Gaming Lifestyle

Today, concerts like PLAY! A Video Game Symphony is quite common worldwide

Firstly, forgive me for lack of updates. I have not forgotten the blog, only the volume of work has reached a level slightly beneficial to mental and physical health. But to take a lively in this space so expensive, I decided to postpone a little sleep today to put on air a new and, I believe, interesting update. The subject? Game Music!

This is a story I did for EGM Brazil number 05, there by mid-2002, when the matter was not yet as widespread as today. Clearly, much has happened in the six years since the original publication of the article, but the content is unchangeable, because it is history, and, I believe, still very relevant.

The same can not say with equal precision about Top 10 at the time that I prepared for the outcome of the matter, with the game music composers of the most influential of all time. If it were today, would change positions, subtract players (some like) and insert the other vacant posts. Still, one can say that the list has some validity.

After the leap, enjoy the article and take this opportunity to leave your opinion and also list your favorite game music composers.

Soundtrack of Games

Increasingly, this forgotten genre gets its due value

In 1978, Taito tried to add a climate of tension to your Space Invaders putting a solid hit bottom simulating a beating heart. Two years later, Namco wanted to make a note of drama to his Pac-Man with an incessant sound of sirens ...

Since the dawn of video game history, an aspect has been considered of vital importance: the music. Whether in the form of electronic noise or an entire symphony orchestra, a soundtrack for a game ever had the goal of creating the right atmosphere to dictate the mood of each phase or time and cause many different emotions. Over time, this genre was evolving at the pace of technological growth of video games.

LP Cover The Video Game Music, the YMO, 1984

The genre

The first sign of an album of Game Music came in 1978 with the first disc of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), which contained the full Computer Game, with sound effects of Space Invaders. Across the world, USA, in 1981, the duo made the Buckner & Garcia Pac-Man Fever music in honor of the game that really was a fever that year. The single of the song sold over two million copies in 1982.

Pac-Man Fever, disco 1981

The official debut, however, only came in 1984 when co-founders Haruomi Hosono of YMO, declared fan of Xevious, produced a collection of music games from Namco. Thus came the cassette tape and LP Video Game Music on April 25, 1984, with the songs original Pac-Man, Xevious, Mappy, Bosconian, Galaga and others. It was the start of Game Music.

The first album on CD, and also the first soundtrack was arranged Telenet Sound Special Version, in August 1985, with music gaming company Telenet (which Valis is the best known). The explosion of Game Music in Japan came in 1986 with a total of 26 albums containing original tracks, and arranged vocals of games from Namco, Konami, Nintendo, Hudson, Capcom, Tecmo, Enix, Imagineer, and Sega Falcom.

Athena's Famicom game, accompanying cassette with the song "Psycho Soldier"

In June 1987, SNK Athena cartridge for the Famicom was released in a special edition that included a cassette tape with the song Psycho Soldier. This track was sung in the arcade version and was reduced to an instrumental version to the console. That same year, Koichi Sugiyama revolutionized by performing the first concert of Game Music, with tracks from Dragon Quest I and II, released on CD Dragon Quest in Concert. The video game soundtracks were no longer seen as little songs synthesized, gained new dimension and the companies had to hire special attention to the composers.

Dragon Quest in Concert 1987, is the recording of the first concert of game music

Since then, new groups of musicians and composers specializing in games trails began to emerge and stand out, and Game Music has established itself as a new genus. Any music store in Japan had a section devoted to new media. The fever was so great that in 1988, the album Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest III sold more than half a million copies on CD, LP and cassette.

With the arrival of 16-bit consoles, with more advanced sound capabilities, the soundtracks have gained a new charm, as one might hear in Streets of Rage (Sega Genesis) and Actraiser (Super NES), two works of art from the master Yuzo Koshiro. This generation offered memorable moments as the composition magnificent Super Castlevania IV, Sonic the unforgettable soundtrack, a complete opera in Final Fantasy VI (FFII American Super NES), the relaxing melody of aquatic stages of Donkey Kong Country, the theme sung opening of Tales of Phantasia. Freedom has become so great that Rock 'n' Roll Racing, with their songs Stepen Wolf (Born to Be Wild) and Black Sabbath (Paranoid), paved the way for today's THPS, and Crazy Taxi Dave Mirra, who take music of major bands to enrich their tracks. Another trend that was consolidated in this generation were the music CDs that accompany the limited editions of games. Like Athena, in 1987, came with the Killer Instinct Killer Cuts CD excellent, like DKC2, released together with her original track, an example that is followed today, as in the Lunar 1 and 2 and Arc the Lad Collection, all of Working Designs.

In 1995, the Super NES cartridge Killer Instinct was accompanied on the soundtrack remixed

The era of the CD

With the advent of the CD as the media video game, Game Music added a new dimension. No longer necessarily limited by the sound processor and little storage space, composers could now even record music in the studio, as in an ordinary music CD. Since the beginning of this era, we could benefit with tracks such as Sonic CD, Ecco the Dolphin and Earthworm Jim Special Edition (all Sega CD).

The fashion now was the songs sung, used extensively, such as Daytona USA and Sonic R (Sega Saturn). Increasingly sought to become a theme song for each game. Thus, our ears might enjoy "Dreams Dreams" on Nights, "Eyes on Me" in Final Fantasy VIII, "Melodies of Life" in FFIX, "Suteki da ne!" In FFX, "Song of the People" or even in Grandia II even the "Monkey Rap" Donkey Kong 64. Famous artists like Faye Wong, Emiko Shiratori, Rikki and Hikaru Utada, stars of oriental music scene, are now sought to give voice to these songs. Or how about listening to The Cardigans Gran Turismo 2 with "My Favorite Game"?

Rikki sings the theme "Suteki da ne" during the concert Voices, 2006

The Game Music now is a genre explored with special attention by the companies. Example we have in Enemy Zero, the Warp, for which the producer Kenji Eno invited the pianist Michael Nyman, responsible for the music of films like The Piano, to perform the soundtrack to your project. A similar thing happened to Johnny Bazookatone, Acclaim, when Ricchie Sambora and Tico Torres of Bon Jovi played the songs from the game. Recently, Harry Gregson-Williams, a musician known for film scores Replacement Killers, Enemy of the State and Armageddon, was chosen by Hideo Kojima to make the movie sound track from Metal Gear Solid 2. Even the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been mobilized to carry soundtracks of games like Arc the Lad, Dragon Quest VII, Xenosaga and Headhunter.

Game Music Never was so much valued today. CDs with original soundtracks, and arranged vocal pop up to the mountains and also begin to invade the western market. Only in Japan in 1998 were more than seven hundred albums of Game Music and this year until the end of July, there are over two hundred albums. You may not know, but is surrounded by that irresistible mania. Maybe now you will pay more attention to "jingle" when you're playing ...

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10 composers who made history

To do justice, would take a long compendium of the Game Music venerable names such as Yoko Shimomura (Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts), Hiroki Kikuta (Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3, Soukaigi, Koudelka), Kenji Ito (SaGa series ), Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata (Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics) Noriko Matsueda (Front Mission 1 and 2, Bahamut Lagoon), Junya Nakano (Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Dew Prism, Final Fantasy X), Masaya Matsuura (Parappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy, VibRibbon), Hirokazu Tanaka (Kid Icarus, Metroid, Super Metroid, Earthbound), Keiichi Sugiyama (rez), Hideaki Kobayashi (Phantasy Star Online), Michiru Yamane (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) and many others. However, we made a list of the ten Composer Game Music most influential of all time.

1. Koichi Sugiyama
Born: 11/04/31 in Tokyo, Japan
One of the major participants in the Game Music as we know it today. He joined Fuji televion in 1958, where he composed soundtracks for anime and series, among them, Godzilla. Revolutionized the music scene of the games in 1986, when Enix released Dragon Quest in Japan Since then, the songs were not just noises synthesized, but exciting compositions that had an important role. Sugiyama also has a fine collection of antique cameras.
Games: EVO: Search for Eden Dragon Quest / Warrior I to VII

2. Yuzo Koshiro
Birth: 12.12.1967 in Tokyo, Japan
The young composer has been the phenomenon of Game Music in Japan began his career at Falcom, composing classical music for Ys I and II. Later, he designed the track with techno / house of Streets of Rage. Koshiro paced for several games in various genres, always leaving their mark of quality. Then went missing years, founded his own company (Ancient) and returned to the scene of some of the tracks composing Shenmue.
Games: The Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage 1, 2 and 3, Super Adventure Island, Actraiser 1 and 2, Beyond Oasis, Legend of Oasis, Shenmue

3. Nobuo Uematsu
Born: 21/03/1959 in Kouchi, Japan
A cult figure in the world of games, acclaimed for his work in various Final Fantasy series. Nobuo began playing piano at the age of twelve, having never studied music. In 1985 he entered the Square to be a composer of music for games. Were responsible for almost all the tracks of the first games of the company where he works today.
Games: Chrono Trigger (with Yasunori Mitsuda), Front Mission: Gun Hazard (with Yasunori Mitsuda), Super Mario RPG (other composers), Ergheiz, Final Fantasy I to XI

4. Yasunori Mitsuda
Born: 21/01/72 in Tokuyama, Japan
He became a legend among composers of Game Music after his unforgettable work in Chrono Trigger, in 1995, when he worked for the Square. At twenty years old, Mitsuda joined the company in 1992 but stayed in the shadows until his first opportunity as a composer. In 1998, he left Square to work as an independent composer in his Procyon Studio. The talented young man suffered some influence, especially of Celtic music, but it is now quite tanned Russian progressive rock.
Games: Chrono Trigger, Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Tobal No. 1, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Tsugunai, Xenosaga Episode I

5. Koji Kondo
Born: 13/08/60 in Osaka, Japan
At Nintendo, he's on top when it comes to music. The most popular themes of all time are his own. Kondo is an avid musician Herbie Hancock and Henry Mancini (creator of the Pink Panther theme of pink). Composed from the early days of 8-bit Famicom today. Without it, Nintendo's games would lose a lot of charm and would be less memorable.
Games: Star Fox 1 and 64, Pilotwings, Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi's Mansion, virtually all games from Mario and Zelda

6. Motoi Sakuraba
Born: 05/08/65 in Akita, Japan
In the early 80s, had a progressive rock band called Deja-vu. In mid-1990, he joined the Wolf team where he began his career as a composer of Game Music. Since 1996, he worked for Camelot (Shining series), Namco (Tales Series) and Tri-Ace (Star Ocean series).
Games: Beyond the Beyond, all episodes of the Shining series, Tales and Star Ocean, Mario Tennis and Golf, Valkyrie Profile, Golden Sun

7. Noriyuki Iwadare
Born: 28/04/64 in Nagano, Japan
Is in the area since the early '90s, beginning with music for the series Langrisser. Won projection even when composing an epic trail of Lunar: The Silver Star Mega / Sega CD in 1992. Music keeps this line in his recent works, like the Grandia series.
Games: Langrisser I to V, all the Lunar and Grandia series, Growlanser

8. Yoko Kanno
Born: 19/03/64 in Miyagi, Japan
Accomplished pianist, Yoko is best known for his soundtracks for various anime, including Cowboy Bebop and Tenkuu No Escaflowne. In the scenario of the game, he made tracks for Koei's games in general. Stands out for its sensitivity to emotion-laden tracks.
Games: Romance of Three Kingdoms series, Nobunaga's Ambition and Uncharted Waters

9. Tommy Tallarico
Born: 18/02/68 in Massachusetts, USA
One of the most influential artists of Game Music of all time. Composed from the time of the NES and has done soundtracks for dozens of games, some unforgettable as Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 Special Edition, exploring almost every genre. Tommy has won dozens of awards, appeared in TV shows and was featured in several magazines. Besides being a composer, also worked as a producer, tester, writer, designer ... He is currently tied with the sound effects of Metroid Prime for GameCube.
Games: Earthworm Jim 1 and 2, Clayfighter, MDK, Unreal 2, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Spider-Man, Tomorrow Never Dies, Pac-Man World, Munch's Odysee

10. Richard Jaques
Born: 02/04/73 in Warwick, England
Born into a family of musicians, Jaques spent seven years as composer for Sega of Europe, where he impressed with their vibrant tracks. Currently, he works in his studio and his latest independent project was Headhunter.
Games: Sega Touring Car, Daytona CCE, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R, Metropolis Street Racer, Jet Grind Radio and a Future, Headhunter

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