Re: [microsound] soundtrack to virtual destruction

[aaron rude <midnightsoundservice@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, the awkward juxtaposition of "classical" beauty onto modern destruction...While there may be an ancestor in literature or film to this example, I think "A Clockwork Orange" was obviously an important vehicle for this concept, and Kubrick's film certainly made an indelible mark on the popular consciousness with its vivid expression of Alex's strange and polarized obsessions (ultraviolence and Beethoven). I think there are ways to express this general idea within video games (or to create the experience for one's self) in ways that aren't as trite as the author's ideas on the subject.
   
  I think the author is probably confused as to what he actually enjoys about the multimedia experience he's creating for himself via "Burnout" and Beethoven. On an abstract level, he's doing something quite common in the world of gamers at large (albeit on a rather predictable level). It seems as if he's very proud of himself for choosing to augment his "Burnout experience" (no pun intended) with his personal (and to him quite highbrow) musical choices, but I'd venture to guess that millions of people do the same thing every single day - many of them in more interesting ways. I think this very phenomenon is an example of creating an interactive experience on a level not achieved yet by the video game industry, and shows just how deficient that industry has been when it comes to evolving their medium in response to the better angels of their market share. 
   
  It's the same impulse that occasionally compels someone to turn the sound off their television during a movie and play an alternate musical accompaniment on their stereo. In many cases, I'll do it with video games just to escape the awful soundtrack. How many people have gotten stoned, put on something like Oval, and played two hours of Atari 2600? Same principle, only three orders of magnitude more interesting than some ridiculous "physics porn" juxtaposed with classical music. Ultimately, that's an ugly collision of two very tired and overused forms within a world of far greater potential. 
   
  I've often wondered if video gaming was ever going to "grow up" and become a viable artistic vehicle. It seems like all the awkward groundlaying is over and done with - graphically, musically, and in terms of hardware development, programming, movement/AI engines, and tons of smart kids with the knowledge required to make for amazing depth of experience within a 3-D virtual environment. This is not to say that there haven't been some beautiful, atmospheric, and fun video games on the market in recent years, because there have certainly been some. There have even been a few games in recent years with absolutely kick-ass music. I just can't believe that we're into 2008, and we have yet to see a true departure from the same wider stereotypes that have dominated the gaming market since the 80s. Just like in Hollywood, the budgets inflate, the technological prowess in on display with each new platform, and still the market is fed the same shit again and again with very few
 bright spots or real innovation amidst the muck. Even when there's innovation, it tends to favor style over substance in 9 instances out of 10.
   
  There are so many great ways that new and interesting music could be incorporated into games - even the violent parts - that are much more interesting than settling for rap-rock on one hand or "classical" music on the other. Now, hearing a Rachmaninov piece in a cool, context-specific way in a video game would be great. The same goes for Penderecki, Ligeti, Bach, Gesualdo....Roads, Ikeda, Betke, or Wiltzie/McBride.  However, the author of that article is in intellectual kindergarten when it comes to the latent possibilities of music and gaming. Rather than criticizing only the music in modern games (which is deserved in many cases), why not use your "columnist" platform to criticize the games thelselves? 
   
  How about calling out the stagnant gaming industry, which, until it evolves in a way that allows games to enter the market that aren't primarily mindless cash cows, will do nothing but sedate and cripple a creative medium that has absolutely huge untapped potential for depth of experience and novel gameplay? Instead, there's a vast, homogenous ocean of experiences no better than the average (bad) Hollywood movie. Why this is accepted so readily is beyond me, but it probably gets into broader issues of mass-mediated culture, in film, music, games, and the whole lot. At the end of the day, many of the issues at work in the gaming industry are the same issues that adversely affect all the other media owned and operated by a few megacorps. There are some fantastic ideas developed all the time by smaller design companies, but the cash-first filtration system squashes many of them (or assimilates and stores them) before they see broader exposure.
   
  Sorry for the rant.
   
  -aaron
   
   
  Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  gamesfrontiers_0211>

http://tinyurl.com/3ahf77


I think the author reaches for the easy but tired trope of 'classical 
music underscoring violence' which is borrowed from cheesy Hollywood 
movies
i.e. teasing out the 'elegance' in destruction by musically evoking a 
ballet-like grace, usually accomplished by slowing down the motion
what would be a better choice of a soundtrack to virtual destruction?
other ideas?




       
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