The lights are on
Minnesota Public Radio's Classical station has created a new podcast that takes notice of some of the fantastic work being done in video game scores by the myriad of composers working in the field today. Hosted by Emily Reese, the program is entitled Top Score. According to MPR, it "explores the inspiration, process and meaning behind the often beautiful and sometimes haunting music found in video games. Music has had the power to inflect different emotions in listeners for centuries, and video game music is no different."So far the show has covered some interesting composers, including Inon Zur (Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II) and Jason Graves (Dead Space, Dead Space 2), and Garry Shyman (BioShock, BioShock 2).What's great about the show is that it's not just a "mixtape" style podcast, where they play various tracks from a game's soundtrack. Reese actually brings the composers in the booth, and asks them thoughtful questions about both their creative process and how they hope their music interacts with the player's experience as well as playing selections from the game's soundtrack. As a sometime listener of Minnesota Public Radio Classical, it's great to see game composers being treated with the same respect and level of seriousness that the station affords to artists working in more traditional realms of classical and film music.If you care about game music at all, it's well worth your time. The podcast is available for subscription on iTunes, and you can also listen to mp3s and or a stream of individual episodes on the link below.
Top Score homepage(picture above courtesy of Gary Shyman courtesy of Minnesota Public Radio)
Email the author Matt Helgeson, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
will get it on itunes later on today.
Wow, and to think I destroyed my iPod just yesterday...
Have already listened to the Garry Schyman's podcast. I must say it was great. Thanks for the heads-up,Matt!
Wow. Now I have yet another podcast to listen to. Thanks a lot!
Downloading now.
That sounds pretty cool!
That is cool. I wish more music conductors would take video game and movie music seriously and add it to their performances. It's just as valid and more awesome most of the time and sometimes more difficult to play. That's something I long for as music student and a gamer that I just don't get.
this is really cool, these guys do a great job and alot of the time is better than the scores in most movies.
I think it's about time these wonderful composers got some recognition, I think we're all guilty of forgetting about the music we listen to when playing the game but if you took that away, it just wouldn't be as good, so well done to these brilliant composers making our games better! XD
Awesome. I'll have to check out the podcast.
I think they've started to play some game music on the station. The other day, I leave the music on for my son when he's taking a nap and next thing I hear is an orchastral track from BioShock 2.
This reminds me, is video games live touring this summer?
Where the hell is Marty O'donnel!?!?!?!
I am very pissed that people have been neglecting his work lately. Reach had one f the best soundtracks i've ever heard in a game! and it lost to stupid red dead redemption OST!?!?!?!
cool. i'll check it out.
this might be the coolest thing ever, checking it out now!