A composer and a filmmaker in town for a gig tell us what goes into making video game music, and how the once-niche genre has found mainstream recognition
An arcade video game. Pic/Getty Images
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If you grew up playing Super Mario or Legend of Zelda, there's a good chance you can hum along to the soundtrack that accompanies these games. But, did you ever think about who is behind these catchy 8-bit tunes? Turns out, the Japanese have had monopoly on the video game music (VGM) genre since its inception, thanks to companies like Nintendo and Sega being based out of the island nation.
Nick Dwyer and Soichi Terada
While some early composers like Koji Kondo (who made the music for Super Mario and Legend of Zelda) and Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) have got their due, a larger number have faded into obscurity. And, over time, VGM has evolved, going from primitive chiptune to rich soundtracks by well-known film composers such as Hans Zimmer.
Retro resurgence
From fashion to films, it is evident that nostalgia is making a huge comeback. Retro gaming, too, is seeing a revival. Your favourite childhood games are now available in an online avatar, and 'barcades' (where you can drink while playing on arcade machines) are popping up in the US. Just a year ago, popular digital music service Spotify launched a new portal dedicated to video game music.
Another case in point: Tokyo resident Soichi Terada, who composed music for PlayStation's Ape Escape series from 1998 to 2007. Terada also happens to be a house music producer, and his tunes carried elements of eighties' synth-pop, and - you guessed it - early video games. Throughout his career, his popularity remained mostly confined to Japan, until, in 2015, he was rediscovered halfway across the world, when Amsterdam-based DJ Hunee released some of his old tracks in the form of a compilation titled Sounds From The Far East. Since then, the 52-year-old has been busy, jet setting across Asia and Europe, playing live sets to packed audiences. He is currently in India with Nick Dwyer, one half of regional club music act, Weird Together, for a series of gigs and sessions presented by the Red Bull Music Academy. The duo will perform in Mumbai tonight.
Dwyer, who has also directed a 2014 documentary series, Diggin' in the Carts, which chronicles the rise and evolution of VGM, says it's fascinating to see more people thinking of Japanese VGM as music in its own right. "That was the intention of my series, too - to make people listen to it as separate from the games.
I guess the music holds value because those games were such a big part of people's lives when they were a certain age," he says.
Chiptune generation
The period spanning the late '70s and '80s is considered the golden age of arcade video games. "I became interested in VGM in the '80s, and one of my biggest influences was Yuriko Keino, who created the tunes for Namco games like Dig Dug and Xevious," says Terada. This was a time when making music for video games came with limitations and involved a laborious process.
His big break came in the decade that followed, when he released an album called Sumo Jungle. "The director of a gaming company heard the tracks, and thought it would work well with this new game they were developing. That game turned out to be Ape Escape," he adds.
Dwyer recalls playing games on his 8-bit home computer, and shares how it led to him making Diggin' in the Carts. "I used to record the music from the games on my older brother's dual-cassette deck and listen to it before I slept at night. Years later, when I started travelling regularly to Tokyo, I would make sure to stop by old vintage game stores to go digging for Japanese-only 16-bit titles." The more research he did, the more he realised how little was known about these Japanese men and women who made the music.
While working on the documentary series, Dwyer ended up spending hundreds of hours listening to all the music from the era. "It was intense. The idea was also to have the music and the composers' stories act as a window to society, so I went a step further and dug deeper into Japanese post-World War II history," he says.
The result was six episodes that gave viewers a glimpse into the lives of VGMâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088composers such as Namco's Junko Ozawa and Nintendo's Hirokazu 'Hip' Tanaka. More importantly, it contained commentary from well-known DJs,
musicians and electronic producers from around the world, on how these composers influenced the world of electronic music.
Consoles to concert halls
Video game music has come a long way from the '70s. Terada says, "A whole new arena has opened up in the form of online games and mobile phone apps." Additionally, he comments, music software has improved, making it far simpler for a composer to produce a track.
Japanese composers have now expanded their scope to include more than just VGM. Yoko Kanno, for instance, is known for her work on anime films, television series, live-action films, and advertisements, too. At the same time, VGM has attained a new level of popularity. Today, you will find some of the world's best orchestras, including the Philharmonic, performing renditions of popular video game soundtracks. Composer Christopher Tin's track Baba Yetu from the game Civilization IV was nominated for a Grammy a few years ago, making it a first for VGM. The genre, it seems, is finally getting its due.
On:âu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Tonight, 9 pm
At:âu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Summer House Cafe, Todi Mills, NMâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Joshi Marg, Lower Parel.
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