Monday, October 11, 2010
Music For Nerds
Because I'm big into music and always yakking about bands, I get a lot of people asking me about "nerdcore" bands and, like The Protomen or whatever. I always say I don't like them -- totally willing to admit I'm biased because I make my entire living in the world of video games, but I really dislike the idea that gamer fandom is something that needs to seep into every single pore of a person's waking life. Also I think they're just bad, but that's subjective.
Why should I make it, like, a personal mandate to browbeat gamers into being interested in things other than games? If games are all you like and you want to eat (McFarmville?), sleep, breathe and listen them every minute of your day, that's totally your business, isn't it? More power to you. Do what you love.
It's just that personally I think we can have a richer experience relating to interactive worlds when we have well-rounded lives -- and more importantly, we as consumers will ask for more nuanced, more genuinely social and more diverse game experiences when we are broader and more curious media consumers.
And whether or not it applies to me (protip: it does) I've always flinched at the idea that 'nerd' is a label we should all brag about, like we deserve to be segregated for our interests, like we must embrace this stereotype of being single-minded and socially inept just because we like this or that. We want people to get with the idea that games aren't particularly weird, that they belong in people's lives, right?
Anyway. As much as I am sassy and opinionated about most stuff, at the end of the day it's mostly a big put-on. I'd never tell someone in seriousness that they shouldn't enjoy something that's important to them. But this article on SomethingAwful basically encapsulates, in more depth than I've ever gone into, why I mostly don't really dig "gamer music."
Which makes the YouTube I've posted at the head of this post a little bit of a guilty pleasure, right? (The author of the SA piece told me on Twitter, though I can't find the Tweet now, that this tune is more forgivable because it is self-aware and not taking itself seriously).
In related news, you might all like (or become angry at) this Hosta song, 'No More Video Games', which I stumbled across today on Indie Rock Cafe's decent Summer 2010 mixtape. I came there looking for tracks by Sleep Good, a band from Austin, which is where I spent my entire past week (more on GDC Online later! I'm still catching up on sleep!)
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24 comments:
Couldn't agree more.
Furthermore, I think people would be surprised at how well-rounded most game industry folks are (e.g. not listening exclusively to M.C.s Chris and Frontalot)
If you consume nothing but games, you become very good at consuming games. If you want to create something (regardless of the medium, genre, etc) you need broad experience to start from.
I guess when you have to live and breathe games for a living, you realize how important that diversity in life is.
I gotta say, some of my friends with the best music taste are in the industry. Some of my friends with the worst music taste are hardcore gamers :)
To me the requirements of game music to be very short for memory reason originally, to be repeatable without getting overly tiresome and now to have the ability to instantly transition back and forth with other pieces in the soundtrack. By itself most pieces just aren't that good. I many wayts they are more like musically experiments than actual stand alone compositions.
I'm a bit confused.... I listen to a lot of OSTs (heck I got shantae 2's music playing right now), but I suspect you mean music made "for gamers by gamers about gamers/games" or something.
In which case, I gotta admit ignorance. I've been playing games all my life, but I never really gave that kinda music a chance. So there's really nothing of this...er, "genre" that you'd recommend?
Anyone?
Well said-- I think I respect De Blob's composer/team more than almost anybody else, just because it's hard enough to write good music in the first place, but to have to heap so incredibly many technical requirements and contingencies on top-- it's just mind-blowing.
We briefly considered trying to do dynamic/interweaving music on a previous project until the composer nearly had a heart attack when we told him :-P
@Aquin: Like anything, there's good and bad. As a friend replied on Facebook when I posted this article:
"Sturgeon's Law applies. For every 9 nerdcore artists that are derivative and lazy, there's 1 that adds original styles, clever mashups, etc."
Bonus points because I hadn't heard of "Sturgeon's Law" before, and whenever you can remember such specific names for phenomena, it makes you look uber-smart.
Unfortunately, so far all I've managed to remember consistently is Moore's and Godwin's Law :-P
Yes, I'm quite familiar with Sturgeon's Law. I've found, because of my critical nature, I've had to add a corollary.
Aquin's Corollary: 90% of everything might be crap, but the remaining 10% is barely decent. Of all the decent things, only 10% of that is actually spectacular.
Okay, but if there are a few good artists in the whole, like any other genre or medium, why even complain about this movement?
There's gotta be more to this than a blanket "it all sucks" statement. I'm curious to know what exactly makes it so offensive.
I suppose it's like what Aaron says at first. If it's all you consume, you can't be a diverse human being. But...REALLY? Does anybody just have one genre that they like? If so, they are boring and would likely have never produced anything of interest. So, let 'em have it.
As for the rest of us... GIMME GIMME GIMME *everything*! :D
I think the thing that sucks about it was actually articulated really well in the final paragraph of the Something Awful article-- and it's not so much a failing in the music itself as a human weakness it exploits in the geek/nerd crowd.
"...creating the illusion of options for fans who want to explore only within the "nerd" realm. So instead of wandering off into the vast expanses of non-lifestyle music, fans of these bands can stay where they're comfortable, like little kids, riding on 8-bit training wheels, so proud they can bike all the way to the shady part of the suburb, where they play the nerdcore."
Yeah, I feel the general message of both this blog post and the article are pretty accurate. People tend to stick with what they already know. Especially if they think it makes them "edgy" (how this works with nerdcore baffles me, but I see this oneupmanship behaviour with gamers all the time.)
But this is true of any genre of music or anything else really, like I said before. It's just most people don't like to branch out. I gotta wonder if all the artists are doing it for the same "look I'm a gamer!" reasons or if they have something they genuinely want to say/do with their music.
Cuz those latter guys probably have the better music (guessing.) :P
So there's two responses I have to this
1) Thanks to the internet there are exactly one hundred billion bands out there. In order to be good, all you have to do is have a modicum of talent and be willing to practice. In order to make money you need a hook. For some bands, this hook is gaming. Why are they different than a band who's shtick is looking like an entry from latfh.com? At least the gaming guys know it's a gimmick.
2) I don't think there's a one of these bands that are taking it seriously in the way you imply. The Protomen do interviews with helmets on. Seriously. It's the Hipster/Journey effect, all these "well rounded" hipsters who listen to Journey "ironically" also actually love Journey. It's a fine line between "ironically" liking something and just liking it. In fact, I think it's a line of negative width.
I think trying to paint everyone who likes this stuff as some sort of basement demon that has no other culture is just silly. The internet is creating a ton of subcultures, and most people don't exclusively participate in just one. And if they only participate in one subculture, throwing some indie hipster folk music at them isn't going to solve the problem.
So, first of all - thanks, Leigh, for linking to my story. It's pretty damn humbling. Thanks, too, to Aaron, for being one of the people who linked to it on their facebook pages. It's kind of frustrating, as a writer, to see how many people are linking to it, but not being able to see what they're saying about it.
A couple things I'd like to address - videogame OSTs are a sort of different lot than what I was talking about. In fact, there's a lot of very cool stuff there, especially if you start looking to the actual 8-bit games, and what they did there with such limited resources. But I was specifically not discussing these composers, but rather the bands who perform these compositions using "traditional" instrumentation as a gimmick/genre/what have you.
@pyromanfo: There were however many bands out there before the internet, too. You just didn't have access to as many, especially if you weren't really looking (though it's worth noting that having access to them doesn't mean you'll be exposed to them). What you have to say about what it takes to be "good," of course, is entirely relative. Your comment specifically negates any sort of artistic spark, aesthetic design, or understanding of music scenes both past and present, all things that a lot of music fans take note of when considering a musical act. I suppose you could define this as a hook, but there's much more nuance to any of those three things than "let's play some music from some video games." That's a hook, sure. But it's a lazy hook.
With regard to what you've said about "seriousness" - firstly, whether or not the Protomen themselves are taking their music seriously is not really my concern. I know that there are people who take their music very seriously, and, as always, it's the discussion and perception that interests me more. Your argument breaks down not only because (like me, no doubt - I write in hyperbole because that's what the tone of the column calls for) you are operating in stereotypes, but because while a performer may be acting with some degree of irony, that doesn't mean it is being perceived as such.
Also, if you notice, I never prescribed any sort of musical remedy either way. What bothers me is not that people don't listen to the same music I do. What bothers me is when people treat music as an incidental art to be manipulated and denigrated, which is what I think is happening in this case.
I do agree with Leigh and Daryl in that it's not the references that render this music kind of pointless, but how they are used - "a lazy hook" pretty much nails it.
On the other hand, I can't help being really interested in musicians who do refer to games, but in a way that was described in the articles as:
When an artist adapts a form of media into another form, they have one chief responsibility - to use that new form in a way that portrays the subject matter in a different, but still appropriate, light.
I guess you could point to Anamanaguchi here, but IMHO, there's no better example for somebody doing videogame references in his music in a thoughtful way than Owen Pallett - the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy. (http://www.myspace.com/owenpallettmusic)Other than being a masterful violinist and strings arrangur, he is also a bona fide nerd.
Sometimes, his references are pretty obvious - on his first album, there were songs titled "adventure.exe" and a melody lifted directly from the second Mario-game for the Game Boy. However, Pallett constantly transcends every nerdy line, every node to a game OST. Take his second album, “The Artic Circle” – it’s a concept album based on the magic schools of D&D. But it does not dwell in Tolkienesque fantasy, it just takes the bigger-than-life concepts of “Conjuration”, “Transmutation” etc. and uses them as metaphors for a much more mundane life.
It is very much what Kieron Gillen wrote in regard to “Scott Pilgrim”: This isn’t (just) gags. This is about how humans of a certain generation process reality.It is, in other words, much more than a lazy hook, or a minimalist homage.
My problem with a lot of nerdcore and gamer oriented music is mostly kind of a personal (and maybe a little bit selfish) one.
As a person who is beginning to be mostly known for making 8 bit music, it is straight up fuckin impossible not to be almost instantly clumped together with LOL NINTENDO bands and bad geek comedy/rap shows (good ones too, but mostly bad ones). So it's more of a "get the fuck up off my grill" thing more than a "hey this music sucks" thing, as I actually don't mind a whole lot of that stuff.
It just fairly difficult to separate ones self from the kind of giant GEEKY THINGS ARE TOTALLY COOL AND CAN PROBABLY GET YOU LAID N STUFF zeitgeist thats going on right now. Even though my musical influences couldn't possibly have less to do with videogames (more like old school hip hop and early electronic music), the simple fact is the majority of people who are going to find my stuff find it cause they are into shit that sounds like videogames. And they most likely found it on the G@M3R MOOSIC station on last.fm.
So I guess my point is that I'm just a huge jerk.
I think DARYL's point about the offensiveness of appropriating hip-hop to make fun of hip-hop is trenchant. Its kind of like when middle aged suburbanites do a terrible rap and think its hilarious. (see also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG_rEqCivn4 ) But I also think that, when based on a genuine love of the medium (like, for example, Lonely Island's Santana DVX) that appropriation is more acceptable. But that's a case by case evaluation.
Also, could nerdcore be a kind of nascent folk music for the nerd subculture in the way various forms of hip-hop are the folk music of urban communities? (I mean folk music in the traditional sense -- music of a particular group of people -- rather than in the singer-songwriter/hippies with guitars sense). It seems to be a way for self-identified nerds of a particular type to record their way of life in song (Sidenote: this is wildly speculative as I don't think I've listened to nerdcore). If thats the case then maybe the problem is with how these songs define nerd in a way that is overly restrictive to other self-identified nerds who don't want to play D&D and work an IT job.
Dauragon -- most chip artists will say the same thing. Anamanaguchi's the same, so's Nullsleep, etc. It's just an instrument, it's not always a "homage to Mega Man" or whatever.
Focusing on the first half of the article, I'd think doing arrangements is a bit different than being a tribute band. That doesn't mean that preparing things for different instruments and the like is inherently some amazing or new creative act, but it can be done well and when done properly doesn't treat music as an incidental art.
In a broader defense, I'd defend the music as one way of taking the often solitary experience of gaming and making a more communal one. Most of us have strong emotional memories tied up to these songs and thus music offers a tribal bonding experience that it's been giving to all manner of communities since prehistorical times.
Perhaps it's time for a backlash to remind us that as the newness wears off our quality standards should rise and successful bands should branch out. In addition, we should be always be careful about getting too sucked into our respective tribes. I think the article does act as a productive critique by focusing its fire on nerd-core that's disrespectful to its musical trappings.
Were there a like button on the above comment, I would have clicked it. Well said, Greg.
The first time something gets done, it's clever and original-- then come the followers and somewhere down the line, the novelty wears off, at which point a genre must stand on its own merits. "Nirvana leading into the following grunge explosion" comes to mind as an always-available example of this.
I didn't really know there was a gamer music scene until today, but that track wasn't bad, I wouldn't rush to itunes to download the track, but it was fun and I was immersed in the story.
Anyway, a game like GTA San Andreas really benefited from the radio system playing real music, I had a blast just driving through the city listening to oldies, Marvin Gaye, Barry White or Ice Cube, that was dope.
video game music fall back....EPIC FAIL.
I was going to come in and argue the point, but Greg seems to have already expressed what I was thinking far more effectively than I would have.
Good on you, Greg.
Aaron and Daniel: Thanks! Aside from liking OSTs, I've got a friend that's into the scene but also introduced me to music unrelated to video games, so I get to see some of the good bits of the sub-genre without feeling as strong a need to get defensive about it.
Also I was just watching some of the Extra Credits videos last week, Daniel, and have enjoyed your choice of topics, so my compliments in return.
i'll totally agree with the point that most game cover bands (minibosses, advantage, etc) are pretty lame. if i want to hear game music done with guitars, there's youtube.
i've known the protomen for awhile, which probably makes it impossible for me to be objective, but i think they're pretty awesome. i don't really get how they're considered musically boring - not many rock bands putting out spaghetti western power metal operas. as for doing interviews with helmets on: that is absolutely hilarious.
Skippy sank in lava, Corwin turned to slime,
They could both see what was coming but they couldn't pray in time.
Pinky fought a soldier ant that crawled out of his backpack
They were all in love with dyin', they were doing it in NetHack...
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