ABSTRACT

From its earliest days as little more than a series of monophonic outbursts to its current-day scores that can rival major symphonic film scores, video game music has gone through its own particular set of stylistic and functional metamorphoses while both borrowing and recontextualizing the earlier models from which it borrows. With topics ranging from early classics like Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. to more recent hits like Plants vs. Zombies, the eleven essays in Music in Video Games draw on the scholarly fields of musicology and music theory, film theory, and game studies, to investigate the history, function, style, and conventions of video game music.

chapter |29 pages

Mario's Dynamic Leaps

Musical Innovations (and the Specter of Early Cinema) in Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros.

chapter |21 pages

The Temporary Avatar Zone

Pico-Pico Parties in Tokyo

chapter |18 pages

Meaningful Modular Combinations

Simultaneous Harp and Environmental Music in Two Legend of Zelda Games

chapter |16 pages

Wandering Tonalities

Silence, Sound, and Morality in Shadow of the Colossus

chapter |13 pages

Fear of the Unknown

Music and Sound Design in Psychological Horror Games

chapter |15 pages

Lawn of the Dead

The Indifference of Musical Destiny in Plants vs. Zombies

chapter |16 pages

“The Place I'll return to Someday”

Musical Nostalgia in Final Fantasy IX

chapter |18 pages

From Parsifal to the PlayStation

Wagner and Video Game Music