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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Things I Liked:
- Having the musical notations right there on the page as they were being discussed
- This author absolutely knows what he’s talking about and has done his research and it shows even with every single of his citations
- The appreciation for Koji Kondo and how he influenced the video game OST landscape forever
Things I Didn’t Like:
- Not a lot!! It was hard to follow at times but I think that’s just cuz I’m also still learning music theory haha. So I had to reread some lines occasionally
I feel like this book did what it came out to do which was: break down what’s so impressive about Koji Kondo’s work with the Super Mario Bros soundtrack and the context when it was composed. It’s hard to argue with a really soundly informative book; I learned so much!
- Having the musical notations right there on the page as they were being discussed
- This author absolutely knows what he’s talking about and has done his research and it shows even with every single of his citations
- The appreciation for Koji Kondo and how he influenced the video game OST landscape forever
Things I Didn’t Like:
- Not a lot!! It was hard to follow at times but I think that’s just cuz I’m also still learning music theory haha. So I had to reread some lines occasionally
I feel like this book did what it came out to do which was: break down what’s so impressive about Koji Kondo’s work with the Super Mario Bros soundtrack and the context when it was composed. It’s hard to argue with a really soundly informative book; I learned so much!
I wanted to like this book more, but ultimately found that its interests were not quiet aligned with mine. Unlike some of the others who reviewed this book, I found the technical music theory parts of it fascinating and the core of what I was looking for. Sadly, those just make up a small portion of the book. Some of the contextual information was worthwhile, but a decent portion of it seemed to just reinforce the "Video game music is similar to classical music therefore legitimate" thread.
Ultimately, this book left me wanting more. I felt it was stretching what it had to try to make it legitimate-book length, when there was plenty more to be mined. There's some sheet music in it, but it is oddly rotated 90 degrees, and often will just show up a measure or two on a single page, with nothing else on that page. The text mentions things like the overall structure of the Overworld theme being "Intro A B B C A D D C D". Its not the deepest insight, but I found it fascinating. After I read that I was eager to hear a discussion of each section...but none was found. In fact, it wasn't until after I finished and listened to an mp3 that I even remembered what the D section sounded like, since the book did nothing to help me appreciate that part.
Then there was the entire section on sound effects, which I felt missed the mark. I had previously read this fascinating article that decomposed several of the sounds from SMB. It contained the key insight how the PowerUp sound effect is almost the same as the Flagpole Fanfare. I was looking forward to a deeper discussion of that, and since the author was devoting an entire section to sound effects, I figured it had to be discussed. But instead I got academic postulating about "embodied cognition" which was mildly interesting but not really the musical insight I was hoping for.
In summation, there are some interesting points, but I wanted much more to justify the price tag.
Ultimately, this book left me wanting more. I felt it was stretching what it had to try to make it legitimate-book length, when there was plenty more to be mined. There's some sheet music in it, but it is oddly rotated 90 degrees, and often will just show up a measure or two on a single page, with nothing else on that page. The text mentions things like the overall structure of the Overworld theme being "Intro A B B C A D D C D". Its not the deepest insight, but I found it fascinating. After I read that I was eager to hear a discussion of each section...but none was found. In fact, it wasn't until after I finished and listened to an mp3 that I even remembered what the D section sounded like, since the book did nothing to help me appreciate that part.
Then there was the entire section on sound effects, which I felt missed the mark. I had previously read this fascinating article that decomposed several of the sounds from SMB. It contained the key insight how the PowerUp sound effect is almost the same as the Flagpole Fanfare. I was looking forward to a deeper discussion of that, and since the author was devoting an entire section to sound effects, I figured it had to be discussed. But instead I got academic postulating about "embodied cognition" which was mildly interesting but not really the musical insight I was hoping for.
In summation, there are some interesting points, but I wanted much more to justify the price tag.
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Bleep bloop! Avoided my number one complaint about most 33 1/3 books and music criticism in general, that most of it is clearly written by non-musicians who don't know jack about music. This one is written by a classical musician and is if anything maybe TOO technically detailed for me, but I'd rather have that than the alternative. Cool stuff.
I totally don't care that the average GoodReads review is in the 3/5 stars range. Written by a classical music scholar, this book was a JOY and the perfect kind of overlap of highbrow lowbrow. Please, give me more writers who can juxtapose Nintendo with Strauss and Camus and also "Eyes Wide Shut." Chef's kiss
The beginning was great, with an overall explanation of the history of video games and their impact. I'm sure I would have found the rest of the book fascinating if I was a composer, or an audio technician, or a classical musician. But I'm not, so it wasn't fascinating. It was repetitive. Win some, lose some.
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Five star coins! What a delightfully nerdy deep dive. The author spends rather a lot of time on music theory analysis, but he doesn’t neglect cultural and technological context. This was really fun to read.