ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Mother uses music, and particular qualities of musical style, to exert emotional-affective influence over the player. The success of Mother in Japan prompted a sequel, Mother 2, which was given an English-language Super Nintendo Entertainment System release as EarthBound. Mother’s plot depicts music as extraordinarily potent: in a world of psychokinetic abilities, giant robots, and Earth-threatening aliens, it is music that is shown to be the ultimate source of power. The associations of the music of Mother with naivete are further illustrated by the game’s soundtrack album, released in the same year as the game. The naive aesthetic is characterized by an emphasis on song-like melodic lines, played legato by one of the Famicom’s square wave generators within a comfortable tessitura for a human voice. Mother demonstrates a greater contrast of musical style within the game than the preceding Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games, especially the mixing of classical and popular traditions.
