Ludomusicology - Approaches to Video Game Music - Michiel Kamp
Introduction
Ludomusicology - Approaches to Video Game Music - Michiel Kamp
Michiel Kamp [+]
Utrecht University
Tim Summers [+]
Royal Holloway
Mark Sweeney [+]
Description
The editors’ introduction situates the essays in this collection within the wider landscape of the study of video game music. In particular, we are concerned with the relationship between games and music – a domain of research that is commonly referred to as ‘ludomusicology’. We first provide a brief history of the study of game music, highlighting the significant research findings and scholarly work that has led to the present state of the discipline. Secondly, we discuss the specific challenges to which the essays here presented respond, and how the research advances understanding of these issues. We trace the recurring themes of the volume through the chapters, such as medium specificity on the one hand (Chapters 2, 5, 7 and 9), and theway that video game music is embedded in musical and popular culture on the other (Chapters 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 11). Because one of the strengths of this volume is the multiple perspectives provided by the contributors, we highlight both where the authors are in agreement in their conclusions about game music, and where several alternative theories are expressed. We examine the reasons for such disparity, and how an appreciation of this difference is informative for game music scholars. We show how the research in the book advances understanding of game music in a significant way. Finally, we consider the most pertinent questions that remain unanswered in the study of game music and indicate how the chapters in this volume supply the discipline with new tools and theoretical apparatus for tackling these challenges. We conclude by arguing for the significance of video game music studies, both as a subject of study within its own right, and as a topic that informs, and interacts with, other areas of academic scholarship.