged things in bullet point for clarity.

[Anapan]

Some of my favorite videogame music artists were formally musically trained and most showed talent with multiple instruments - most were good at classical with Piano, or rock lead with Electric guitar (Sine-wave and Square wave respectively). Their style and talent allowed them to compose chiptunes using midi and inhouse built music composition software. Manami Matsume (Megamans), Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasies), Zuntana (Taito's inhouse band), Michiru Yamane (Konami - Castlevanias), Konami Kukeiha Club (puzzle & shmups), Falcom Sound Team J.D.K., and many more.

If you search, many of them have independant compositions or even successful bands, many with traditional instruments. The songs have the same catches as their synthesized, limited counterparts.

I read Michael Jackson teamed up with Dreams Come True to compose two songs for Sonic 3. watch the youtube video that compared the Sonic 2&3 songs to the original jpop. In this case, all that was done is the cheesy love songs got their BPM increased.

I think that more than anything else, a well-built catchy lead with solid rock/pop bass and drums (the only thing available on most early consoles) will show through any synthesized instrument selection. I'm a sucker for bubblegum pop and 80's songs with a strong lead and (usually) drum-machine accompaniment too.

I spent a couple of weeks many years ago compiling ways to make every song sound like it was composed for as many early systems as I could. It's well out of date - I keep a text file of some emails I got about what needs to be updated), but if you can find or compose a MIDI version of any song, then run it through those synthesizers or soundfonts (instruments are the system's best approximation, as programmed by the best composers) you can hear any song as it might have sounded if it were compiled into one of those early game systems or computers.
http://anapan.525lines.moe/oldscardemu.htm

The same thing was done with a couple of my new favorite artists - Abberantkenosas, and Nelsontyc

When my Otamatones arrive, my niece, nephew and I will be able to clear a room in less than 8 seconds!