I've been meaning to get one of these going on PE for quite some time. This post began in the Dweezil Zappa thread, FWIW.
And apologies in advance for the War & Peace approach here... As you'll see, it's a subject of great passion and I honestly can't help myself.
My first memorable exposure to VGM was waaaay back in the early 1980s when my my mom, younger sister and I moved in with my mother's future husband in Big Bear Lake, CA. He owned a video game arcade next door to my mom's donut store, and that was about the coolest thing that could have happened to High School age me. Preston, who was quite the character, and who notably had a speaking voice very similar to Don Adams' Maxwell Smart, would allow me and my sis to play all the games we wanted for invisible quarters, and that was just the beginning.
Decade 1 - 1981 - The Mountains of SoCal: Soon, Preston had me working for him, whereby my job duties included swapping & moving consoles around the mountains of Southern California, as well as dumping mountains of quarters from all the games & cigarette machines. (remember those??) This took place at both of the major Big Bear Valley ski areas, as well as those of Wrightwood and Snow Valley.
Free games for me, hot ski babes schmoozing me for free games, free cigs... man, I was in heaven.
THEN, during the peak of what is now considered the golden age of arcade video games, Preston began taking us to the private Video Game Conventions down in Los Angeles, where I could spend the entire day playing all of the brand new, just-released consoles like Ms Pac Man and Asteroids Deluxe, eat free food, not to mention sucking down all the beer and mixed drinks I wanted. (and this was at age 16-17) I just wish I had saved all of the brochures, posters and promo items I'd gathered at those conventions... That sort of stuff is nowhere to be found nowadays, and would be extremely valuable to the current generation of VG uber-nerds. (including my own daughter, who we'll get to in a moment)
So, if you're old enough to remember, think back to the sound & feel of a 1980s arcade. This is where one of my personal favorite realms of modern music was born.
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So anyway, I remember that I was always listening closely to all of that 8-bit music, because that's just how I've always been -- focused on the music, just like I was with film scores. I found the underlying silliness and cheesy menace of early game scores like Donkey Kong and Dig Dug instantly endearing and appealing. About a decade later, after watching my buddy endlessly button-mashing his NES Super Mario games, I finally broke down and bought my first console: a Super Nintendo or (SNES).
Decade 2 - 1992 - The Suburbs of Los Angeles: The game that was included with my console was the timeless classic, Super Mario World, which opened up all kinds of new visual & musical 16 Bit possibilities. Legendary VGM Composer Koji Kondo literally changed that world with his early Mario and Legend of Zelda scores. Another landmark game of that era was Donkey Kong Country, from which the David Wise/ Eveline Fischer-composed OST stands in high regard as one of the all time great Video Game soundtracks.
In fact, I STILL listen to the DKC & Super Mario World OSTs in the car to this day, and the console replay-ability of both these games has most definitely stood the test of time. (especially when you have a bonafide Nintendo fanatic for a daughter)
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Which brings us ahead one more decade:
Decade 3 - 2000 - Minnesota: With BOTH of her parents as semi-fanatical Nintendo-holics, it was no surprise that my daughter Kenzie emerged from the womb with an N-64 controller clutched tightly in her tiny hands. And so, with the birth of Kenzie, life took on a whole new meaning, and thus my journey to a true appreciation of VGM consequently began in earnest. Experiencing this genre of music through her over the last 19 years has been far beyond rewarding & enlightening: it's a critical element of the person I am today.
When she was age 5, I, after noticing that Kenzie showed as much interest in the music as she did in the games, bought her a $100 Yamaha keyboard... and I can honestly say that it was the best hundred bucks EVER SPENT, by anyone, ever. From day one, she would stop in the middle of a round of say, Ocarina of Time, and walk over to her keyboard & start PLAYING THIS MUSIC like she friggin' knew it all along! I was just astounded and as proud as a dad could be. Admittedly, the life-long struggling guitarist in me felt a just a tad jealous of all that God-given talent, especially when I discovered that she could tune my guitar by ear.
To this day, this self-taught, perfect pitch young lady spends many an hour at that same keyboard, teaching herself whatever her latest VGM obsession might be. And now she's starting to compose her own stuff, which is unsurprisingly (and objectively, I promise) quite good.
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For more perspective, and on a serious note, my ex-wife and I give a great deal of credit to the Legend of Zelda series and the music contained therein for helping our then-10 year old Kenzie through 3 harrowing, life-threatening brain surgeries. We informed her at that time that SHE was her Hero of Time: Link in that situation, and that the nasty AVM in her brain was merely another big ugly level boss, whom she would send to a humiliating defeat like all who came before. We (and she) are 100% certain that this analogy made a difference during her ordeal; as our Kenzie made it through the nightmare, which included a near-death experience during the 3rd surgery.
Perhaps this might help explain some of the passion I have today for this music.
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Kenzie and I have also bonded in this regard with 4 life-changing road trips from Minnesota to my old home California & back. During these excursions, we listened to tons of VGM, Prog, Metal and everything in between -- while stopping for every roadside oddity, abandoned stretch of US Highway, National Park and ghost town we could manage to squeeze in along the way. The music you bring along enhances experiences like this beyond ALL measure, creating memories for a lifetime.
And finally, we've been to two Legend of Zelda Live Symphony Orchestra performances together, even road tripping all the way to Milwaukee from the Twin Cities for one of them. I will tell you that I was brought to tears more than once during each of these shows, and I wasn't alone; the music really is that powerful and moving.
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Those 4 road trips and 2 concerts are at the very tip-top of a long list of my favorite life moments, and Video Game Music played a huge role in all of the above.
Bottom line: Even if you're not a gamer at heart, there is an untapped bounty of transcendent compositions for the adventurous Prog Fan to discover in this genre. Countless scores to countless series are out there, and they run the gamut of musical styles & textures.
So then... if you're still here... let's hear yours...
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