Sound of Gaming is a new show hosted by Jessica Curry, and the first episode featured Grant Kirkhope, who has written music for lots of Rare games, and was the first western composer to write music for a Mario game. I've seen The Completionist raving about Grant's music, so it was interesting to hear how he ended up being a video game composer, and how he feels about the job.
(Basically, he thinks games should get melodies stuck in your head, you should be able to hear the songs a million times without getting tired of them, and it's a hard job because you have to write a LOT of music for a game and sometimes all the direction you get is 'you're in a forest'..!)
If you've played video games then chances are you've had music from them stuck in your head. Sometimes this may not be a welcome thing, but other times it's a pleasure re-living it. If game music is good enough, there will be plenty of people out there doing their own versions. Which brings me to what we've been watching on YouTube lately...
First off is the 8BitDrummer. This guy made Seb get out the electronic drumpads he has and start playing again. Seb was drumming along to his renditions of the entire Just Shapes and Beats soundtrack. He's a good drummer, sure (I mean the 8BitDrummer, not Seb, though perhaps he will be great one day!), but also he's entertaining and chats with people messaging him as he plays. It's great fun watching him.
Next there's FamilyJules. This channel has some awesome stuff on it - brilliant guitar, but also some instruments you might not expect! Or that you might expect, if you're thinking about it a lot, hmm... I mean, one of the latest videos on the channel is a version of a piece of Zelda music that has a classical guitar section, and also an ocarina section. Seb said he had never seen an ocarina before, though I know for sure we have at least three upstairs. (I don't know why.) If you like a blend of metal guitar, classical and ocarina, then look no further.
Moving onto something more serious, a ramble about music would hardly be complete without mentioning Lindsey Stirling. She plays the violin, but she's played game themes, such as Assassin's Creed, whilst dressed as an assassin. Other games include Zelda and Skyrim. Lots of game soundtracks have strings in them, so plenty of material for violinists.
Yes, plenty of material for violinists, that handily portable and versatile stringed instrument. Another proponent of the violin is the highly entertaining Rob Landes, whose cosplay skills are on another level entirely. I think I may have mentioned him before, but he has done tons and tons of game music videos. This is his video about the evolution of video game music...
I think that's enough links to videos. I love how much quality stuff is on YouTube. I love that video games are inspiring kids to get into music. Seb wants to be a video game music composer when he grows up, and apparently that's a common thing these days. And why not? And I love that the music in these games is being valued enough on its own merits to get its own programme on Radio 3. That's Radio 3, whose focus is on classical music. And they were playing a chiptune composition from Shovel Knight!
What more can I say? This makes me happy!!
