Playing the Tune: Video Game Music, Gamers, and Genre

Abstract

This article proposes a particular approach to video game music by advocating a genre-based enquiry. Two generic levels are active in video game music: "interactive genre" (the type of game/interactive mechanism) and "environmental genre” (the "setting" of the game). The interaction between these levels produces the game's music. By examining games within the same interactive genre, even if the environmental genre is markedly different, we can begin to uncover similar concerns, functions and methodologies of game music. Three interactive genres are briefly examined (survival horror games, strategy games, fighting games), in order to demonstrate how musical-strategic similarities can be seen to weave through game genres.