The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music

Melanie Fritsch · Tim Summers

apr, 2021 · Cambridge University Press

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Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years. Now, reaching billions of listeners, game music encompasses a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date survey of video game music by a diverse group of scholars and industry professionals. The chapters and summaries consolidate existing knowledge and present tools for readers to engage with the music in new ways. Many popular games are analysed, including Super Mario Galaxy, Bastion, The Last of Us, Kentucky Route Zero and the Katamari, Gran Turismo and Tales series. Topics include chiptunes, compositional processes, localization, history and game music concerts. The book also engages with other disciplines such as psychology, music analysis, business strategy and critical theory, and will prove an equally valuable resource for readers active in the industry, composers or designers, and music students and scholars.

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Melanie Fritsch is Junior Professor in Media and Cultural Studies with a focus on Game Studies and related fields at Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. She is the author of Performing Bytes: Musikperformances der Computerspielkultur (2018).

Tim Summers is Lecturer in Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Understanding Video Game Music (Cambridge, 2016) and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – A Game Music Companion (forthcoming).