The Oxford Handbook of Video Game Music and Sound

William Gibbons is Dean of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, where he also holds the rank of Professor of Music History. Prior to joining SUNY Potsdam, he was Associate Professor of Musicology and Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Texas Christian University. He earned a BA in Music from Emory & Henry College, and MA and PhD degrees in Musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard is the Obel Professor of Music at Aalborg University, Denmark. He has published widely across subjects as diverse as sound, biofeedback in computer games, virtuality, the Uncanny Valley, presence/immersion, ultrasound, and IT systems. Mark is series editor for the series Palgrave Studies in Sound, and his books include the anthologies Game Sound Technology & Player Interaction (2011), The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality (2014), The Oxford Handbook of Sound & Imagination (2019), and the co-authored monographs Sonic Virtuality (2015) andThe Recording, Mixing, & Mastering Reference Handbook (2019).

• Contributor AffiliationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction SECTION 1: DISCIPLINARY QUESTIONS1. Video Game Musicology in Practice: Fifteen Awkward QuestionsTim Summers2. Ode to Joysticks: Canonic Fantasies and the "Beethoven of Video Game Music"William Gibbons3. Crossing the Ludo-Cinematic Continuum: Music-Theoretical Approaches to Video Game Music Sean Atkinson4. Ludomusical Narrativity: Sound and Music as Structures of PlayJulianne Grasso5. A Creative System in Action: Bringing Video Game Music and Sound into BeingPhillip McIntyre and J.T. Velikovsky SECTION 2: HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY6. A History of Early U.S. Pinball Sound, 1871-1939Neil Lerner7. Selling Play through Music and Sound: Audiovisual Promotion for Early Consoles, Home Computers, and Games to 1983James Deaville8. Hard Limitations and Soft Possibilities: A "Systematic" History of Early Video Game Sound TechnologyKevin R. Burke9. Visualizing Music with Video Game TechnologiesJonathan Weinel10. Onna no jidai: Women and Video Game Sound in 1980s JapanBrooke McCorkle Okazaki11. Surviving the Game: Published Soundtracks as ArchivesFanny Rebillard12. Symbolic Music and Algorithmic Composing: Computer Archaeological Perspectives on BASIC Game SoundsStefan Höltgen SECTION 3: PERCEPTION AND PSYCHOLOGY13. Ambiguity and Vagueness in Video Game SoundMark Grimshaw-Aagaard14. A Functional Approach to the Psychology of Video Game SoundTom A. Garner15. How Video Game Music Plays Us: Musical Topics, Modularity, and Compulsion LoopsWilliam R. Ayers16. Auditory Hallucinations and Altered States of Consciousness in Video GamesJonathan Weinel SECTION 4: INTERACTING ACROSS MEDIA17. Music and Sound in Early Film-to-Game AdaptationsWilliam O'Hara18. Sound, Extended Reality, and the Cinematic-Interactive DichotomyTom A. Garner19. Game Noir: The Functions of Jazz in the Detective Adventure Video GameJacob Collins20. Synergy and Syncs: Record Labels, Video Games, and Unending ConsumptionDavid Arditi21. Playground Disco: Playing with Clubs and Aspects of Club Culture in Digital GamesMelanie Fritsch SECTION 5: IDENTITY22. Beyond Nerdcore: Hip-Hop, Race, and the Business of Gamer-RapEnongo Lumumba-Kasongo23. Press Start to (Fore)Play: Sex and Sexuality in Game Music Michael L. Austin24. Indigenous-Designed Pixels, Circuits, and Game Music and SoundKate Galloway25. Listening to the Gerudo and the Desert in The Legend of Zelda SeriesHyeonjin Park26. Ludomusical Autobiography and the Indie Composer-DeveloperWilliam Gibbons SECTION 6: PRE-EXISTING MUSIC27. Hearing the Renaissance in Video GamesKaren M. Cook28. Claude Debussy's Piano Music and the Evocation of Atmosphere and Humor in Video GamesGurminder Bhogal29. Pop Shove-It, Pop Music: Tunes, Tricks, and Transmediality in Tony Hawk's Pro SkaterJames Millea30. Playing with American Folk Music, Supernatural Encounters, and Perspectives on DeathPeter Smucker31. Taking a Pop at Ludonarratology: Narrative Perspectives on Popular Music in Video GamesAndra Ivanescu SECTION 7: MUSICAL PERFORMANCE32. Video Games Alive: Ludic Liveness and (Re)playful Listenings in Video Game Music ConcertsStefan Greenfield-Casas33. Video Games Live and the Gamification of the Orchestral Concert ExperienceElizabeth Hunt 34. Unreal Performances: Playing in Games/Playing with GamesJames Cook35. Of Guitar Heroes and Rocksmiths: Guitars, Games, and Affordance Theory Marc Duby36. Musical Repetition and Predictive Gameplay in Rhythm GamesStephanie Lind37. How Musical are Game Players? Exploring Musical Situations in Video GamesCostantino Oliva SECTION 8: ACOUSTIC ECOLOGIES 38. Analyzing Navigable Narratives through Multiple LensesElizabeth Hambleton39. Ambient Ecologies: Environmental Music in Video GamesMichiel Kamp40. Semiotics and the Negotiation of Musical Communication in Video Game Music: An Imprecise and Beautiful ArtIain Hart41. Abstract Representations of Voices in Video GamesElizabeth Medina-Gray42. Simulating Sounds of Spectators: On the Structure, Function, and Realism of Spectator Sounds in a Sports Video GameNicolai Jørgensgaard Graakjær SECTION 9: VIRTUALITY/REALITY43. Auditory Reality and Virtuality: Is Space the Final Audio Frontier for Games?KC Collins and Bill Kapralos44. Video Game Sound Design and the Fetish of RealismMark Grimshaw-Aagaard45. Music and Motion in First-Person Virtual Reality GamesKate Mancey46. Intrinsically Unpleasant Sounds and Player ExperienceDenis Zlobin47. The Importance of Sound to the Formation of PresenceMark Grimshaw-Aagaard Index

The book exemplifies scholarship as a multidisciplinary conversation. Furthermore, the sheer number of pages and citations will encourage further reading on many topics. Every college withvideo game enthusiasts (so, all of them) should buy this book.