one of the reasons im still fascinated by game music is that so much of it was composed by morons and savants and moronic savants. and like, i dont want to exaggerate what that means, every popular music scene has people who are more literate in their genre or “what sounds good” than music theory. this is why there’s a gulf of difference between King Crimson and Atomic Rooster. this is not games exceptionalism, it’s something i find fun in general across music. just ppl making shit.
the difference i think is that chipsound is very naked, it can’t really be compensated with effects or pedals or samples. the potentiality is much lower and you have to commit. and people have committed to absolutely feral ideas instead of learning to go I-V-VI-IV. chipsound is a very unadorned, direct musical style… it is formally vulnerable and intimate. it’s fucking beautiful to have decades of this stuff outside of the narrow confines of tonality and western music theory.
as more and more game critics start to turn against AAA in various ways (finally), this transfer is one that doesnt get written about as much. the Orchestral Soundtrack obliterated a healthier, more creative, more freeform artistic practice. a shrewd trade for fame and authority. every game composer who saw themselves as the next maher or beethoven or stravinsky or gershwin thumbed their nose at ppl just making shit. and now that impulse is boxed away as an irregular aesthetic, while the shambling parodies of full bands and orchestra are Real Music
