New monograph book on video game music released from Cambridge University Press.

This month sees the publication of a new monograph by Tim Summers (Royal Holloway, University of London) on video game music. The book is called Understanding Video Game Music and provides methods and concepts for investigating music in the video game.

You can view the introduction and index free at the Cambridge website. The foreword for the book was written by leading game composer James Hannigan, who was a speaker at Ludo14 conference at Chichester University. You can read the foreword here.

The book is highly influenced by the whole Ludomusicology conference community and owes a great debt to the thoughts and discussions that have been circulating in that environment over the past five years. It also draws upon research from further afield, both in terms of geography, and in terms of disciplinary landscape.

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Here is the publisher’s commentary on the book:

Understanding Video Game Music develops a musicology of video game music by providing methods and concepts for understanding music in this medium. From the practicalities of investigating the video game as a musical source to the critical perspectives on game music – using examples including Final Fantasy VII, Monkey Island 2, SSX Tricky and Silent Hill – these explorations not only illuminate aspects of game music, but also provide conceptual ideas valuable for future analysis. Music is not a redundant echo of other textual levels of the game, but central to the experience of interacting with video games. As the author likes to describe it, this book is about music for racing a rally car, music for evading zombies, music for dancing, music for solving puzzles, music for saving the Earth from aliens, music for managing a city, music for being a hero; in short, it is about music for playing.

• Develops musicological understanding of game music, explaining concepts step by step without requiring extensive previous knowledge of musicology
• Offers a wide range of examples ranging from the 1970s to 2010s, from puzzle games to role-playing games, and from well-known games like Final Fantasy VII to lesser-known games
• Provides a useful appendix as a systematic guide to investigating game music

‘This outstanding book does much to establish an ‘extended techniques’ musicology, allying close analysis of music with crucial knowledge of gaming construction and procedures. Tim Summers’ years of ‘deep research’ into the subject make this a book of extreme sophistication and erudition that will define the field for years to come.’ K. J. Donnelly, University of Southampton

‘Tim Summers’ Understanding Video Game Music is among the most innovative musicological studies published in recent years. Combining musicology, game studies, and media theory, Summers provides an authoritative analytical framework for video game music. This book is timely, playful, and lucid. It will without doubt become a standard work in the field.’ Isabella van Elferen, Kingston University

Contents:

Introduction: Beyond the Candelabrum

Part I Analysing Video Game Music

1 The Video Game as a Source

2 Methods of Analysis

Part II Critical Perspectives

3 Texturing and the Aesthetics of Immersion

4 Music and Virtual Game Worlds

5 Communication for Play

6 Hollywood Film Music and Game Music

7 Musical Play and Video Games

Epilogue: Fun, Play and Music

Appendix: How to Hear a Video Game: An Outline

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.

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!