The Story of Game Music Composition
Independent music site Pitchfork posted a feature today that details the many different aspects of videogame composition and how it differs from composing music for a Hollywood picture. They speak with renowned game composers such as Jesper Kyd (the Hitman series), Peter McConnell (Psychonauts) and Russell Shaw (Black & White, Fable) who shed insight on how the entire process takes place.
Shaw acknowledges a major influence from ambient and electronica music. "One of my favorite genres of music at the moment is ambient techno," says Shaw. "We went through a whole year of just listening to people like Autechre and Boards of Canada, and Squarepusher. All these people, they're just experimenting with noises really, but getting something musical out of it at the same time. That really had quite a big influence on me, especially at the time when I was doing Black & White. It can evoke all sorts of memories, and nostalgia...and in a lot of ways that normal, standard, composed music can't actually do."The article also tackles the issue of publishers paying top dollar to sign popular musical talent as opposed to giving creative freedom to a singular artist to create a soundtrack that is representative of the action on-screen. Thanks to Slashdot for the link.
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This is where Jeremy Soule news comes in. TLDR]b: Soule launches online music service to distribute his music to users and developers.
Composer of tomes of music including Total Annihilation, Giants, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, Morrowind, the Harry Potter games, Warhammer DoW, Star Wars KOTOR, Guild Wars, and the next Unreal game. He's so good that his music is better than some of the games its written for. Samples of his music are playing on his website: http://www.jeremysoule.com/index2.html
Years ago the he tried to pull off a series of CDs with his music, but that went down the shitter for unknown reasons. Now he's apparently back with http://www.directsong.com/ , which looks like an online music store + music development and distribution frontend for him and his compatriots.
And with Guild Wars as the launch product, things are even better! http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansite-friday45.html
I believe the idea is that this "Direct Song" front will offer albums for sale (starting with the Guild Wars deluxe soundtrack that people want to buy but so far cannot), and offer "soundtrack expansion packs" for sale which will automatically integrate with the game, in the starting case Guild Wars. That's a foreign idea, but more sweet music is better, baby.
Game music is often good stuff, so any way to keep good tunes from dieing with their games is pretty sweet. Bring on the online game music sales.