R3 'Game' theory?

[MrGongGong]

I wonder if an Innocent Ear approach would produce the same reactions?

You mean not deciding that it is all evil and will lead to addiction and misery before listening ?

Blimey days, don't suggest that.

[Judith Robbyns]

"You mean not deciding that it is all evil and will lead to addiction and misery before listening ? "

How whimsical. Do you have anything to contribute on the subject for the general enlightenment of the assembled company?

[Master Jacques]

To me it seems to be a new form of popular music - 'popular' because so many people love it. Isn't that what popular means? It isn't a synonym for worthless.

Agreed on both points. But I would say that there are plenty of excellent games out there which easily qualify (in my book) as art - certainly on a level with the best world cinema and narrative fiction. Just don't expect to hear too much about these sort of games (or their music) on Radio 3's show, which sounded to me too biased towards populist shoot-em-ups and war games - there is a huge world of games out there!

(There isn't any music with this, but to see what I mean do take a look at the browser game Fallen London, which is easily the most literate thing online I've seen for years, creating a Victorian steampunk world indebted to T. S. Eliot, Iain Sinclair and China Miéville, but very much its own universe. Utterly fascinating, atmospheric and highly imaginative. As well as impish. And ... yes ... addictive.)

[MrGongGong]

"You mean not deciding that it is all evil and will lead to addiction and misery before listening ? "

How whimsical. Do you have anything to contribute on the subject for the general enlightenment of the assembled company?

I was agreeing
I usually find that listening in the manner suggested by George Michael is a good idea.
From what I have heard of this (and i'm not a player of games) there are some interesting things
more interesting, to me, is the way that the music has to be in "mobile" form

[oddoneout]

Don't worry. It will be over in four weeks...


... to be replaced, probably, by Sound of Dance

OG

Well that'll be a short series then won't it? After all no self respecting R3 approved composer has ever written music to dance to have they...

[oddoneout]

I did some research before listening to the programme (listening to YouTube clips), but it's hard to search out video game music and then listen to it as if you don't know it's video game music (if that is what's necessary for Innocent Ear).

I do wonder whether there is a correlation between the basic appeal of video games (as a pursuit/entertainment) and the appeal of the music itself. Trying to find out something about the games hasn't made me any more interested in becoming even an occasional gamer. It is one of many other pursuits which have no appeal for me but which have enormous appeal for billions around the world. So, the gaming music seems, as far as I can judge, eminently suitable for the games it accompanies. It seems like 'that kind of music' - which could be the very reason why it no more has a strong appeal as do the games. Some people have said they enjoyed the music on the programme although they are not gamers. I wonder, on a scale of 1-10, how much they enjoyed it.

To me it seems to be a new form of popular music - 'popular' because so many people love it. Isn't that what popular means? It isn't a synonym for worthless.

Isn't it just music written for a specific purpose, something which has happened throughout history?

[Master Jacques]

... more interesting, to me, is the way that the music has to be in "mobile" form

Absolutely: technically, that's the most fascinating part of it. I'm often full of admiration for the brilliance with which these composers achieve the effect (illusion if you like) of seamlessness.

[Bella Kemp]

In the interests of fairness I am sure the BBC management are urging the grim gatekeepers over at Radio One to open up their closed minds and chill to Kindertotenlieder and Wintereisse.

[Serial_Apologist]

Absolutely: technically, that's the most fascinating part of it. I'm often full of admiration for the brilliance with which these composers achieve the effect (illusion if you like) of seamlessness.

Maybe they took hints from DJs using twin turntables or working with plates or samplers. Actually I think it was said in the first programme that some of the composers have been (or are) DJs.

[MrGongGong]

Maybe they took hints from DJs using twin turntables or working with plates or samplers. Actually I think it was said in the first programme that some of the composers have been (or are) DJs.

Or Mozart?

Or even this little ditty

http://andrewhugill.com/rr/randomround.html

[Master Jacques]

Maybe they took hints from DJs using twin turntables or working with plates or samplers. Actually I think it was said in the first programme that some of the composers have been (or are) DJs.

I don't know about that! But whereas DJs dally along the paths they want to present to their audience, game composers have to think - first and last - about what paths the players might choose to take, which makes producing a satisfying whole less about ego and more about artistry.

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't know about that! But whereas DJs dally along the paths they want to present to their audience, game composers have to think - first and last - about what paths the players might choose to take, which makes producing a satisfying whole less about ego and more about artistry.

So individualistic, though... I remember Pousseur's opera "Votre Faust" (1965) offering audiences the opportunity to vote between different plot outcomes during the interval before the final act.

[Master Jacques]

So individualistic, though... I remember Pousseur's opera "Votre Faust" (1965) offering audiences the opportunity to vote between different plot outcomes during the interval before the final act.

Yes indeed - often done in theatre (audiences voting as to who they'd like to be the murderer et al.) but very rarely in opera. Though not such a stretch for Pousseur perhaps, who was merely carrying his aleatoric techniques a little further! Alas I've never heard the work.

[MrGongGong]

So individualistic, though... I remember Pousseur's opera "Votre Faust" (1965) offering audiences the opportunity to vote between different plot outcomes during the interval before the final act.

IRMA ? (Bryn will know )

[Judith Robbyns]

Master Jacques: "But whereas DJs dally along the paths they want to present to their audience, game composers have to think - first and last - about what paths the players might choose to take, which makes producing a satisfying whole less about ego and more about artistry. "

It sounds like a 'modern' variant on a post modern fictional device from 50 years ago. John Fowles's French Lieutenant's Woman created a narrative and characters which envisaged and allowed for alternative endings, which he subsequently provided. How far is video games music an illusion that players somehow create their own musical narrative by their chosen actions? Is that narrative not limited to the outcomes that the composer provided for in the first place - just as Fowles prepared for alternatives in his novel - both merely providing a limited set of variants which are the creators' own?

I think Fowles's device is a technical achievement rather than an artistic one, and I would see the requirements of video games music in the same light. Artistry there may be, but I'm not convinced that it lies in this supposed 'dependency' on the decisions of the gamer.