... Just a brief interlude to say that I'm finally almost out of the top 50 users. That's almost sad, given how long it took to get there, how short my stay there was. But I'm sticking to my principles.

Who knows, maybe I'll return here more permanently again? It's not impossible.

I mean, this is it. Maybe I'm mistaken, but at this point, I probably fade for good. If so, I regret not leaving behind more about my time and impressions.

About the early day forums. The anarchy and how important they were. The crazy few like me who voted every day for no good reason, to get XP.

The transition to Flash becoming so big.

The rise and then fall and rise and fall again of the adult adds.

The ups and downs.

Maybe one day I'll be able to provide some of the above. I've been here long enough that it's the one thing I can really contribute.

But, as for now, I won't be able to vote regularly any more. And don't plan to. Life has come. And now, unless I'm mistaken (I could be, life is strange sometimes), I must fade from NG. More or less quickly.

It's been good and bad.

... in roughly 3 months, I'm probably gone, probably for good or, at most, sporadic visits.

... the irony of seeing Newgrounds ressurge, just as I'm having to be away more and more and more, and do less and less and less here. A final goodbye will come, soon enough.

... and as per my previous post, I'm fading...

... but if anyone is, in all likelihood, my presence on Newgrounds will slowly fade away in the coming months...

So, continuing from a previous rant and, again, for my own personal indulgence, let me talk a little about the the repetition factor when considering a VG song. We, as humans, tend to be, well, indoctrinated by repetition; if we listen to a song enough times, there's a natural tendency towards liking by sure attrition.

Now, of course, this goes both ways; listen to a song too many times and only the best of the best will still seem fresh and interesting after that. But, in videogames, that normally doesn't happen, fortunately, despite the inherent repetition that tends to exist in this format, because developers know of this and try to create at least some diversity. There are some notorious exceptions, such as Castlevania: SotN and the song that plays in the inverted castle, Final Toccata.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hS5dindtEk

This is a song that crosses the line; it's actually quite good, but the length of time most players will have to listen to it will, almost inevitably, make them dislike it eventually.

So, instead, let me give an example of a song that, through sheer attrition, a lot of people seem to like, Battle Theme from FFIV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nh5QcbYvGM&featu re=related

Is it a bad song? No, not really. It's catchy, it gets your blood pumping and it transmits the nature of the fight well; it's not too epic (which would dilute the songs used in boss battles), nor too 'light', and it doesn't become 'bad' after hearing too many times, so it certainly accomplishes what it sets out to do. But is it a really good song? Nope. It's excessively simple, short and, quite frankly, unimaginative, specially when you compare to later Battle Themes of other FF's.

So, again, not a bad song, but certainly not a landmark or brilliant composition.

What example can I give them, of a song that we've heard a million times that really does posses greatness, so to speak? Well, the example may seem trite, but Battle from Chrono Trigger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUbfeQXsGoE

We hear this song many, many times during the game, so there's a definite repetition factor going on here, but this is a much superior song to the above. Sure, it's also a bit too short, but it conveys all the positive things the previous song does, with a more interesting structure and lasting power. It's also got a few layers going into it and it's overall a better song.

So we have to be careful when considering these choices; a song might sound good if we hear it enough, but it might not be so good when we hear it the first time round.

Second time a movie I'm in makes it to the front page, I'm pretty damned happy with that: Jesus and Skyrim

^_^

And I find it hilarious that people on youtube find the video offensive...

I find it weird the fact that my voice work here on Newgrounds have achieved progressively worse scores, starting from 2.40 and now down to 0.90... despite the fact that I have believe that I've improved my skills significantly in that time period!

This either means that I'm seriously deluded about the improvement, that standards have improved even more than imagined (which I know is true, up to a point) or that the audio portal is filled with people who just like to spam zeros (which I also know is true to a point).

I'm guessing it's a combination of the latter two, but I'd love to hear someone else's opinions: am I deluding myself when I believe that

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /447319

is better than

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /245300

or that

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /415212

is better than

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /340803?

So, firstly, this rant is more for my own personal indulgence than anything else; if you're reading this, you're more than welcome to do so and leave a comment if you like, but because there is no intended audience, trolls won't, exceptionally, be tolerated.

Anyway, the issue I want to discuss is one that's been troubling me for a while now: video game music. There are plenty of top 10/20/50/100 lists of the best videogame songs out there, just google the phrase and you'll quickly face a deluge of lists, including lists with most memorable or catchy songs or most nostalgic or etc.

Yet, most of these lists seem to have little to no thought behind what should constitute a good song, much less the best songs, instead just focusing on what the author believes is the best song out there, with little to no justification on their choices.

Sorry, what?

You're absolutely right to ask what the hell I'm talking about, since these types of lists are inherently subjective things, right? But that's the thing, although they are subjective, doesn't mean that there aren't some aspects we should think about before creating such a list. That is, there are things inherent to these songs that affect our choices deeply and that we should be aware of when making them.

Some of the potential factors that I'll be dealing with are things such as the good game factor, the emotional response factor, the "catchiness" of a song, the nostalgia factor, the repetition factor and how well a song complements a game.

Allow me to focus on one single aspect to begin with, the emotional response factor: the problem of separating our experience of listening to a vg song from our experience playing that game, in particular the emotions that we had in particular songs and scenes. This is a pretty big deal and can be one of the most problematic aspects these lists have.

Let me start with a well-known song: Aerith's theme.

Make no mistake, this <is> a good song. It's very delicate, pleasant and has a nice crescendo in the middle and certainly fits the character it represents very well. As such, it's a common choice for such lists. And that is a mistake.

The problem here is that Aerith's theme is irrevocably associated with not just the character, but also a scene: Aerith's death, naturally. This is one of the most emotionally charged scenes in vg history; one that has a deep gut reaction for most gamers and that produces powerful emotions (mainly sadness).

And that's the crux of the matter: when many people hear the song, they don't stop to appreciate its merits and flaws for its own sake and, instead, they immediately make the connection and that, irrevocably, makes the song all the more powerful and moving and, well, good in their mind.

But listen to the song on its own right: again, it's a good song, but it's nothing especial. Musically it's not very complex or that interesting, the pseudo-wind instrument that plays from 1:45 to 2:00 is completely out of place and annoying and the song has little lasting power, in the sense that you wouldn't want to hear it again... unless it provokes emotions for other reasons.

So it's not such a terrific song.

Now, let me show the opposite example to this one, the track The End of Battle from Shadow of the Colossus:

This track is, in many ways, very closely related to Aerith's theme. Just like Aerith's theme, it plays out in an emotionally charged situation, the death of each Colossi in the game and is strongly associated with it. It's a slow piece, albeit with different instrumentation and atmosphere to FFVIII's song, but with a similar tone. It even has a similar length of duration.

And yet, again noting that both are good songs, The End of Battle is arguably a superior piece, quite simply because it's a more complex and interesting song, containing different motions and themes within it, despite being more minimalistic. It's definitely a song one might want to hear again, so it endures. And although it was specifically created for the purpose of making us sad and/or reflecting the tragedy of what it reflects, it accomplishes this without necessitating the emotional reflex associated with the scenes in the game itself.

So, in summary, it's quite hard to separate our emotional response from listening to song from the emotions that we had when we first heard it when playing a game, a topic I'll talk about in a more general way in the future. But we should nevertheless try to do it, for the sake of trying to figure out what makes a really good song.