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
- 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
- References
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2021
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
- 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
- References
Summary
Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years, at least since the titular aliens of Space Invaders arrived in 1978, accompanied by an ever-accelerating musical ostinato. Now, reaching hundreds of millions of listeners, game music has grown to encompass a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. Its instrumentation ranges from orchestras to rock bands, its contexts from bedroom televisions to concert halls, its materials from ‘art music’ to Top-40 pop, and its systems from generative music technologies to carefully handcrafted idiosyncratic musical structures.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music , pp. 1 - 4Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
References
Introductory Reading
Collins, Karen. Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fritsch, Melanie. ‘History of Video Game Music’, in Music and Game: Perspectives on a Popular Alliance, ed. Moormann, Peter. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2013, 11–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimshaw, Mark. ‘Sound’, in The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, ed. Perron, Bernard and Wolf, Mark J. P. (London: Routledge, 2016), 117–24.Google Scholar
Jørgensen, Kristine. ‘Left in the Dark: Playing Computer Games with the Sound Turned Off’, in From Pac-Man to Pop Music: Interactive Audio in Games and New Media, ed. Collins, Karen. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008, 163–76.Google Scholar
Whalen, Zach. ‘Play Along – An Approach to Videogame Music.’ Game Studies 4, no. 1 (2004).Google Scholar