An Approach to Video Game Studies

21. THE SOUNDTRACK OF A GENERATION

In the summer of 2001, I attended my first sci-fi/fantasy convention. Never having been a fan of either sci-fi or fantasy, I was there mainly as an observer; the idea of a fan convention of any type had always intrigued me. It was here, in the midst of confused 15 year-old boys and girls dressed as their favourite video game or anime character, that I was introduced to the extreme popularity of the game soundtrack. The soundtrack is a form I had never connected to gaming as the majority of music on any console is historically rather dull and elevatoresque. Although the introduction of 32-bit (and above) consoles gave way to CD-quality sound, the soundtrack market started well before, with the makers of particular games recreating low-fi tunes as semi-sophisticated works. Recently, a spat of concept albums and cover-bands have emerged paying homage to the 8-bit joy of their youth. In a similar nostalgic vein, game systems of the early 90s live online through the free (though mainly pirated) distribution of emulators: programs made to model the way a home console works, and play the forgotten games of a particular system. This all suggests that there may be a hopeful subcultural group rejecting the current products of the industry, in favour of the more abstract and intuitive earlier games as entertainment. Paradoxically, the mainstream consumption of these forms is exemplary of the simultaneously expanding and collapsing realm of personal choice as far as visual/digital pleasure goes. While the gaming soundtrack was once an added and rare attraction for only the most "hardcore" of gamers, the industry has recognized the market and adapted accordingly, occasionally marketing game music prior to and separate from an actual game's release. As Kline et al point out,

young people have been offered expanded zones for their leisure, yet at the same time their free play has been subject to the enclosures of digital commodity forms offered by the interactive entertainment industry¹⁸.

Video games are becoming the all-encompassing media form, satisfying the needs of many previous entertainments: television (for their game-show like outings, and episodic sequels); sporting events (sports sims); movies (on account of the narrative grafted onto cut-scenes); personal interaction (via online gaming); music (for the abovementioned). They are the hyperreal; simulations discounting their predecessor¹⁹.