Week 8 : A Musician That Displays Unique Aesthetics, Shoji Meguro/ Video Game Music

Journal Entry 7

A Musician That Displays Unique Aesthetics, Shoji Meguro : Video Game Music

Fueled by nostalgia, synthesized melodies, chiptunes and traditional instruments, video game music has held a special place in the hearts of many from my generation, the 90s. It was a time where technology grew as quickly as you did, and the music played alongside you as you take your first steps into the anxious and unsettling world. From the Tetris tune to Super Mario Bros’s theme song, to Nobuo Uematsu’s Final Fantasy soundtrack, there was an abundance of music from the video game world, and I was so thankful to be born in such a rich world. These memories consists of when your ears would listen to the wistful tunes of the flute as you travel across a virtual world with your horse, or when you come across an abandoned house and the eerie music crawled into your skin, or when the final boss battle would commence, and the loud violins would play and your heart and the drums would beat as one.

It was the melody of childhood.

But how did the video game music become as good as it does?

In the 1970s, video game music was actually alive yet. Case study : Pong. A silent game except for the ‘beeps’ and ‘boops’ where players would hit the ball back and forth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiShX2pTz9A

"If you remember in Space Invaders, you know, as the ships started to come down, the aliens, and as they got closer and closer, the sound got faster and faster. Now, what the game programmers did was that they took the person's heart rate, and as they're getting closer and closer, people would start to panic. Now they'd do the same studies without the sound, and the people wouldn't panic as much. And it goes to show and prove how significant audio and music are." - video game composer Tommy Tallarico.

To make you move and feel and to change your heart rate was the purpose of all great music. The digital era created many music tracks that were made to aid you in your quest through the game. Like the 1993’s Myst, the music was powerful enough to function as clues.

One of the biggest signs of how popular video game music was on May 2004, when a composer from Japan joined Los Angeles Philharmonic for a single performance of his most famous work. That man was Nobuo Uematsu, the man who composed the soundtrack for the popular video game Final Fantasy. Tickets had sold out in three days.

Music has evolved so much where the score that played in the finest concert halls were the scores of video game music.

I myself am a big fan of the music composer and director, Shoji Meguro. Shoji Meguro is a Japanese composer who is working for Atlus and has composed music for many of their games, including my favourite series, Persona. His music spans though the genres of rock, electronic, jazz, classical and J-pop. He also uses the English language for the lyrics of many of his works.

His signature style is rock, but he also experiments and mixes different genres of song following the theme of the game to create a unique song. For example, his work on Persona 4, an RPG game developed by Atlus for Sony’s Playstation 2 in 2008 in which he had received high praise for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73LvR8V2LA
(The opening song told the story of the mystery of the murders happening in town with techno electronic tunes and the relationships you will have with your friends with the trumpets.)

"Persona 4 follows a group of high school students dealing with a mysterious TV channel dedicated to distorting and exaggerating the truth of who they are and their identities. A string of bizarre murders related to the TV channel begins shaking their once peaceful town. They explore the mysterious world inside the TV and perform rescue missions in order to save its victims from death. Only by looking past what is on the screen, finding and evaluating the truth among a myriad of lies can they hope to find the serial killer and save their town." - http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Persona_4

Meguro had understood the overall outline of the game’s plot and created the music in the same feel.
The result was a jazzy and upbeat soundtrack following the game’s plot of friendship and fighting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzyTUekkMCI&list=PLBAF8C0CDA4778263&index=9

The main theme song of the game, “Pursuing My True Slef and “Reach out to the Truth” were composed by Meguro to reflect the conflicts and inner struggles the game characters go through and the strength they have after going the hardships.

"Get up on your feet, tear down the walls

Catch a glimpse of the hollow world

Snooping 'round town will get you nowhere

You're locked up in your mind

We're all trapped in a maze of relationships

Life goes on with or without you

I swim in the sea of the unconscious

I search for your heart, pursuing my true self"

The lyrics also had depth and thought to it, reflecting what the players go through in the game.

The use of trumpets throughout the game fitted Persona 4 overall concept, and Shoji Megura brilliantly composed most of the songs with the use of trumpets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBWmvxc4L5I&list=PLBAF8C0CDA4778263

I remember buying this game at a corner store in my local mall and thinking “Hey, this looks like a cool game.” Now, the soundtrack helps me go through my days as each song synchronises with anything I do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JbvBB2Rjdg

And it all started with this title music.
(The title music is my absolute favourite out of the whole soundtrack. It concluded the whole journey in a calm melody that would take me back through the whole game and reminisce the memory I had with the characters in the game.) I also am a fan of the sound a piano produces, and the title music had it all.

*Another notable title screen music from Persona 3
Image result for persona 3 portable title screen