News, Publications

The Soundtrack Vol 8 Iss 1-2 – Double Special Issue Published

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It’s with great pleasure that we can announce that The Soundtrack 8:1-2, a double special issue on videogame music and sound has now been published online. Print copies will be going out to subscribers in due course.

The issue presents a snapshot of the video game music and sound research community that has coalesced around the annual Ludomusicology conferences over the past half-decade. The five main research articles have their origins in research and discussions from the conferences, and we hope that the community find them an interesting and invigorating read over the Christmas break. We have already received several submissions for the Ludo 2016 conference and hope that this will encourage and inspire even more!

First and foremost, the editors (Michiel Kamp, Tim Summers and myself) would like to thank the contributors for their outstanding work. We would also like to give very special thanks to Jelena Stanovnik and Heather Gibson at Intellect for their help and support in assembling this issue. We are very grateful to the Editors in Chief of The Soundtrack for giving us the opportunity to edit an issue of this journal. The Table of Contents follows.

Soundtrack vol 8 iss 1-2 ToC

Update (7 Jan 2016)

Video Playlist for ‘The reality paradox: Authenticity, fidelity and the real in Battlefield 4‘ by Richard Stevens & Dave Raybould has been uploaded to YouTube and is also embedded below.

Update (15 June 2016)

We’re pleased to report here that Michael Austin’s paper, “From Mixtapes to Multiplayers…” was nominated for the Outstanding Achievement — Publication, Broadcast, or Documentary category of VGMO’s Annual Game Music Awards. It is really exciting to see academic research being disseminated into and having an impact on the wider gaming community. Congratulations Michael on your excellent article!

Conferences, Events, News

Ludo 2016 Call for Papers!

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We are delighted to announce our Call for Papers for Ludo 2016! Please help circulate our poster online, and around your institutions!

poster-thumb

April 8th–10th, University of Southampton
Fifth Anniversary Conference on
Video Game Music and Sound
Call for Papers

The organizers of Ludo2016 are accepting proposals for research presentations at the fifth annual Easter conference. While we welcome all proposals, we are particularly interested in papers that support the theme of ‘Video Game Audio and History’. Possible topics on this theme include:

  • Factors in the history and development of game audio,
  • The changing relationships between music in games and in other media,
  • Challenges and approaches to game audio historiography,
  • Canonicity and the curation of game audio,
  • Video game music and other music histories.

Presentations should last twenty minutes, to be followed by questions. Please submit your paper proposal (c.200 words) by email to ludomusicology@gmail.com by January 31st 2016.

We also welcome session proposals from organizers representing two to four individuals; the organizer should submit an introduction to the theme and c.200 word proposals for each paper.

Proposals for papers in alternative formats, such as performances or demonstrations, should be discussed with the conference organizers before the abstract is submitted.

The conference will feature a keynote address by Neil Lerner (Davidson College), co-editor of Music in Video Games: Studying Play (Routledge, 2014), with further keynote speakers and guests to be announced shortly.

#ludo2016

Hosted by Kevin Donnelly, the Music Department and the Film Department at the University of Southampton.southampton

Organized by Michiel Kamp, Tim Summers, Mark Sweeney.

Guest Contribution, News, Publications

GameLark Records Volume 1 Released

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Contributor: Allen Brasch, GameLark Records

GameLark Records is a new record label specifically for video games remixes and covers. The first album, GameLark Records Volume 1, features 19 tracks from 19 different artists in the video game remix community. I fell in love with the video game remix community while working on my Youtube channel, GameLark Remixes. As I scoured Youtube looking for new artists and remixes, I was astounded by the sheer diversity of the community.

Eventually, I was inspired by collaborative charity albums such as ‘Multiplayer: A Tribute to Video Games’ and ‘Operation 1-Up’ to create my own label. The goals were simple: find the most diverse group of artists possible, produce top-quality music, and build a platform for the selected artists. Believe it or not, most artists are busy making music and don’t always have the time to promote their work. The album helps to bring attention to all the artists on the label, both big and small, and new fans are created in the process.

This is just the first album from GameLark Records, but I believe the label has a bright future. Every song on this first album stands on its own, but I believe the myriad genres complement each other rather than detract from the album’s cohesion. After all, this album is as diverse as the community that it represents. GameLark Records Volume 1 releases today on Loudr, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and Amazon Music and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy it.

Links, News

OverClocked ReMix Forum for Ludomusicology

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Contributor: Ryan Thompson (University of Minnesota)

OCRemix-ForumFirst and foremost, this blog post is announcing the creation of an online forum where we might communicate in a public space about the work that we do, and the things surrounding that work that are of interest to us. I was recently named as the moderator for such a space graciously hosted by the folks at OverClocked ReMix, an “organization dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form.” While of course we are not specifically dedicated to that end, OCR’s goals certainly intertwine and meet our own goals of developing research and facilitating a greater understanding of audio in digital media.

In addition to having a space for two way discussion of current events in our field, I am hoping to utilize the new forum to maintain active databases of resources, including literature specifically dedicated to game audio (whether written by scholars or industry professionals) and conference announcements, among other things. This helps both researchers focus on research instead of scouring lists of books and articles looking for these types of resources in the first place. Together, we can create a space to discuss game audio in a way that invites people who approach the topic both from academia and from the industry, who have a different set of skills and insights to contribute to discussions surrounding digital media. Game studies of all types are interdisciplinary by definition we can help find those places where music intersects with gameplay, artistic design, computer programming, and countless other aspects of video games. Having a space for people with all of those skill sets to engage in discussion will prove fruitful for everyone involved.

Lastly, as a field, we currently don’t have a well designated space for interested people not specifically connected to academic research to communicate and reach out to us. As OverClocked ReMix has proved over the more than 15 years it has been operating, fan interest in game music continues to be a powerful force both online and at conventions. There are useful ways that researchers can tap into that body of knowledge researchers looking for obscure games or obscure events in game audio could ask questions to a much larger group of game players than their academic peers.

It’s my hope that this new forum helps drive conversations about game audio between all sorts of people who wouldn’t have been in touch as readily before, and that it is just the beginning of how we can partner with organizations larger than ourselves. Come join the conversation about game audio at OverClocked ReMix, and all of us might learn a thing or two from each other in the process.

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