Want to Find More Stuff?
The materials listed above are just the beginning of available items in the UCLA Library on video game music. Check out the following subject headings in the UCLA Library catalog to find more materials.
Subject Headings for Video Game Music |
|---|
| Motion pictures and video games |
| Video game music |
| Video game music--21st century--History and criticism |
| Video game music--Analysis, appreciation |
What Is Video Game Music (VGM)?
While Wikipedia may not be an ideal source to quote for a research paper, it does provide an excellent working definition for video game music (VGM) that you can use to begin thinking critically about sound in video games.
Video game music is the soundtrack or background music accompanying video games. Originally limited to simple melodies by early sound synthesizer technology, video game music has grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and movie soundtracks.
Video game music. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 12, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_music.
Video Game Sountracks
You can find video game soundtracks to check out in UC Library Search or stream recordings from the Video Game Collection playlist in Avalon.
- Avalon This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Avalon houses streaming audio and video collections at UCLA. Content is restricted to UCLA users and requires additional UCLA authentication for use both on and off campus via the "Sign in" link. Avalon will be unavailable from 11/12/24-11/15/24 for maintenance.
UCLA Video Game Orchestra
Game-Play and The Soundtrack
Like film music, in video game music it's important to listen to and analyze the soundtrack both with the on-screen (game-play) action and as an extracted composition. Here are some examples CDs and scores that we have in the video game collection that will allow you to get an over-arching understanding of how a game's soundtrack works with the game itself.
Journey Sheet Music Selections from the Original Video Game Soundtrack by
Location: Music Library
Corresponding CD also located at the Music Library; call number CDA 26746.
Corresponding video game located in Powell Library; call number GV1469.35.J68 J6 2012 .
Call Number: M 32.8 .W568 J6 2013ISBN: 9780739096895Date: 2013
Journey [sound recording] by
Location: Music Library
Corresponding score also located at Music Library; call number M32.8.W568 J6 2013 .
Corresponding video game located at Powell Library; call number GV1469.35.J68 J6 2012 .
Call Number: CDA 26746Date: 2012
Kingdom hearts :original soundtrack by
Location: Music Library
Corresponding score also located at the Music Library; call number M 1254.V52 2007.
Corresponding video game is located at Powell Library; call number GV1469.35.K56 K5 2013.
Call Number: CDA 28444Date: 2002
Video games live. Part 1 by
Location: Music Library
Includes a concert band arrangement of "Kingdom Hearts."
Corresponding CD is also located in the Music Library; call number CDA 28444.
Corresponding video game is located at Powell Library; call number GV1469.35.K56 K5 2013.
Call Number: M 1254 .V52 2007Date: 2007
Books and eBooks
Academic writing on VGM began exponential growth ca. 2009. Here are some core publications included in the video game collection that can assist with critical analysis of VGM.
Authenticity in the Music of Video Games by
Lind explores gamers' relationship to the concept of authenticity, from historical realism to the structuring of expectations and its resulting impact on emotional engagement. The result is a complex web of interactions between sound and the visuals, story, and mechanics of the game.
ISBN: 9781793627124Date: 2022-11-01- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music by Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years. Now, reaching billions of listeners, game music encompasses a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date survey of video game music by a diverse group of scholars and industry professionals. The chapters and summaries consolidate existing knowledge and present tools for readers to engage with the music in new ways. Many popular games are analysed, including Super Mario Galaxy, Bastion, The Last of Us, Kentucky Route Zero and the Katamari, Gran Turismo and Tales series. Topics include chiptunes, compositional processes, localization, history and game music concerts. The book also engages with other disciplines such as psychology, music analysis, business strategy and critical theory, and will prove an equally valuable resource for readers active in the industry, composers or designers, and music students and scholars.Date: 2021
A Composer's Guide to Game Music by
A comprehensive, practical guide to composing video game music, from acquiring the necessary skills to finding work in the field. Music in video games is often a sophisticated, complex composition that serves to engage the player, set the pace of play, and aid interactivity. Composers of video game music must master an array of specialized skills not taught in the conservatory, including the creation of linear loops, music chunks for horizontal resequencing, and compositional fragments for use within a generative framework. In A Composer's Guide to Game Music, Winifred Phillips--herself an award-winning composer of video game music--provides a comprehensive, practical guide that leads an aspiring video game composer from acquiring the necessary creative skills to understanding the function of music in games to finding work in the field. Musicians and composers may be drawn to game music composition because the game industry is a multibillion-dollar, employment-generating economic powerhouse, but, Phillips writes, the most important qualification for a musician who wants to become a game music composer is a love of video games. Phillips offers detailed coverage of essential topics, including musicianship and composition experience; immersion; musical themes; music and game genres; workflow; working with a development team; linear music; interactive music, both rendered and generative; audio technology, from mixers and preamps to software; and running a business. A Composer's Guide to Game Music offers indispensable guidance for musicians and composers who want to deploy their creativity in a dynamic and growing industry, protect their musical identities while working in a highly technical field, and create great music within the constraints of a new medium.
Call Number: MT 64 .V53 P45 2014ISBN: 9780262026642Date: 2014-02-14
From Pac-Man to Pop Music by
Location: Music Library
Provides a framework for understanding the history, issues and theories surrounding interactive audio. This book covers practical and theoretical approaches, including historical perspectives, emerging theories, socio-cultural approaches to fandom, reception theory and case study analyses.
Call Number: ML 3540.7 .F76 2008ISBN: 9780754662006Date: 2008
Keys to Play by
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. How do keyboards make music playable? Drawing on theories of media, systems, and cultural techniques, Keys to Play spans Greek myth and contemporary Japanese digital games to chart a genealogy of musical play and its animation via improvisation, performance, and recreation. As a paradigmatic digital interface, the keyboard forms a field of play on which the book's diverse objects of inquiry--from clavichords to PCs and eighteenth-century musical dice games to the latest rhythm-action titles--enter into analogical relations. Remapping the keyboard's topography by way of Mozart and Super Mario, who head an expansive cast of historical and virtual actors, Keys to Play invites readers to unlock ludic dimensions of music that are at once old and new.
Call Number: ML457 .M67 2016ISBN: 9780520291249Date: 2016-10-28
The "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" by
Critical analysis of the music of the iconic 1998 Nintendo 64 video game. More than twenty years after its creation, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is still held in high critical regard as one of the finest examples of the video game medium. The same is true of the game's music, whose superlative reception continues to be evident, whether in the context of the game or in orchestral concerts and recordings of the game's music. Given music's well-established significance for the video game form, it is no coincidence that music is placed at the forefront of this most lauded and loved of games. In Ocarina of Time, music connects and unifies all aspects of the game, from the narrative conceit to the interactive mechanics, from the characters to the virtual worlds, and even into the activity of legions of fans and gamers, who play, replay, and reconfigure the music in an enduring cultural site that has Ocarina of Time at its center. As video game music studies begins to mature into a coherent field, it is now possible to take the theoretical apparatus and critical approaches that have been developed in antecedent scholarship and put these into practice in the context of an extended concrete game example. The most extensive investigation into the music of a single game yet undertaken, this book serves three important primary purposes: first, it provides a historical-critical account of the music of an important video game text; second, it uses this investigation to explore wider issues in music and media studies (including interactivity, fan cultures, and music and technology); and third, it serves as a model for future in-depth studies of video game music.
ISBN: 9781789385670Date: 2022-05-12
Ludomusicology by
The last half-decade has seen the rapid and expansive development of video game music studies. As with any new area of study, this significant sub-discipline is still tackling fundamental questions concerning how video game music should be approached. In this volume, experts in game music provide their responses to these issues. This book suggests a variety of new approaches to the study of game music. In the course of developing ways of conceptualizing and analyzing game music it explicitly considers other critical issues including the distinction between game play and music play, how notions of diegesis are complicated by video game interactivity, the importance of cinema aesthetics in game music, the technicalities of game music production and the relationships between game music and art music traditions. This collection is accessible, yet theoretically substantial and complex. It draws upon a diverse array of perspectives and presents new research which will have a significant impact upon the way that game music is studied. The volume represents a major development in game musicology and will be indispensable for both academic researchers and students of game music.
Call Number: ML3540.7 .L83 2016ISBN: 9781781791974Date: 2016-09-01
Modular structure and function in early 21st-century video game music by
Location: Music Library
PhD Dissertation
Call Number: ML 3540.7 .M43 2014Date: 2014
Music in the Role-Playing Game by
Music in the Role-Playing Game: Heroes & Harmonies offers the first scholarly approach focusing on music in the broad class of video games known as role-playing games, or RPGs. Known for their narrative sophistication and long playtimes, RPGs have long been celebrated by players for the quality of their cinematic musical scores, which have taken on a life of their own, drawing large audiences to live orchestral performances. The chapters in this volume address the role of music in popular RPGs such as Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft, delving into how music interacts with the gaming environment to shape players' perceptions and engagement. The contributors apply a range of methodologies to the study of music in this genre, exploring topics such as genre conventions around music, differences between music in Japanese and Western role-playing games, cultural representation, nostalgia, and how music can shape deeply personal game experiences. Music in the Role-Playing Game expands the growing field of studies of music in video games, detailing the considerable role that music plays in this modern storytelling medium, and breaking new ground in considering the role of genre. Combining deep analysis with accessible personal accounts of authors' experiences as players, it will be of interest to students and scholars of music, gaming, and media studies.
Call Number: ML3540.7 .M86 2020ISBN: 9780815369028Date: 2019-07-30
Music in Video Games by
Location: Music Library
In recent years, video gaming has taken its place alongside film and television as one of the dominant forms of media; indeed, in terms of sales and mass consumption, video gaming has begun to overtake its older, and less interactive, media progenitors. With topics ranging from early classics like Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. to more recent hits like Plants vs. Zombies, the essays in this book draw on scholarly fields including musicology and music theory, film theory, and game studies to investigate the history, function, style, and conventions of video game music.
Call Number: ML 3540.7 .M88 2014ISBN: 9780415634434Date: 2014
Music, Sound and Multimedia by
This new series aims to explore the area of "screen music". Volume topics will include multimedia music, music and television, Hollywood film music, and the music of Bollywood cinema.Music and other sound effects have been central to a whole host of media forms throughout the twentieth century, either as background, accompaniment, or main driving force. Such interactions will continue to mutate in new directions, with the widespread growth of digital technologies. Despite the expansion of research into the use of music and sound in film, the investigation of sonic interactions with other media forms has been a largely under-researched area. Music, Sound and Multimedia provides a unique study of how music and other sounds play a central part in our understandings and uses of a variety of communications media. It focuses on four areas of sound and music within broader multimedia forms - music videos, video game music, performance and presentation, and production and consumption - and addresses the centrality of such aural concerns within our everyday experiences. Charting historical developments, mapping contemporary patterns, and speculating on future possibilities, this book is essential for courses on sound and media within media and communications studies, cultural studies and popular music studies.Key features* Charts a number of key developments in music and multimedia interactions* Provides both historical overviews and theoretical analyses* Features a number of in-depth case studies of important issues.
Call Number: QA76.575 .M89 2007ISBN: 9780748625338Date: 2007-11-14
Music Video Games by
Music Video Games takes a look (and listen) at the popular genre of music games - video games in which music is at the forefront of player interaction and gameplay. With chapters on a wide variety of music games, ranging from well-known console games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band to new, emerging games for smartphones and tablets, scholars from diverse disciplines and backgrounds discuss the history, development, and cultural impact of music games. Each chapter investigates important themes surrounding the ways in which we play music and play with music in video games. Starting with the precursors to music games - including Simon, the hand-held electronic music game from the 1980s, Michael Austin's collection goes on to discuss issues in musicianship and performance, authenticity and "selling out," and composing, creating, and learning music with video games. Including a glossary and detailed indices, Austin and his team shine a much needed light on the often overlooked subject of music video games.
Call Number: ML3540.7 M93 2016ISBN: 9781501308529Date: 2016-07-28
The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media by
The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media surveys the contemporary landscape of audiovisual media. Contributors to the volume look not only to changes brought by digital innovations, but to the complex social and technological past that informs, and is transformed by, new media.This collection is conceived as a series of dialogues and inquiries by leading scholars from both image- and sound-based disciplines. Chapters explore the history and the future of moving-image media across a range of formats including blockbuster films, video games, music videos, social media,digital visualization technologies, experimental film, documentaries, video art, pornography, immersive theater, and electronic music. Sound, music, and noise emerge within these studies as integral forces within shifting networks of representation.The essays in this collection span a range of disciplinary approaches (film studies, musicology, philosophy, cultural studies, the digital humanities) and subjects of study (Iranian documentaries, the Twilight franchise, military combat footage, and Lady Gaga videos). Thematic sections and directexchanges between authors facilitate further engagement with the debates invoked by the text.
Call Number: P96.S66 V47 2013ISBN: 9780199757640Date: 2013-12-16
Player vs. Monster by
A study of the gruesome game characters we love to beat--and what they tell us about ourselves. Since the early days of video games, monsters have played pivotal roles as dangers to be avoided, level bosses to be defeated, or targets to be destroyed for extra points. But why is the figure of the monster so important in gaming, and how have video games come to shape our culture's conceptions of monstrosity? To answer these questions, Player vs. Monster explores the past half-century of monsters in games, from the dragons of early tabletop role-playing games and the pixelated aliens of Space Invaders to the malformed mutants of The Last of Us and the bizarre beasts of Bloodborne, and reveals the common threads among them. Covering examples from aliens to zombies, Jaroslav Svelch explores the art of monster design and traces its influences from mythology, visual arts, popular culture, and tabletop role-playing games. At the same time, he shows that video games follow the Cold War-era notion of clearly defined, calculable enemies, portraying monsters as figures that are irredeemably evil yet invariably vulnerable to defeat. He explains the appeal of such simplistic video game monsters, but also explores how the medium could evolve to present more nuanced depictions of monstrosity.
ISBN: 9780262373234Date: 2023-02-07
Playing with Sound by
An examination of the player's experience of sound in video games and the many ways that players interact with the sonic elements in games. In Playing with Sound, Karen Collins examines video game sound from the player's perspective. She explores the many ways that players interact with a game's sonic aspects-which include not only music but also sound effects, ambient sound, dialogue, and interface sounds-both within and outside of the game. She investigates the ways that meaning is found, embodied, created, evoked, hacked, remixed, negotiated, and renegotiated by players in the space of interactive sound in games. Drawing on disciplines that range from film studies and philosophy to psychology and computer science, Collins develops a theory of interactive sound experience that distinguishes between interacting with sound and simply listening without interacting. Her conceptual approach combines practice theory (which focuses on productive and consumptive practices around media) and embodied cognition (which holds that our understanding of the world is shaped by our physical interaction with it). Collins investigates the multimodal experience of sound, image, and touch in games; the role of interactive sound in creating an emotional experience through immersion and identification with the game character; the ways in which sound acts as a mediator for a variety of performative activities; and embodied interactions with sound beyond the game, including machinima, chip-tunes, circuit bending, and other practices that use elements from games in sonic performances.
ISBN: 9780262018678Date: 2013-01-11
Popular Music in the Nostalgia Video Game by
This book looks at the uses of popular music in the newly-redefined category of the nostalgia game, exploring the relationship between video games, popular music, nostalgia, and socio-cultural contexts. History, gender, race, and media all make significant appearances in this interdisciplinary work, as it explores what some of the most critically acclaimed games of the past two decades (including both AAA titles like Fallout and BioShock, and more cult releases like Gone Home and Evoland) tell us about our relationship to our past and our future. Appropriated music is the common thread throughout these chapters, engaging these broader discourses in heterogeneous ways. This volume offers new perspectives on how the intersection between popular music, nostalgia, and video games, can be examined, revealing much about our relationship to the past and our hopes for the future.
Call Number: ML3540.7 .I83 2019ISBN: 9783030042806Date: 2019-01-22
Sound Play: Video Games and the Musical Imagination (online) by
Location: Music Library
Video games open portals to fantastical worlds where imaginative play and enchantment prevail. These virtual settings afford us considerable freedom to act out with relative impunity. Or do they? Sound Play explores the aesthetic, ethical, and sociopolitical stakes of people's creative engagements with gaming's audio phenomena-from sonorous violence to synthesized operas, from democratic music-making to vocal sexual harassment. William Cheng shows how video games empower their designers, composers, players, critics, and scholars to tinker (often transgressively) with practices and discourses of music, noise, speech, and silence. Faced with collisions between utopian and alarmist stereotypes of video games, Sound Play synthesizes insights across musicology, sociology, anthropology, communications, literary theory, philosophy, and additional disciplines. With case studies spanning Final Fantasy VI, Silent Hill, Fallout 3, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Team Fortress 2, this book insists that what we do in there-in the safe, sound spaces of games-can ultimately teach us a great deal about who we are and what we value (musically, culturally, humanly) out here. Foreword by Richard Leppert.
Call Number: Also in print - GV 1469.3 .C495 2014ISBN: 9780199969968Date: 2014
