Looking at the state of Video Game soundtracks today and how far they have come from the beginning of the industry.
Any good industry needs strong personalities.
The gaming music community did not always have big names behind it. It seemed a bit of an afterthought when it came to the whole game package. How many reviews back in the day even talked about the music of a video game? Still, as the gaming personalities started to get more vocal, some individuals worked to change that. I think one of those is Tommy Tallarico. Tommy has composed music for hundreds of video games, including Earthworm Jim and Unreal. However, it’s his push of the “Video Games Live” concert series which really helped to build a solid appreciation for the music that went into creating these experiences. This is now paving the way for other musicians to join this community. Trent Reznor has recently been involved with composing music for the Call of Duty series. Joe Hisaishi, known for some of the great work he has done on various anime movies, lent his talents to the score for Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. We are seeing a congregation of musical talent from a number of different industries, each bringing their unique flavor and sound.
The aforementioned Ni no Kuni score was an excellent example of the orchestral evolution of the video game soundtrack. The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestrate was used by Joe Hisaishi in order to record the music that would be used throughout that excellent RPG. The quality of that soundtrack is clearly felt by anyone who listens to it. The same can be absolutely said for the Grammy nominated soundtrack for The Journey. It was the first game soundtrack to be given such an honor. Talk about putting the genre on the map. Deep and engaging music like that was key to the success of The Journey experience overall. That is where the music quality really shines through, in its ability to enhance the storytelling. And while a full orchestral arrangement helps with this, it is not necessary. Just look at the sometimes haunting melodies included in the Fez soundtrack. While the sound style is a throwback to the good old days of gaming, the arrangement of those sounds plays right into the today’s need for a rich melodic pallet that helps to give a virtual world real life.
Another great example of music that helps to set the tone of a game’s story is the Silent Hill franchise soundtrack. Akira Yamaoka, in my humble opinion, has created many masterpieces on his way to scoring the Silent Hill experience. The sounds and arrangement were so unique at the time that they immediately made me realize everything I was going to go through in this experience was going to be different. The other world music just took it to another level. My first play through of the other world school in Silent Hill 1 for the Playstation resulted in my young little heart racing well after I turned off the console. The near insanity inducing, relentless sounds of the monsters coming after me played a very big part of that.
