Video Game Music

I would like to throw another medium into the mix—video games. They have quickly proven themselves to be a popular form of entertainment over these past several of years. Although these games are not exactly live performances, huge franchises easily spend a lot of money to hire composers and orchestras to record music for their games. A fine example is the Final Fantasy series. Nobuo Uematsu is famously known for his epic scores he incorporates into these games. They are classically known for being their ability to capture the emotion of the game. These compositions are another indicator of how the Japanese use western influences in their music. If I had to compare Nobuo Uematsu to someone in the western world, I would say he’s like the John Williams of video games. As I mentioned before, his scores are epic. They are very saturated with piano, many string instruments, and brass. They have the very dramatic feel to them which can easily translate into movie music. Video game music is so popular now that there are annual tours where orchestras will sample music across various video game titles. Last year, the Video Games Live event came to the Hollywood Bowl where they played a famous piece called “One Winged Angel” from Final Fantasy 7. Nobuo’s orchestra has even performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. At this event, he solely concentrates on classic Final Fantasy songs from across the years.