Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- A Landmark Timeline of Video Game Music
- Foreword: The Collaborative Art of Game Music
- Introduction
- Part I Chiptunes
- Part II Creating and Programming Game Music
- Part III Analytical Approaches to Video Game Music
- 9 Music Games
- 10 Autoethnography, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
- 11 Interacting with Soundscapes: Music, Sound Effects and Dialogue in Video Games
- 12 Analytical Traditions and Game Music: Super Mario Galaxy as a Case Study
- 13 Semiotics in Game Music
- 14 Game – Music – Performance: Introducing a Ludomusicological Theory and Framework
- Part IV Realities, Perception and Psychology
- Part V Game Music, Contexts and Identities
- Part VI Beyond the Game
- 24 Producing Game Music Concerts
- Select Bibliography
- Index
11 - Interacting with Soundscapes: Music, Sound Effects and Dialogue in Video Games
from Part III - Analytical Approaches to Video Game Music
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2021
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- A Landmark Timeline of Video Game Music
- Foreword: The Collaborative Art of Game Music
- Introduction
- Part I Chiptunes
- Part II Creating and Programming Game Music
- Part III Analytical Approaches to Video Game Music
- 9 Music Games
- 10 Autoethnography, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
- 11 Interacting with Soundscapes: Music, Sound Effects and Dialogue in Video Games
- 12 Analytical Traditions and Game Music: Super Mario Galaxy as a Case Study
- 13 Semiotics in Game Music
- 14 Game – Music – Performance: Introducing a Ludomusicological Theory and Framework
- Part IV Realities, Perception and Psychology
- Part V Game Music, Contexts and Identities
- Part VI Beyond the Game
- 24 Producing Game Music Concerts
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Video games often incorporate a wide variety of sounds while presenting interactive virtual environments to players. Music is one critical element of video game audio – to which the bulk of the current volume attests – but it is not alone: sound effects (e.g., ambient sounds, interface sounds and sounds tied to gameworld actions) and dialogue (speaking voices) are also common and important elements of interactive video game soundscapes. Often, music, sound effects and dialogue together accompany and impact a player’s experience playing a video game, and as Karen Collins points out, ‘theorizing about a single auditory aspect without including the others would be to miss out on an important element of this experience, particularly since there is often considerable overlap between them’.1 A broad approach that considers all components of video game soundscapes – and that acknowledges relationships and potentially blurred boundaries between these components – opens the way for a greater understanding not only of video game music but also of game audio more broadly and its effects for players.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music , pp. 176 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
- 3
- Cited by