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Bleep Bleep Bloop: Music and Video Games

Image for Bleep Bleep Bloop: Music and Video Games

Listen now 30 mins

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Last on

Tue 15 Feb 2011 13:30 BBC Radio 4

Duration:
30 minutes
First broadcast:
Tuesday 15 February 2011

Games Designer Paul Bennun explores the growing popularity and ambition of music composed for video games.

Video games now have the resources to match that of the big Hollywood orchestral film scores. But it's not just commercially that video game soundtracks are taken seriously. Composers are becoming more interested in it artistically and BAFTA and the Ivor Novellos have recently recognised the form with their own award categories.

Bennun traces the development of this new genre and finds out how it is changing the way music is made and consumed. Has it now left behind bleeps and bloops and arrived at the brink of artistic respectability?

Producer: Russell Finch.

  • Music used:

    Title: theme from tetris (game boy version)
    Composer: russian trad arr. Hirokazu tanaka

    Title: Tetris (piano arrangement)
    Composer: Trad
    Artist: Martin Leung
    Album: Video Games Live Vol 1 (Emi)

    Title: Start Music
    Game: Pac Man

    Title: Fight On A Crane
    Composer: Joris De Man
    Performers: Nimrod Studio Orchestra
    Game: Killzone 3

    Title: Stahl Almost Gets Away
    Composer: Joris De Man
    Performers: Nimrod Studio Orchestra
    Game: Killzone 3

    Title: Arkanoid Theme
    Composer: Martin Galway
    Game: Arkanoid

    Title: Lazy Jones
    Composer: David Whitaker
    Game: Lazy Jones

    Title: Kernkraft 400
    Artist: Zombie Nation

    Title: Rivendell
    Composer: James Hannigan
    Artist: Pinewood Singers
    Game: Lord Of The Rings: Aragorn's Quest

    Title: God Of War
    Composer: Winifred Phillips
    Performer: Jack Wall/Slovak National Symphony Orchestra/Crouch End Festival Chorus/David Temple/Cindy Shapiro
    Album: Video Games Live Vol 1 (Emi)

    Title: Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Theme
    Aritst / composer: Koji Kondo

    Title: Savage Moon Waldgeist Bonus Music 2
    Composer: Armin Elsaesser
    Game: Savage Moon Waldgeist

    Title: The Prelude From Final Fantasy Vii
    Composer: Nobuo Uematsu
    Game: Final Fantasy Vii

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