The Cambridge companion to video game music / edited by Melanie Fritsch, Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf, Tim Summers, Royal Holloway, University of London.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword. The Collaborative Art of Game Music / Lydia Andrew -- Introduction / Melanie Fritsch and Tim Summers -- Introduction to Part 1. Chiptunes. Before Red Book : Early Video Game Music and Technology / James Newman ; Chiptune, Ownership and the Digital Underground / Kenneth B. McAlpine ; Waveform Wizard : An Interview with Junko Ozawa / Junko Ozawa, trans. Lyman Gamberton -- Introduction to Part 2. Creating and Programming Game Music. Building Relationships: The Process of Creating Game Music / Guy Michelmore ; The Inherent Conflicts of Musical Interactivity in Video Games / Richard Stevens ; The Triple Lock of Synchronization / K.J. Donnelly ; “Less Music, Now!” : New Contextual Approaches to Video Game Soundtracks / Rob Bridgett ; Composing for Independent Games. The Music of Kentucky Route Zero / Ben Babbitt -- Introduction to Part 3. Analytical Approaches. Music Games / Michael Austin ; Autoethnography, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics / Michiel Kamp ; Interacting with Soundscapes : Music, Sound Effects, and Dialogue in Video Games / Elizabeth Medina-Gray ; Analytical Traditions and Game Music : Super Mario Galaxy as a Case Study / Steven Reale ; Semiotics in Game Music / Iain Hart ; Game - Music - Performance. Introducing a Ludomusicological Theory and Framework / Melanie Fritsch -- Introduction to Part 4. Realities, Perception and Psychology. A Step Back from Reality : Sound and Presence in Computer Games and Other Worlds / Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard ; Audio and the Experience of Gaming : A Cognitive-Emotional Approach to Video Game Sound / Dana Plank ; Physiological Responses and Game Music / Duncan Williams -- Introduction to Part 5. Game Music, Contexts and Identities. Game Music and Identity / Chris Tonelli ; Game Music and History / James Cook ; Open Worlds : Globalization, Localization, and Video Game Music / William Gibbons ; Female Credit : Excavating Recognition for the Capcom Sound Team / Hillegonda C. Rietveld and Andrew Lemon -- Introduction to Part 6. Beyond the Game. Pop Music, Economics and Marketing / Andra Ivănescu ; Game Music Beyond the Games / Ryan Thompson ; Producing Game Music Concerts / Thomas Böcker.

"Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years, at least since the titular aliens of Space Invaders arrived in 1978, accompanied by an ever-accelerating musical ostinato. Now, reaching hundreds of millions of listeners, game music has grown to encompass a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. Its instrumentation ranges from orchestras to rock bands, its contexts from bedroom televisions to concert halls, its materials from 'art music' to Top-40 pop, and its systems from generative music technologies to carefully hand-crafted idiosyncratic musical structures. No longer a novelty within electronic music technology, nor a poor relative to film music, game music engages huge audiences, large budgets, and is the site of innovative scholarship. As well as being a crucial component of the audio-visual interactive experience of video gaming, game music has also had a marked impact on broader popular culture. Simply put, video game music is an important aspect of the musical life of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the Western world, and has cross-fertilized with many musical genres. At the same time, game music highlights a long tradition of music and play that can be traced back to antiquity"-- Provided by publisher.