The History of Video Game Music and its significance on the music industry

 The History of Video Game Music and its significance on the music industry

In 1982 president of Arista Records Clive Davis wrote an editorial titled "you can't hum a video game" refuting the industry fear that video games would eat into the past time of the youth and in turn lead to decrease in consumption of music records. Davis was correct in his main point that Video Games would not somehow lead to the demise of the music industry with more video games  using licensed music from famous artists such as Michael Jackson and Aerosmith as well as hiring  indie bands such as HEALTH to produce scores to big budget projects. It seems that in fact the both industries utilise cross media synergy with each other in order to attract an audience. However, Davis' article isn't without its faults as he believed that Music will always have the upper hand against the inferior sounds that could be produced by the machines of the time. Many decades later and today these so-called "primitive sounds" have given way to a new genre of music called Chiptune and has inspired many working artists today as well as leading to its own orchestral event. Video game music has inspired many and has made an impact on how we can consume music and the music industry. During this study, I will be exploring its history from its "bleepy" sounds from its more film-inspired scores as well as the impact it has made on the music industry.

The History of video game music

Early Games consoles lacked the ability to play complex sounds due to technical limitations it was only until the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1983 was when video game music started to show some complexity. Although the machine innovated in the sounds which could be played in comparison to its predecessors the machine could only played 4 simultaneous sounds; 3 channels for music and one for sound effects however as time went on composers found a way to use all for sounds for music and having one alternate between music and sound effect when needed. The machine also allowed sound to be recorded and stored in the machines memory however, the quality of the sound was very low but it did allow composers to texture there pieces. These limitations forced composers to be creative with their music. Composer for Acclaim software Mike Pummel once said "Early on, you were just thankful to get any sound out of the thing," he stated that there were many challenges to overcome when working with the machine. One would assume that one such challenge was to make a memorable piece of music that would set the tone of the world presented to its audiences with such limited hardware. These challenges and limited sounds however would result in memorable and catchy melodies that would inspire many young musical artists in the future to form the music genre known as chiptune music. Not this, but also informing the present genre of abstract electronica which similarly uses simple sounds to create melodies not for the purpose of dancing to but rather for the purpose of setting moods.

One noteworthy example of early video game music was the score to Super Mario Brothers composed by composer Koji Kondo whose catchy melodies have performed in the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and more recently, Video games live in North Bethesda in the US. Kondo's is considered a pioneer in terms of video game music helping to develop a sense of credibility to the style as evidenced by the fact that we as audiences can now consume video game music in an orchestra. Furthermore, the theme has lead to numerous remixes  as well as becoming one of the top selling ringtones in the US as of 2009 downloaded for 226 straight weeks as well as selling over 747,900 in the United States in 2006. These figures and videos evidences how much of an impact video game music has had on our popular culture; on how we consume such a genre at a mass rate and how such a genre has inspired us musically producing our own content based around such sounds.

Although the NES is considered the first games console with the capabilities to produce this type of music a year before its release saw the first ever licensed music in a video game in the arcade game super locomotive which featured a chiptune cover of Synthpop group Yellow Magic Orchestra's song Rydeen. One could make an assumption and claim that the use of such licensed music at the time would expose younger audiences to the works of YMO without them realising, so much so that when said audience would listen to the groups' actual track, said track may entice feelings of nostalgia and thus in turn draw them to this particular artist. 

In a mere seven years time Michael Jackson seeing the potential in video games had for promoting music collaborated with Sega to release his own title Moonwalker which featured synthesised versions of Billie Jean and Beat It. One could suggest similar to Super Locomotive an affect of using licensed songs in this context would also expose younger audiences who may not be Michael Jackson fans to his works. Not only this Jackson's name attached to the product would also help with the promotion of the game itself using the name of a popular figure to gain exposure among fans of Michael Jackson. From this, we can see an early example of the music and video game industry using synergy to attract audiences for each medium. The game to this day has achieved cult status and considered the game, which paved the way for many artists to contribute to video games.

In 1991 Nintendo releases the SNES, which for the first time allowed programmers to import synthesizer patches into the game allowing for the sound of the music to sound similar to real instruments playing however, there were still limitations to what the machine could handle. That same year the PC game Myst is released and its soundtrack was so successful it becomes the first computer game to be given an award for its soundtrack although it takes seven years later to the score to be released on CD.  At the time, the significance for such an award one could say would prove to the music industry video game music as a growing musical genre. In addition such an award would create help develop an audience for video game soundtracks attracting those who aren't so much video game enthusiasts to the product as well as pushing developers of that period to push for higher quality and immersive soundtracks.

In 1995 with the arrival of Sony's CD based Playstation which allowed 24 sampled voices music in video games had taken a large leap allowing music composers to record much more complex and orchestral music as well as offering more freedom to composers. Musicians now didn't have to learn about programming or the games architecture allowing more mainstream artists to work on these products, artists such as the Chemical Brothers, Orbital and Leftfield who contributed work to the video game Wipeout. It is believed that the music featured in the game was focused on more than the gameplay itself making the game more as a vehicle for artists to target other audiences who may not be exactly there fans as well as a way of directly targeting their audience of 18-25 year olds. The game provides a new way for audiences to consume and to be exposed to new artists since game allowed audiences to choose specific tracks to play at certain levels. Unlike MoonWalker and Super locomotive, which simply had the licensed music, playing Wipeout provided the artist names and details of each song allowing audiences to identify each individual artist and song in the future and purchase the works of said artist however outside of the game. Eventually Sony would release an official soundtrack accompanying the game using cross media synergy to promote both the game as well as the artists attached to the product.

In terms of this games affect on the music industry, artists featured on these games would not only gain promotion from said product but would also collect royalties from the sale of the game thus allowing many artists alternative ways to reach an audience as well as produce and income.

Another large change in video game music occurred in 1998 when the game Heart of Darkness was released which was the first game to feature its own original score produced by an actual orchestra and in the year 2000 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences decided to let video games compete in the annual Grammy awards. A prestigious award to highlight great achievement in the music industry, the significance of such an award being obtainable for composers of video game music and artists as well as the use of an orchestra in video at that point would have truly communicated to audiences that video game music could be seen as something complex and artistic rather than its more simpler origins. Such an opportunity offered may have also driven some musical artists to consider working with the game industry more to perhaps achieve said award.

As years went on the sixth generation of Console were released with it saw improvements once again to video game music in terms of sound quality due to upgrades in hardware. Not only this one particular console of this generation, the Xbox featured the ability to copy music from a CD into it hard drive and produce custom soundtracks for each of their game thus providing more use and value for those who purchased CD's rather than digital download, which was soon emerging around this time. One could suggest that perhaps such a feature was implemented to prevent digital piracy and was a way for the music industry to keep CD sales going for a period.

One significant title of said generation which arguably would change game music and the use of licensed songs in video games would be the 2005 release of Harmonix's Guitar hero and Rock Band rhythm game.

Guitar Hero/rock band and the music industry

The guitar hero and Rock Band series are a series of Rhythm music games developed by Harmonix systems. Unlike other video games, which include music for immersion purposes, this series of games rely on licensed music for the overall gameplay of the product, getting its audience to play their favourite songs on controllers shaped as instruments. The guitar hero series alone has sold more than 25 million units worldwide whereas the Rock band series has netted more than $1 billion in total sales with both franchises becoming pop culture icons as well as causing a large impact on the music industry. 

The series has been considered to be very beneficial to the music industry in a similar way to music videos in the 80's with both licensed and indie artists featured in the series receiving a significant boost in sales after their inclusion in these games. It's been stated that both record companies and retailer have experienced increases of 200% to 300% in sales with cases such as well established bands such as Aerosmith earned more from their Guitar Hero spin-off Guitar Hero: Aerosmith than from any single one of the fourteen albums they have released recently. According to Universal Music Group President Zach Horowitz, Weezer's "My Name is Jonas," saw a saw a tenfold increase in sales after being featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Moreover, a survey conducted by Kiri Miller from Brown university discovered that 76% of the players of Guitar Hero bought the music they heard in the game. From this information one may suggest that the significance of the Rock Band/guitar hero series has allowed record companies a new of distributing and targeting audiences through video games which are more built around the music. Not only promoting established artists but also possibly introducing them to a newer generation as evidenced by Weezer's song, which was originally released in 1994 and similar to Aerosmith. A band which originally formed in the 70's and may not hold so much relevance to more contemporary audiences pre-guitar hero.

Guitarist Steven Van Zandt once claimed, "in the history of rock 'n' roll, Rock Band may just turn out to be up there with the rise of FM radio, CDs or MTV". Clearly a comment focusing on the promotion of bands and consumption of music these games have provided new and successful ways in reaching audiences and exposing artists such as Indie group Bang Camaro whose recognition increased after their song "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" appeared in Guitar Hero II. A similar effect also happened to indie band DragonForce, whose song "Through the Fire and Flames" is featured in Guitar Hero III, saw a 126% increase in CD sales in the week after the release of the game. It appears that the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games at their height became vehicles for indie artists to gain exposure and to help develop audiences for themselves as well as distribute their own music.

An analysis for market research company NPD Group once stated" As the video games industry grows, it's becoming an ever-more attractive promotional outlet for all kinds of industries." This means that industries such as film, music and television are now using more cross media synergy with the video game industry to distribute and promote their products and this is certainly found in the case of the Guitar hero/Rock Band games. The games later in the future featured a system to allow audiences to download more of their favourite songs for their product. If one were to think about this, it would seem that audiences would be making double purchases; first purchasing a copy of the song outside of the game and then buying the same song again within the game to play it on the console. In theory, record companies would be making more profit after the initial purchase of the song outside of the product.

The popularity of such downloadable content for these games led to the UK Official Download Chart to consider including these sales in their compilation of sales performance data.  This further evidence the large impact VGM has made on the music industry causing the music industry to acknowledge video games itself as more of a distribution tool for music to track the performance of certain types of music to find out what's in style.

This idea of using video games as a distribution tool isn't a completely alien idea for the music industry with record companies and artists expressing interest in licensing music towards these games for more exposure and distribution purposes. Martin Bandier, executive for Sony/ATV which owns the copyrights on The Beatles works, stated he was very interested in helping Activision bring a Beatles-themed Guitar Hero title to the market, this eventually lead to the Beatles Rock Band published by MTV games coinciding with the release of new, remastered compact disc versions of The Beatles albums. Once again, what's evident here is the use of synergy between products to reach an audience; the game released would capture both older fans of the Beatles whilst introducing the band to younger audiences. This introduction would serve as a gateway and would hopefully entice this audience of both new and older fans to purchase this newly released Beatles album.

Among remastered albums, these games have also caused many artists to groups considering releasing more new material for the game as a result of the popularity of their tracks with bands. One such example would be in the case of the group Rush which released an alternative take on one of their songs exclusively to Rock Band which was met with so much praise and success that the group released the song for download through iTunes, as well as eventually developing a new full album called Moving Pictures. 

Another example of this can be found with the bang Guns and Roses who had delayed their long-awaited album Chinese Democracy so often that many people believed it would not even be released. However, the band debut new material called "Shackler's Revenge" in Rock Band 2 which was believed by audiences as a precursor to Chinese Democracy. The popularity of the track eventually lead for a demand for the full album which as a result of said demand was eventually released as both a standard and Rock Band Album.

It seems from this that artists were using video games as a test platform to try to see if new material released would appeal to their target audience and with the use of guitar hero/Rock Band artists could directly target this test demographic in order to see if there is any success to the products released.

In terms of how the music licensing worked, five major record companies EMI Music, Hollywood Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Enterprises, and Rhino Entertainment agreed to lend master recordings of the artists for use in these games thus allowing artists to and record companies to receive royalties without necessarily recording any new content. However, some artists such as Sex Pistols, Living Colour, and Aerosmith have rerecorded these songs offering the opportunity for "Rock Band/Guitar Hero edition" versions of their tracks for audiences to consume.

Other significant changes these games have provided to the music industry include record companies creating dedicated video game liaisons to handle the inclusions of songs in these games. Additionally, according to Joel Peresman, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, these games have also caused an increase in attendance to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame particularly in families with young children.

From this, clearly these games have had a significant impact on the industry causing the industry to develop a specialised department to handle licensing music in video games as well as causing an increase in younger audiences in music culture who may now buy into more older and established artists and products linked with said artists. Sadly however due to oversaturation in the market among other factors the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series has currently been put on hiatus.

Video Game Music today and the music industry

Today video game music continues to make an impact on the music industry and how music consumed by audiences with the industry employing famous film composers such as Hans Zimmer's to produce scores for big budget titles such as Modern Warfare 2 and indie bands such as Anamanaguchi producing chiptune scores for smaller titles such as the official Scott pilgrim game. It seems the industry today is mixing the its origins in terms of the chiptune 8 bit sounds with more orchestral music today with the focus on conveying feelings of a grand epic situation or to entice feelings of nostalgia in these more chiptune sounding products. Anamanaguchi's score to the game debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart a list by music magazine Billboard focusing on breaking and entering artists. Once again this displays the power of video games in terms of promoting independent artists, in this context , the brand of Scott Pilgrim already has an audience share thereby Anamanaguchi's score for the game introduces this audience to said band and with Billboard's endorsement the band this would further improve the bands efforts in promotion.

When thinking about music distribution in video games and video game consoles, this generation through technical advancements and technological convergence has allowed games consoles to stream and download music through services such as the Playstation 3's Music unlimited service as well as the Xbox 360's Xbox Music service which also allows users to stream and purchase music onto their consoles. Although not directly linked in with video games itself the use of such an app on games consoles particularly Xbox Music allows artists to reach other audiences they are yet to attract. particularly, Xbox Music which features a smart DJ playlist allowing audiences to create a smart playlist based on their chosen artist as well as recommended artists of similar genre this allows audiences to be exposed to new work whilst is promoting artists said audience would never have found.

The significance VGM and video games have had on the music industry

Video games and video game music have impacted the music industry in a number of ways one such way as previously mentioned is the promotion of indie artists as well as more older and established artists towards demographics  which may have previously been neglected. Evidence of this can be found throughout web, one particular case I would like to draw attention to is in the case of the Grand Theft Auto franchise which features an in game radio system filled with licensed tracks from established and also indie artists. The effect of which according to my research on Guitar Hero would introduce audiences to new artists as well as re introducing established artists to younger audiences.

When looking through the comments of Rod Stewarts song Young hearts be free most of the comments associate the song with the video game Grand Theft Auto San Andreas which it was featured in.

The image above is a mood board collecting comments, which refer to the GTA game being these people first exposure to Rod Stewart providing evidence on how these games can serve as promotional tools for artists as well as gateways for audiences to consume more from the artist. One particular comment details how this game and this music's remind them of childhood. It can be  argued that these games have a secondary audience of a young demographic since they are released on a medium which can still seen as something directed towards children, however the significance that the song reminds said consumer of their  childhood represents how these games can re-introduce older artists to newer and younger audiences.

The latest entry into the GTA series GTA 5 has implemented a feature allowing people to share their favourite tracks listened to in game onto the games own social networking site the Rockstar social club via Spotify. Furthermore, it is possible to link accounts towards major social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Converging with social networking video games have allowed users to promote and share other artists with each other whilst also using the old formula established in the grand theft auto games of in game radios to expose audiences to other artists.

 In addition the link with app Spotify allows users to find and purchase these tracks with ease further evidencing how video games can be used to distribute and sell music to mass audiences.

Video games and VGM have also contributed to the exposure of indie artists to other fans however these collaborations aren't always so perfect because of a "work for hire" term these artists may have to work under meaning they are not paid in royalties but rather up front and receive no money after the game releases. Although this is the case, indie artist Jonathan Coulton who produced the worked on the soundtrack for portal stated he has amassed a fan following from a song he doesnt have the rights to. “It’s interesting. [“Still Alive”] is my most well-known song and I don’t own it!"

Although this work for hire policy may act as a deterrent for many of these artists, a lot of them collaborate with video games for its artistic merits and also to reach new audiences. Furthermore, since the market for video game music is not saturated there is less competition and more of a chance to be exposed to both audiences and potential employers.

Another artist who has benefited from video games particularly the indie video game artist is indie composer Danny Baranowsky who claims to have made ten times more money through an online video game store than any musical outlet store. Perhaps since his soundtrack was sold with the indie game which he produced his score for, it seems that video games are further contributing to the distribution of musical products by bundling them with their own products.

"Isaac was a fairly successful game, but I made ten times as much money on the Steam bundle option as I did on Bandcamp. It just goes to show that although Steam isn't where you would go to get music, the reach of Steam is… it's f**king amazing."

Early VGM as mentioned previously has also helped to inspire and pioneer genres of music. One such direct link is the new genre of Chiptune which uses a mix of traditional instruments and old video game consoles such as the Game boy and computers from the 80's utilising there limited ranges of sound to produce electronic sounds reminiscent of the retro sounds of game music. 

It seems that from this video games have added more content to the music industry's library allowing more styles and ways for audiences to consume music as well as creating new audiences for other similar established genre's such as electronic music. The idea simply is that there may be those who haven't not heard or been exposed to genres such as electronic music however with a simple search of a chiptune song on sites such as YouTube, YouTube implements a feature which recommends music of similar genre to said audience. As seen in the image below. 

Although not directly exposing audiences to similar genres of music VGM and chiptune as seen here have the potential to introduce audiences who may not have been so interested in other types of music or music in general to other artists.

Video game music as mentioned previously has also developed its own orchestra, which performs exclusively video game music. Events such as video games live also have the potential to introduce symphony music to younger audiences similar to how the rock band/guitar Hero games introduced young demographics to old rock and rock and roll history. According to an article produced by the TampaBay titled ''Video Games Live' draws young crowd, interactive spirit to Florida Orchestra" it claims that very rarely that the Florida Orchestra has had such a young demographic attend; stating that is was hard to find anyone under 30. One quote of interest is from a teenager who commented, “Oh wow, I just heard the violins play the Skyrim theme song.” From the article one can assume that this young demographic attracted to this orchestra playing music there familar with will also have a secondary effect of introducing them to more classical music available at said orchestra. VGM has allowed people to consume types of music some possibly completely unrelated to the style of VGM that they would otherwise disregard.

Conclusion

In conclusion, video game music has made an impact on the music industry in a number of ways. Introducing new genres and styles into the market and Influencing genres and styles such as abstract electronic. The style has also helped with the promotion of both established and up and coming artists as well as introducing audiences to different styles of music on offer such as orchestral music. Video Games in general have also helped with the distribution of music products in the case of the steam platform which bundles video game and soundtrack together as well as the Spotify integration with the Grand Theft Auto Social Club. Finally music in video games have also introduced younger audiences into music culture.

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