Hmmm...

Speaking as someone who makes a not-insignificant percentage of his yearly income providing music for console games, I read this article, The Rise and Fall of Game Audio by Matt Barton, with interest. I’ll save you the trouble of reading the first section, which is painfully ill-informed, by saying the following: skip the first section. Don’t believe me? Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anyways, the author goes on to list reasons his opinion is more credible, because he listens to MODs or something, and then basically provides a lengthy argument as to why game music should sound like Jean Michel Jarre. While I strongly disagree with many of Barton’s points (which seem to be, for the most part, paraphrasing of George Sanger’s omnipresent arguements viz. game music), the article, in and of itself, makes some interesting assertions.

Let me just say this, though. When the Fatman was making his early hits, music in games was an afterthought, and relegated to the “oh, shit, we gotta get someone to do this” file, so his opinion is more valid in that context. Now, with games costing as much or more to make (and grossing far more) than most Hollywood feature films, the composer is beholden to the director. He makes what he’s paid to make, and that’s something that’s almost entirely (but not completely) like whatever the director put in the temp, just like in movies. Someone should inform Mr. Barton of this simple fact.