Video Game Music (in case you were wondering)

Ok so I never really updated right after the concert... but I had a great time! Instead of coming up with excuses as to why this is coming so late, I'll just get right into it.

Play! finally came to the west coast. I guess after having 3 (or 4 if you include San Diego) Dear Friends concert in the state they decided to go tour other places first. It's not as magical as it was the first time at the Disney concert hall, but it was still awesome to hear the music live. There were some "first time" performances of Lair, Darkness, and Blue Dragon. But the classics like Super Mario, Metal Gear Solid and Zelda were included as well as Kingdom Hearts, Halo, WoW, Oblivion. The only FF one was One Winged Angel that they played as an encore. That's not my favourite piece but everyone goes nuts over that one.

Anyways, the San Jose symphony did a fantastic job, it's just that the acoustics in the hall weren't very good. The sound didn't make you feel like you were being enveloped, instead it sounded like it was coming from in front of you. So much for surround sound.

Video game music is this growing portion of the industry. I see it like movie soundtracks, people are either realy into it, or they just don't really care. It depends on game too, sometimes studios put a lot of effort into their music and in my opinion, it moves the game forward. Without, like movies, there is just no emotion or dramatic effect. I suppose that music would be the most effective in RPGs, and not so much in fighting games. But even then, Contra had pretty memorable music too and it was a sidescrolling shooting game.