Smart music.

In more than one occasion recently I've heard friends mention they mute their video games. Usually in order to watch TV. This worries me.

I, for one, don't like to watch TV while playing because it's a distraction. I either watch TV or play. That's how a brain with ADD works. So if i'm going to focus on the game and entirely block the TV, then I might as well keep it off. Then there's the fact that some events in games do not have a visual cue. But that's really the least of my worries. Even if I had the talent to keep an eye on the TV while playing, I wouldn't.

You see, I love video game music. I really do. I mean true love, I love it for what it is and not just for it's superficial appearance. Sure, some games got crappy music, but still, I appreciate it being there. I love video game music for what it does: It sets a mood and a pace for your playing. It fills the void of not having a sound effect for every little thing (imagine background noises like the wind blowing and dogs barking). It takes you to a different world. It completes the gaming experience. When you mute the game, you're only playing half the game.

Has it ever happened to you that you're having a crummy day until someone nearby starts whistling the Super Mario Bros. 2 tune? Sure, it's possibly the most cheerful tune ever, but half that joy is produced from the nostalgia. Listening to that tune makes your brain dig up the good old days from the depths of your long-term memory file. Just like the smell of fresh-baked apple pie.

One of the reasons players nowadays are caring less and less about video game music is that game makers in general are doing it wrong! I remember like it was yesterday. When the CD ROM was invented. I recall reading an interview with game designer about the SEGA CD. He said that one of the best parts of this new technology was that music no longer needed to be "programmed". Now they could just hire musicians and record real music to play into the games!

I would have never guessed they would use audio tracks, just like a music CD. So cheap. Load the whole thing to ram or install to hard disk then play the CD like any other. If you swapped disks it'd just play your CD. They totally disregarded the formula they had been working on since Pong. Now that it was recorded in audio tracks, it would mean music would no longer loop infinitely, or seamlessly change like when you hopped on Yoshi, back in Super Mario World and suddenly there would be percussion. Music was no longer smart.

I remember I had a few PC games that I'd play, but I'd take the CD ROM out to play music CDs (Back then there were no MP3s, kids). One was a motorcycle racing game... I think it was actually a demo. To this day I associate the music from Green Day's Nimrod to it. Somehow the music seemed to match the game. Then there was Grand theft auto, yeah, the first one. That one I played to the beat of a Space Monkeys CD! And yes, to this day when I play those songs, they remind me of those games. They remind me of my first year of college. They remind me of when I met my wife. They remind me of my friends back then. And more importantly, they remind me of when I'd run over those monks that jogged in a row and I'd get a big yellow GOURANGA! on screen as a reward. I don't even like some of those songs anymore, but they're still on my party shuffle. I love those songs for what they do, not for what they sound like.

Another amusing anecdote: I was among the lucky to get the Playstation when it first came out. I got the 2 launch games as well: Battle Arena Toshinden and Ridge Racer. On the back of the Ridge Racer case (the big one that looked like a VHS tape), among the main features listed, they made a big deal about you being able to swap CDs and play to your favorite tunes. The entire game would load to RAM while you were treated to a quick game of Galaxian, if you beat it, you unlocked the secret cars. When it was done it'd keep the disk spinning but used it as a CD player. Well, apparently the marketing genius that wrote that had not played the game. You see, the game would ignore track numbers and instead seemed to look for a specific "time" on the soundtrack and start playing from there. So songs would start halfway through and only last one lap! That was funny. Luckily the game had really good music.

Back on subject: Prerecorded music only worked for two genres, racing and fighting. They both have you doing a repetitive task in a single location for a limited amount of time. To this day I listen to those audio tracks occasionally. On any other game the result was disastrous. At times the music felt out of place, and at some point the song would abruptly stop, then restart after the time it took the lens to return to the track's beginning. Nowadays they have somewhat overcome those limitations, but that was not the bad part.

One of the side effects of this phenomenon was when they started hiring live musicians to record the soundtracks. Songs stopped doing their job of setting a pace or a mood, instead they just slapped on any songs that sounded cool and modern. A new trend has developed of using commercial tracks for game soundtracks; this works on movies because the director can manipulate the scene to match the tempo and general mood of the song, whereas in a game the player is in control and the music needs to follow. This generation does not appreciate their game's music, and I don't blame them.

One can only hope that upon the advent of retro games such as Street Fighter IV, New Super Mario Bros. Bit.Trip and Sonic 4 they realize the true value of proper background music. Smart music. In the meantime, I know there are some games out there that have stuck to these principles and I assure you it will be a rewarding experience, if you would only listen.