Video Games Music A composer named Nobuo Uematsu joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a single performance of his most famous work. The show sold out in three days. In fact, there was almost a riot at the box office when people couldn't get tickets. What was the music? Uematsu's soundtrack for the popular video game Final Fantasy.

Video game music started out pretty simple.

Pong, the first commercial video game, had just 1 sound - a 'blip' when your paddle hit the ball. Click on the image to the right to play pong and hear that sound	On YouTube
Other earlier games like Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Pac Man had electronic music accompaniments, but basically they were the same tunes played over and over, getting faster as the action on the screen sped up Click on the image to the right to play Pacman and hear that music (click the 'insert coin' button to start)

In the 1980 and 90's the music in video games became tied to the action on the screen. Characters and game levels had different themes. Music played a part in developing the game experience (click on the images to hear music from each game).

Modern Games:
Here are some examples of soundtracks from "modern" video games (click on the images to hear music from each game):

Assignment #2 - Where in the World Quiz?  After reviewing the first 3 lessons in Unit 2 (World Music, Movie Music and Video Game Music) take a quiz to determine if you have learned the material or not. There are listening examples in this quiz  - make sure your can hear .mp3 files BEFORE starting the quiz. Music in the quiz will be selected from this list: African Music Australian Music Chinese Music German Music Mexican Music Peruvian Music American Music  Williams - Star Wars Main Theme  Sound from Pong  Soundtrack from Minecraft

Living Composer:

Philip Glass (1937-  ) Glass composes in a style know as “minimalism.” Glass himself doesn't like that term and prefers to speak of himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures". Most of his music is performed by a group he founded in 1967 - the Philip Glass Ensemble – seven musicians playing keyboards and a variety of woodwinds, amplified and fed through a mixer. Lately, he has composed music for more popular media - his music is featured in the movie "The Truman Show" as well as video games including "Grand Theft Auto IV". Metamorphosis One Einstein on the Beach - Mr. Bojangles Click here if the video above is blocked