# Video Game music Vs. Film music?



## jdk

To me - they are both forms of classical music - but I can never get into film music which I find bizarre. 

Honestly, game music got me involved in the classical world of music, yet I find film music boring and just 'background' music that I never find appealing.

How do you compare the two of these similar styles? What makes them different than the other?


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## regressivetransphobe

Honestly, the majority of film music I've heard is really boring. Just wallpaper. I mean there are exceptions, I like Morricone and a few others, but the medium just doesn't seem to allow much creative control.

Video game music seems to be written in more of a pop way than the pseudo-classical tension-and-release, directly scene-enhancing angle of film music. You can't make overly dynamic or adventurous video game music, because it could be totally out of sync from what the player is doing, but at the same time it's less subservient to a visual narrative.


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## PetrB

jdk said:


> To me - they are both forms of classical music - but I can never get into film music which I find bizarre.
> 
> Honestly, game music got me involved in the classical world of music, yet I find film music boring and just 'background' music that I never find appealing.
> 
> How do you compare the two of these similar styles? What makes them different than the other?


I'm horrified you think they are both forms of classical music: they are video game / film music -- a thing apart.

The major difference is much video game music is composed so it can be 'looped,' i.e. endless repeat. Film music is also episodic, but does not need to 'go back to the beginning' in order to smoothly repeat and repeat.


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## DeepR

With so much diversity within each "genre" you can't just generally compare the two.


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## jdk

PetrB said:


> I'm horrified you think they are both forms of classical music: they are video game / film music -- a thing apart.
> 
> The major difference is much video game music is composed so it can be 'looped,' i.e. endless repeat. Film music is also episodic, but does not need to 'go back to the beginning' in order to smoothly repeat and repeat.


But isn't game and film music based on classical movements? Well, maybe I should say more romantic style?


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## AlainB

jdk said:


> PetrB said:
> 
> 
> 
> I'm horrified you think they are both forms of classical music: they are video game / film music -- a thing apart.
> 
> The major difference is much video game music is composed so it can be 'looped,' i.e. endless repeat. Film music is also episodic, but does not need to 'go back to the beginning' in order to smoothly repeat and repeat.
> 
> 
> 
> But isn't game and film music based on classical movements? Well, maybe I should say more romantic style?
Click to expand...

Depends. Most of the video game music is in fact classical impressionist music (think of Debussy as a comparison). Here's an example [although not precisely romantic in this instance


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## PetrB

jdk said:


> But isn't game and film music based on classical movements? Well, maybe I should say more romantic style?


Though 'original,' many a film score or video game score are from classically trained composers who have a facility to write in many styles: so many of those scores have no true fresh innovation, but are 'hacked' from the vocabularies of both past and more contemporary music.

Those composers are, chiefly, 'borrowers' who don the suit of this composer or that, as per what the film requires. Of course, if they were innovative, the scores might be too unfamiliar to the average listener, so, distracting or off-putting and defeating their purpose.

John Williams, for example, sounds most like a parody of Erik Wolfgang Korngold after Korngold was composing film scores and already sounding like a parody of his former self.... hardly 'original'... though the Williams is 'original' in that it is not a direct plagiarism.

Korngold was a late conservative romantic, ergo, what has become known as the near cliche 'Hollywood sound' of late Romantic classical music comes directly from a genuine classical late romantic composer.

[EDIT ADD: Miklos Rosa, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Waxman, all immigrant European classical composers, ended up in America, writing for films. Together, they pretty much 'defined' the orchestral language of film. END ADD]

I'd say at the closest, the video and film scores most often sound 'classical-like.'


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## PetrB

AlainB said:


> Depends. Most of the video game music is in fact classical impressionist music (think of Debussy as a comparison). Here's an example [although not precisely romantic in this instance


_Hoo, hah! What an amalgam / sampler box of now trite cliches!_ There is a reason this stuff generally only impresses people if they are exposed to it before age 11


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## regressivetransphobe

John Williams sure can write memorable tunes and make those strings do cool wispy stuff though. Maybe that's all that matters in movies about guys with laser swords.


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## PetrB

regressivetransphobe said:


> John Williams sure can write memorable tunes and make those strings do cool wispy stuff though. Maybe that's all that matters in movies about guys with laser swords.


Yes, very deft and appropriate to those films --- and not stand alone 'classical music.' Also probably makes the most profound impression on the listener if they are exposed to it, with the film, no later than around age 11.

Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. lol.

Please do not rebut with that tired 'incidental music to Peer Gynt,' etc. argument. That was a classical composer writing for theater, not a film score careerist writing for films


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## LordBlackudder

the game composer gets centre stage but the film composer must not get in the way of dialogue.

they are both two extremes. vgm is extremely melodic mix of genres. film is minimal orchestra.


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## norman bates

I've not played in the last years, but i have never heard a music of a videogame of the same level of the best movie soundtracks.
And i could be wrong, but while there are movies with soundtracks that are really experimental, I don't remember the same for videogames. Is there something like this in videogames's music?


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## Rola

*@norman bates*: Would this qualify?














There _are_ a few psychedelic games with appropriate soundtrack... you just need to introduce yourself to things other than the "AAA" titles from the last 5 years...


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