Post subject: ADP #13 Earthbound by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka
WARNING! This might take a while to read and or listen to.
For those who are not aware, Earthbound was a video game released in 1995. Although it's initial reception was lukewarm it has since gained a strong cult following, and is considered to be one of the best video games ever made. I could go on about the history of the game, but I don't want to be too dry. If you want to read more about the game, specifically the soundtrack details go here;
I love everything about this game, but the main love for it is the soundtrack. The whole game revolves around sound and music. The goal of the game is to collect melodies to create a song that will help you gain the power to defeat the evil being Giygas. Incredibly diverse and innovative, there are few other video game soundtracks of the 16 bit period that even come close to the size and scope of Earthbound.
One of the main innovations of the game, and something that to my knowledge had never been done before, was the use of sampling in the game.
Here's a video showing the different samples used and how they were broken down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_oc9Ypcb2Q
I don't expect anyone to listen to the whole thing (because it's 3 hours long) so I will highlight some songs that were not part of the sampling video that I think demonstrate the wide variety of genre in the game including; rock, metal, easy listening, blues, Jazz, surf, ambient, electronic, techno, experimental/noise, and world.
(Some names appear different on the tracklist because the person who made the video worded them wrong. BTW I know this seems like a lot, but some are barely a minute long.)
A Hospital's Quality Care
Frank Comes Out Swingin! (essentially Johnny B. Goode as a Midi)
The Guardian's Challenge
Your Sactuary
Grateful Dead Valley
Happy Happy Is Blue
Insane Cultists
I Believe In You
Chaos Theater
Freedom's What We Got!
Haunted Threed
Winters White
Tessie!
The Caverns of Winters
The Sky Runner
Battle of Geppuu (this theme plays when you battle a boss who is a pile of vomit)
You've Come Far
Riding the Bus
Deep in the Gold Mine
Summers
Song Played For Traveler's
Pink Cloud Cave (Personal Favorite)
Kraken of the Sea
Carabina Ska
Pyramid
Enjoy the Dungeon (This one is the weirdest probably, remember this was a game for children)
Starman
Ask Yourself (Tenda Village)
The Earth's Love Song
Fire Spring
Eight Melodies (Sound Stone)
Flying Man
The Maze of Dreams
Pokey, Armed and Dangerous
Because I Love You
Smiles and Tears
Anything from "The Devil's Machine" to "The End of Giygas) is still one of the creepiest things I've ever listened to.
1.) Favorite Video Game Music?
2.) Is video game music overlooked?
3.) Any other general thoughts?
1. My personal favourite is the soundtrack to Mechwarrior 2 by Jeehun Hwang (1995), which I still play from time to time - the PC release of the game effectively doubles as an audio CD. Some really nice orchestral/ambient tracks. The Final Fantasy VII soundtrack is nice too. Another good one from the 1990s was Interstate '76.
2. Yes, video game music is definitely overlooked. I would say this is in 90% of cases for good reason though. Although I only dabble in games I really want to play these days due to time/family commitments, game soundtracks are noticeably better than they used to be, especially for games going for a more immersive cinematic game playing experience.
3. I find myself less likely to think 'I need to get a copy of this to listen to' when playing a game than I am with film/series soundtracks. _________________ http://distranscontinuum.blogspot.co.uk/
Awesome to see video game soundtracks being discussed Video games are an art form that is equally as important to me as music, the amount of craft that goes into making even a simple game really pickles my brain.
On the subject of sampling: Earthbound was definitely not the first game to use it, though it was probably the most celebrated example. I was playing Ys IV (PC Engine 1993) just the other day and clearly heard the drum groove from When The Levee Breaks. This is just an anecdotal example I'm sure there are earlier ones.
On the subject of sampling: Earthbound was definitely not the first game to use it, though it was probably the most celebrated example. I was playing Ys IV (PC Engine 1993) just the other day and clearly heard the drum groove from When The Levee Breaks. This is just an anecdotal example I'm sure there are earlier ones.
Yeah, you're probably right on that one. I got a little excited. I think this video here might debunk my fudging of facts.
On the subject of sampling: Earthbound was definitely not the first game to use it, though it was probably the most celebrated example. I was playing Ys IV (PC Engine 1993) just the other day and clearly heard the drum groove from When The Levee Breaks. This is just an anecdotal example I'm sure there are earlier ones.
Yeah, you're probably right on that one. I got a little excited. I think this video here might debunk my fudging of facts.
This isn't really on topic but have you heard the origin of the Super Mario Underground theme? It's not sampled from here but it's certainly lifted right out of it:
Kind of interesting? I found this video fascinating in how in delves into musical theory and applies it to the Earthbound Snowman Theme. It explains what makes video game music inherently different from traditional music, perhaps inherently flawed according to some people. I'm referring around the 5-minute mark when he begins explaining that video game music doesn't fully develop its themes because it's formatted on a smaller scale, and formatted to endlessly loop. Traditional music goes from A to Z and stops when it reaches its logical end, whereas video game music goes from A to Z and back to A again on a loop that never ends because it has no logical end. Is this an inherent flaw, or merely different?
Anyway,
2.) Is video game music overlooked?
Yes. There is some very good music in video games that doesn't get appreciated. I think this due to the fact that only gamers hear video game music, and gamers are a small percentage of the population.
3.) Any other general thoughts?
Video game music rarely works for me as a solely musical experience. Soundtrack music, whether for movies or video games, is meant to accompany another artform to create a multi-artform experience. In video games, music can make the game memorable and quite exhilarating.
1.) Favorite Video Game Music?
For example, I love some of the music of Resident Evil 4. It's creepy and fast-tempo. It fits the mood of the game perfectly because you're always either running or fighting for your life. Another game I love the music for is F-Zero GX, especially the Fire Field and Casino Palace themes.
Video game music rarely works for me as a solely musical experience. Soundtrack music, whether for movies or video games, is meant to accompany another artform to create a multi-artform experience. In video games, music can make the game memorable and quite exhilarating.
I agree. There are only a handful that I generally keep on rotation, Earthbound being one of those games that the music can actually standalone and still be interesting to listen to.
Post subject: Re: ADP #13 Earthbound by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka
Tha1ChiefRocka wrote:
1.) Favorite Video Game Music?
I will have a lot to say about the Earthbound soundtrack later, but I want to answer this question in a sort of conceited way first. Ok so my favorite video game music might actually not be real? There's this thing you can do with the Sega Genesis, where you can just rip a cartridge out and plug another one in, and the new game will try to playback music based on information from the previous game. You can replicate this in emulators by loading the save state from one game into another. 99 times out of 100, you just get garbage, but sometime it finds a way to create some insane cool glitch music. Ok so normally what you get doesn't really sound like traditional video game music or something that sounds like it was actually composed by a human. But one time I loaded Super Hang On into Revenge of Shinobi, and I got this http://alextripp.com/music/hangon_into_...bi_002.mp3 and maybe this is a remixed form of a song on the soundtrack to one of these games, I couldn't find it but I didn't do the most thorough search. But it's maybe my favorite video game music. Except for the opening song to Solstice, that's the best https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA
But yeah the Earthbound soundtrack is also incredible and a great choice for this, I'll have more to say on it later.
Post subject: Re: ADP #13 Earthbound by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka
Tap wrote:
I will have a lot to say about the Earthbound soundtrack later, but I want to answer this question in a sort of conceited way first. Ok so my favorite video game music might actually not be real? There's this thing you can do with the Sega Genesis, where you can just rip a cartridge out and plug another one in, and the new game will try to playback music based on information from the previous game. You can replicate this in emulators by loading the save state from one game into another. 99 times out of 100, you just get garbage, but sometime it finds a way to create some insane cool glitch music. Ok so normally what you get doesn't really sound like traditional video game music or something that sounds like it was actually composed by a human. But one time I loaded Super Hang On into Revenge of Shinobi, and I got this http://alextripp.com/music/hangon_into_...bi_002.mp3 and maybe this is a remixed form of a song on the soundtrack to one of these games, I couldn't find it but I didn't do the most thorough search. But it's maybe my favorite video game music. Except for the opening song to Solstice, that's the best https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA
But yeah the Earthbound soundtrack is also incredible and a great choice for this, I'll have more to say on it later.
Those are all great selections. Speaking of weird Sega glitches, have you ever heard the weirdness that happened with the Sega CD?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVzk_c-aJPQ
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Video games are an art form that is equally as important to me as music, the amount of craft that goes into making even a simple game really pickles my brain.
