Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson entitled The development of video game music.

My name is Mr. Norris.

Today we're gonna be starting to delve into the world of video game music, which is one of the most exciting and innovative parts of the modern music industry.

We're gonna explore how it's developed over the decades since video games first emerged, and we're gonna start to learn about the processes and the methods that video game music composers use when they're creating their music.

Our outcome is that I can explain how video game music developed from film music, and can create a simple video game theme.

Some key words.

The first is theme song.

This is a piece of music that introduces a film or game and captures its overall atmosphere.

Linear loop.

This is a repeating musical idea in a video game that can be looped indefinitely.

And adaptive music.

This is music that can change by reacting to a stimulus.

Video game music does this when it reacts to the player's actions.

We'll come back to that one later on.

So the first part of our lesson is looking at the development of video game music.

Video games have transformed dramatically since they first developed in the 1970s.

Rapid improvements in computer technology have enabled games to evolve from very basic programs to these huge, complex, immersive worlds.

And if we compare the video games from the early years of the industry in the 1970s, 1980s to modern video games, they're almost unrecognizable in how different they are to each other.

And the same applies to video game music.

This has also evolved massively.

I'd like to listen to these two examples.

We've got one from "Pac-Man," which is a video game from 1980, a very early video game, and we've got one from "The Elder Scrolls V," which is a more modern video game from 2011.

I'd like to listen to the music in both of them and try and pick out the main differences between the music.

Pause my video and compare these two.

And there are many differences you'll notice between those two.

I'm gonna explore some of those now.

So early video game music was very simple and very repetitive, and this was largely because of the limitations of the computers at the time, which had very limited processing power and memory compared to modern computers.

It also used simple, electronic sounds.

Listen again to this example from "Pac-Man." How many beats does the loop last for before it repeats again? And how many different lines of music are playing at the same time? Pause my video and see if you can answer those two questions.

So well done if you identified that in that "Pac-Man" theme, the loop lasts for eight beats, and we call this loop a linear loop.

That's because it's a loop that can repeat indefinitely during a video game.

So it doesn't just repeat a set number of times, it could keep repeating as long as the player is playing.

And there are two musical layers that were heard at the same time there.

There's a high pitched melodic line, and there's a low pitched baseline.

So it's eight beats long and there are two musical layers.

Now, because the memory of computers in this period was so limited, composers had to repeat the same linear loops over and over again.

So there wasn't enough storage capacity on the computers to actually be able to use lots of different musical ideas.

They also had to keep the music as simple as possible, like the two layers that we just heard in "Pac-Man," to minimize the amount of processing power and memory needed to be able to play that music.

So the music was not simple because composers could only compose simple music or because they wanted to, it was because of the limitations of the technology that meant they had these restrictions.

Modern video game music, on the other hand, is much more sophisticated and complex because of improved technology.

I'd like to listen to this second clip from "The Elder Scrolls V," and I'd like to identify some aspects that are more complex than the "Pac-Man" music.

So thinking about the different musical elements, what's more complex in this example of modern video game music? Pause my video and have a listen.

And some of the more obvious points you might have picked up on are that the instrumentation is much more complex.

So instead of having one or two synthesized sounds, we've now got a large orchestra and a choir.

And you might have mentioned then that texture is more complex as well because there are many more parts playing at once.

So it's much more complex in both of those aspects.

And to be honest, we could really say that every aspect of it is more complex.

There's more complex instrumentation, texture, timbre, dynamics, articulation, harmony and rhythms. And this is made possible by the power and storage of modern computers that can process and play and store this music in a way that early computers and video game consoles could not.

Something else you might notice is that modern video game music often sounds similar to film music.

If we listen back to that clip from "The Elder Scrolls V," it wouldn't be out of place in a lot of films. I'd like to compare these two examples.

Can you tell which one is from a film and which one is from a video game? Pause my video and have a listen.

And that's quite tricky to identify the difference between the two because they have so many similarities in terms of the way they're composed.

But if you did manage to identify the first one is from a film and the second is from a video game, very well done.

If we think about why modern film and video game music often sounds quite similar, it's because they often have similar purposes.

They fulfill similar roles.

They both have to set the mood and the atmosphere, whether it's in a film or whether it's in a video game.

They both to create a sense of action and excitement, whether that's in a film or a video game.

And they also have to help tell the story through music.

So just like a composer in a film will be using their music to help guide the plot and tell the audience what's going on, the same applies in video games.

Now, one of the key roles of video game music is to create suitable mood for the game, and different genres of video game require different types of music.

Can you think of any different genres or video games, any different categories or types of video games that you might come across? Pause my video and have a quick think.

And you might have heard of some of these different genres of video game: adventure, role-playing or shooter.

Racing, arcade or sports games.

Simulation, puzzle games and strategy games.

So many different categories, and each of those will require different kinds of video game music to really help set their mood.

Have a listen to this example.

Which of those genres do you think this music would suit best and why? Pause my video and have a listen.

And we'd probably say here that this suits the adventure or role-playing genres best because it creates an exciting and adventurous mood.

So the composer there is really thinking about the genre of that video game, and how their music can best suit the mood and the atmosphere of that game.

Let's check your understanding.

Name one key similarity between the purpose of film music and video game music.

I'll give you a few seconds to have a think.

And here you might have said that they both set the mood and the atmosphere.

They both create a sense of action and excitement.

And they both help to tell the story through music.

These are things that both film music and video game music have in common.

Describe one way that the limitations of computer technology affected early video game music.

And pause my video while you think of something here.

And you might have mentioned some of these points.

You could have said that limited memory meant that music had to be based on short repeating loops.

You could have said that the limited memory also meant that the texture had to be simple, usually only a few layers of sound, like we heard in "Pac-Man" where there were just two different musical lines playing at the same time.

And you might have also mentioned that the limited memory and processing power meant that simple, electronic synthesized sounds were easier to use, rather than using audio of a whole orchestra or choir, like we heard in that more modern example.

So there's various ways there that the limitations of that earlier computer technology affected the way that composers had to write music for those games.

Now, there's one crucial difference between video game and film music.

And this is that when you're composing for a film, composers will have precise cues and timings to match.

So they will have a storyboard with the timings of exactly what happens at each moment, and they will know, for example, that at three minutes, 30 seconds, they have to change the mood because at that second there, something happens on screen in the action.

In video games, the player controls that action, so scenes and sequences vary in length.

If you're writing music for a video game, you don't know how long it will be until a player decides to do something that affects the action, so you don't know the exact timings of things in a way that a film composer would.

This means that the music has to be adaptive music, and that means that it changes in response to the player's action.

So it's programmed to change when the player does something, rather than to change at a specific second or minute, like it might be in film music.

Let's have a look at this example.

So these clips from a spy game demonstrate typical adaptive music really well.

Now, the scenario in this part of the game challenges players to sneak around, avoiding detection and causing sabotage behind enemy lines.

The mood of the music when the player is undetected is tense, but it's not dramatic.

Pause my video and have a listen to what the music sounds like when the character is undetected.

Now, if the player is detected by the enemy, the music reacts and it suddenly becomes more intense and dramatic as the character is pursued by the enemy.

Pause my video and have a listen to how the music changes to match this different mood.

And that's a great example of adaptive music.

They've got the music that repeats as the player is sneaking around undetected, but at the moment when they are detected, the new music comes in and this totally changes the mood of the music, and therefore ups the energy and excitement level for the player.

But the composer of this music would not have known how long it will take until the player is detected, so the music has to adapt and respond at the moment when the player is detected.

For adaptive music to work effectively, the musical ideas must sound effective when they're repeated.

So they must be able to repeat indefinitely while the player is, in that case, sneaking around undetected.

But then they must also be able to quickly transition into something else in response to the player's actions, and it needs to sound musically natural and seamless to the player when that musical transition occurs.

It's not suddenly stopping one piece of music and starting a new one, just like changing tracks on a CD.

Instead, it's got to seamlessly merge between the two, so the player doesn't even notice the musical shift.

Let's check your understanding.

Why does video game music need to be adaptive? I'll give you a few seconds to have a think.

And the correct answer here is because it needs to be able to change in response to the player's action.

It needs to be able to respond to what they're doing and change accordingly.

Now for question one in task A, I'd like to identify one key similarity between composing for film and video games.

Question two, I'd then like you to identify two important differences between them.

Then we're gonna listen to this example of some video game music.

I'd like to answer these two questions.

Is this an example early or modern video game music? Justify your answer.

And then what sort of game or scenario would this suit? So you can pause my video now and give task A your best shot.

Okay, let's review this task.

So one key similarity between composing for film and video games is that you must set the mood and atmosphere, you must create a sense of action and excitement, and you must help to tell the story through music.

There's three different ways there that they are similar.

Two differences between writing for film and video games are that video game music is adaptive, meaning it must change in response to the actions, whereas film music is not.

And video game music must be able to repeat indefinitely, whereas film music has specific timings that it works to.

So there are two key differences between the two, but also some similarities we've mentioned there.

Now, this example is an example of modern video game music, because it is much more complex than early video game music in texture, timbre, and many other features.

So well done if you identified this is an example of modern video game music because of that.

And what sort of game or scenario would this suit? Well, we'd probably say it's an action or adventure game, and that's because it has this adventurous, exciting atmosphere that it creates.

Now we're gonna move on to look at composing a video game theme.

Video game composers also have responsibility for writing the theme songs.

The key purpose of video game theme songs is to be memorable, to capture the atmosphere, and create a suitable mood for the game, and that's similar to writing a theme song for a film.

I'd like to listen to this theme song for a dark role-playing game set in the desert of the Wild West.

How does it help set the scene for this game? So how does it capture the atmosphere and mood of this dark role-playing game in the desert of the Wild West? Pause my video and see if you can think of a few ways it does that.

And there are many different ways that it helps to capture that mood.

You might have mentioned that it uses typical sounds and instruments associated with the Wild West to set the scene.

It uses minor tonality that creates a sense of something dark.

The slow tempo creates a feeling of something serious.

And the percussion patterns sound like a march, which both creates a feeling of action but also of seriousness.

So all these different aspects combine to capture that dark, serious atmosphere, also the setting in the Wild West of that game.

When you're creating a video game theme, there are a few things you need to consider.

The first is, is it lighthearted or serious? You need to match that in the atmosphere of the music.

Is it full of action or is it quite slow paced? Again, that's something we need to mirror in the music.

Is there mystery in it? And is it set in a specific place or time? Let's have a look in a bit more detail at each of those points.

Firstly, is the game lighthearted or serious? Have a think, what features could we use to create a more serious mood in a video game theme? Think about the musical elements, and how using them in certain ways might create a greater feeling of seriousness.

Pause my video.

See if you can think of a few ways we could do that.

And these are some of the things you might have thought of.

You could use a minor key, that creates a more serious mood.

A low pitched melody creates a feeling of something more serious and heavy.

Intense articulation and dynamics, or expressive or powerful instruments.

These are just some of the ways you could create a sense of seriousness.

Then let's think about is it full of action or is it slow paced? What features do you think would suit an action game? Again, think about those musical elements and what might work best in an action game.

Pause my video.

Have a think.

And here you might have thought of using fast, exciting rhythms, maybe an upbeat tempo, energetic articulation, or bright and punchy timbres.

All of these would be quite effective ways of creating a sense of action and excitement.

Now, if a game has a sense of mystery, we want to try and match that in the music as well.

So if it's a mysterious game, what musical features could help to represent this? Pause my video and have a think.

And here we might have thought of using chromatic harmony.

That's great for creating a sense of mystery or something a bit unusual.

Soft or changing dynamics.

Unusual timbres or unpredictable musical changes.

All of these would help create a sense of mystery for that kind of game.

And finally, if it's set in a particular place or a particular time, how could we support this in the theme music? Pause my video and have a think.

And here we'd say that using instruments associated with that place or time, or using stylistic features typical of that place or time, for example, things like rhythms that are typical of that place or time, harmony or melodic features, these would help us to set that music and set that video game in that place or time.

And this is a really common technique that video game music composers use.

So let's take this scenario.

You've been contacted by a video game company who are producing a new street racing game called "Asphalt Eclipse." The first music that needs writing is the theme music that will play during the opening sequence when the game loads up, and at key points during the game as well.

We can see the cover art they've sent us there.

That's an image that represents the theme and the mood of this game.

And they've described it as action packed, adrenaline-fueled racing on the night-time streets of an industrial city.

So there's a few key points in that description and that image that will help to give us a bit of guidance about the sort of mood and atmosphere we want to create for this game.

Have a think, what musical features would best suit this game based on that description? Pause my video and have a think.

So you might have thought that the action and the excitement of this game would suit things like fast driving rhythms, bright timbres, fast tempo perhaps, and use of loud dynamics.

The night-time industrial setting of this game might suit minor tonality, 'cause that's probably better suited to the night, and timbres that evoke industry or noise.

If this is set in an industrial city, having instruments or sounds that create a feeling of industry and noise would help to really set the scene.

Let's have a look now at the process of composing a video game theme for "Asphalt Eclipse." We're gonna start by writing an eight bar chord sequence.

So the first step is to create my eight bar chord sequence.

And you'll notice here that I've set a fast tempo 'cause this needs to be exciting and energetic music, and I've chosen some timbres that I think are gonna help me create that energy as well.

My chords, I've got this quite punchy sort of synth keyboard sound, (upbeat music) which I quite like.

I think that'll help to give me this sort of energy that I'm going for.

Now, I've been working here in the key of D minor, and the chords that are gonna be most effective to choose from are gonna be D minor, that's chord one.

F, chord three.

G minor, which is chord four, and you'll notice there's a B flat in that.

So when we're working in this key, we have B flats instead of B naturals.

Chord five, which is A minor.

Chord six, which is B flat, so it's got B flat in it there.

And then chord seven, which is C.

So we've got those various different chords, there's six different chords we can choose from.

(upbeat music) And we have a bit more flexibility when we're working in the minor key with using chords like chord six and chord seven as well.

So there's lots of options we've got here.

And then as always, when we're writing a chord sequence, we're gonna experiment with different combinations of those chords until we find one that we like.

And generally speaking, starting on chord one is a good idea 'cause it helps to ground it in that key, so it helps to make it really feel strongly in that key.

So I'm gonna experiment just with some different combinations of chords and see if I can find one that I like.

(upbeat music) I quite like that last combination I've got there, so D minor, and then a C chord, and then an F chord, that's chord three, and then chord four, which is G minor.

And what I could also do when I'm thinking about my chord sequence is also think about chord inversion.

So all of those were in their root position.

(upbeat music) But remember, chord inversions are where we use the same notes but just change the order.

So instead of doing D, F and A down here for my first chord, I could do A and then D and F higher up.

(upbeat music) I could do that instead.

It makes it slightly brighter, but it also makes it a little bit easier to play.

So I could do the same with my C chord.

Instead of C, E, G, I could do G, C, E.

(upbeat music) And then I've got my F chord, and then my G minor chord.

Two, three, four.

Two, three, four.

Two, three, four.

Two, three, four.

So that's the chord sequence I'm gonna use.

And I think what I'll do, 'cause it's at quite a fast tempo, is I might hold each chord for two bars.

So I'll just get that recorded in.

(upbeat music) So that's okay and that would work, but the key here is this is a racing game.

It's a high energy, exciting game, and I want to create some energy.

So one way I can do that is simply by changing the rhythm of my chord.

So instead of just one held chord, I'm gonna use repeated rhythms instead.

So I could do some repeated quavers like this.

(upbeat music) Or even repeated crotchets might work as well.

(upbeat music) And that's just gonna give it that sense of movement and energy that's gonna really help the melody to feel energetic.

So I'm gonna delete that and rerecord it, and I think I'll go for some fast repeated quavers on each chord.

(upbeat music) If I wanted, I could quantize those and then that would be my chord, part of my chord sequence written for now.

Once we've got that chord sequence, then we're gonna compose a memorable melody over the top.

Now it's time to add my melody over the top of my chord sequence, and again, I'm trying to create sense of excitement and energy.

So I've chosen to use a lead guitar, an electric guitar, quite a bright sound, and that's often used in video games where the composers are trying to create an energetic, exciting style of music as well.

So I've gone for this quite bright lead guitar.

And now I'm gonna write a melody that is based mostly on the notes of my chords and uses the notes of the D minus scale.

So remember our D minus scale is all the white notes except B, (upbeat rock music) and we've got B flat instead of B.

(upbeat rock music) That's our melody.

And what I'm gonna try and do is I'm gonna break my melody into four phrases to fit with the four chords of my chord sequence.

So I'm gonna work on two bars at a time, just seeing if I can come up with some interesting melodic ideas.

And an effective way to do this is to repeat the section that you're trying to work on a melody for.

So I'm gonna put those first two bars on loop.

I'm just gonna improvise some ideas until I come up with a little melodic hook that I quite like.

(upbeat music) (upbeat rock music) So you can see that I'm mostly using the notes of the D minor chord 'cause that's what my chord is, which would be D, F and A.

But I'm trying to experiment with adding some other notes in as well.

I've got this quite simple idea that I think might work quite effectively.

(upbeat rock music) And that's mostly just linking two notes from the D minor chord, which is D and A, and jumping between them a little bit.

So I quite like that.

I'm now gonna see if I can extend that into my second chord.

So I've got (upbeat rock music) my first bit and then I'm gonna see if I can work out something that will fit with my C chord in these two bars here.

(upbeat music) (upbeat rock music) So you see there in that second half, I'm using notes from my C chord mostly, and I quite like this idea.

(upbeat rock music) Sounds quite exciting, quite bright, and those big intervals, those big jumps between notes give it a sense of energy and excitement as well.

So I might just record in that first half.

(upbeat rock music) And then I need to do the same process for the second half of my melody as well.

And I'm gonna speed this up a little bit just for the sake of keeping this brief.

But when you're doing it, you wanna really commit plenty of time to working out each section of your melody and making sure that your whole melody really works effectively together.

(upbeat rock music) I think that works quite well, so I'll record that bit.

(upbeat rock music) So that's been my chord sequence and my melody, and that's obviously not the whole theme, that's the basic foundation of it, and that's where we're gonna build the rest of it from.

But I feel like in those two parts, I've captured the energy and action and excitement that I think will suit this video game.

Let's check your understanding.

I'd like to identify two important features of a video game theme.

Pause my video and see if you can think of two.

And well done if you thought of some of these.

You might have said it should be memorable, it should capture the atmosphere, and it should create a suitable mood for the game.

For task B, you're gonna compose a basic theme for "Asphalt Eclipse" consisting of an eight bar chord sequence and melody.

Here are the four steps.

Start by composing an eight bar chord sequence in D minor, choosing from chord one, three, four, five, six and seven.

Then use fast repeating rhythms to create a sense of energy in your chord sequence.

Then you're gonna write a melody that uses the notes of the D minor scale and mostly fits with the notes of the chords that you've chosen as well.

And then finally, choose suitable timbres and a fast tempo to create a feeling of energy and excitement.

Remember, the core of this is that we're trying to create this music that suits this video game, capturing the atmosphere and helping to set that scene.

So you can pause my video now and give this task your best shot.

For the final part of this task, we're gonna listen to this video game theme.

What features make it suitable for an energetic racing game, like "Asphalt Eclipse" that we've been composing for? Try and think of as many different aspects as you can.

Let's have a listen.

(upbeat rock music) I'll play it one more time, trying to think of a few aspects of this that make it suitable for an energetic racing game video.

(upbeat rock music) Pause my video while you're finishing your answer for this one.

And here, I think there are three key elements that make this really suitable and effective for this sort of game.

The first is the fast, repeating rhythms that help create this sense of energy.

Then we've got the bright timbres that create a feeling of excitement as well.

And then finally, the fast tempo also helps to create that sense of energy.

So these three elements in particular help this really suit the mood and the atmosphere of an energetic racing game.

Let's review today's lesson.

Video game music has transformed as computer technology has developed over the last 50 years.

Modern video game music fulfills similar roles to film music, these are creating mood, energy, and helping to tell the story.

Video game music is based on repeating linear loops that need to be able to repeat indefinitely.

It's also adaptive, which means it changes in response to the player's actions.

And video game theme songs should capture the overall mood and the atmosphere of the game.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Hopefully now you feel like you've got a solid grasp of not only how video game music has developed over the last few decades, but the sort of decision making that video game music composers have to do when they're writing music for video games.

Hopefully by experiencing that process of composition yourself, you're starting to get a feel for what makes video game music work really well, and how the different elements can be used to really suit different kinds of games.

Thanks for taking part in today's lesson, and I'll see you in another one.