Stepping Up to the Plate and the West's Need for a Brilliant Composer

Several years ago if you had told me that the video game industry would be raking in more money than the film industry I would have called you crazy. Sure, I have been a gamer since I could read a book, but my loyalty to the digital age would not blind me from the reality that gamers add up to only a small portion of the overall population here in the US. Thankfully I was proven wrong and it appears as though the massive legion of nerds has spoken with their wallets and crowned video games as the most promising form of entertainment over the past two to three years.

What finally tipped the scale, in this writers humble opinion, was the rise in power of the western market. There has always been a lot of consumers here in the states, but most of the bigger titles and development of video games was being shouldered by our friends over in the land of the rising sun. Still, empires refuse to last forever and in as little as five years, America has stolen the torch from the Japanese to produce some of the most innovative titles to come out in years. Despite this newly minted achievement for us Yankees, I couldn't help but notice that not all is so smooth and polished with our titles. We can nitpick about personal tastes regarding game play till the cows come home, but the one area that seems universally inferior to yours truly is the musical department.

Did you know that in Japan almost every game that is released also has its soundtrack sold separately? Not only that, but they sell well to boot! In America, video game scores are basically stillborn upon release, and I doubt any executive working at EA would even entertain the thought of selling a game's soundtrack on CD as they may risk losing the money spent to print them on disc.

There's is nothing sweeping or grandiose about American musical scores. In most games it functions solely as static white noise that gets drowned out to provide ambiance. Several advocates for American game music will argue that the subtlety of ambiance is something lost to this nimrod's thick noggin, but even if that's the intended purpose and even if that music helps boost the mood of the gaming experience, I still walk away unable to recount any of the songs in my head.

Let's look at "Mass Effect 2", one of this years biggest titles. The game is an epic masterpiece in almost every sense of the word, but the one thing it is missing is an appropriately memorable score. This isn't to say that the music was bad or in any way inappropriate for the context of its vision but there wasn't anything that resonated with me long after my play through. In fact, the only bit of music that I still remember to this day is a very haunting (and short) piano piece that plays as Shepard drifts off into space at the beginning of the game. I highlight that musical number because it serves a dual purpose of being subtle while still managing to lodge itself into my brain. Another Western title that should be examined is the "Fallout" series. Unlike many other games out there, the "Fallout" series has repeatedly provided catchy tunes, the problem is that none of the tunes being remembered were composed for the game. "Fallout" manages to set its mood by using "old timey" jams from days long since past and it does so very effectively. Sadly, these old songs, while good, only serve to overshadow the games original score if one even exists in the first place (its hard to tell). You might think my argument to be spurious, but I am being honest when I say that I can only name a few Western game composers off the top of my head, and none of them have done anything that I'll remember a decade from now. Japan on the other hand has always had A-list musical composers who's names are electrified with so much celebrity that they generate hype for the projects they are working on. If you doubt what I preach, simply go to youtube and look for songs from games like "Chrono Trigger" or "Final Fantasy"; better yet, go here: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/sx4j/ and listen to that for a few minutes and you'll pefectly understand what this whole article is about.

Normally I try not to draw comparisons between film and games, but perhaps American companies just need to higher the guys working in the film industry. Grab this years top contenders like Daft Punk or Hans Zimmer for the next big American video game release and allow it to dominate the foreground. Don't throw it into the back and let it die without proper appreciation! You are the kingpin of the gaming world now, America, it's time you exercised your noble duties and made music an important part of game production. That or just go get the Japanese composers since they seem to know what they are doing around here.