When Videogames Inspire Music

by Neto

As an avid fan of videogames, I have a soft spot in my heart for video game music.  I’m not talking about video game soundtracks, though.  Those I will write about at some later date.  I will also save covers of videogame tracks for a later date.  Today, I am talking about artists who create original music inspired by, and sometimes using, classic videogames.

Anyone who was born after Pong (1972) probably grew up playing videogames.  So their influence should be reflected in music, just like we see the influence of movies and books in music.  Some bands reflect that influence into the themes of their music.  Both Horse The Band and The Protomen liked the classic game Mega Man enough that they decided to write music about some of the characters.  Horse The Band wrote a great hardcore song called Cutsman.  As the name implies it tells the story of the Mega Man villain.

A Primer on Post-Rock:

What it is and the dynamics of their most notable bands.

by Renato

Post-rock is a relatively new genre; one that I like to listen to frequently.  Surfacing in the 80’s and 90’s out of the indie scene, many of the early post rock bands actually sound nothing alike and the genre is so general that many different bands fall into its incredibly vague category. 

These days, what characterizes a post-rock band is more of how they use their instruments.  The instruments, all generally used in rock music, are used to create melodies and harmonies typically not found in rock music.  One great example is in vocals:  In a traditional rock band, you will have a singer; this singer will have their own lyrics, and use pitch and melody to get their lyrics out to be recognized by the audience.  In a post-rock band, lyrics are sometimes non-existent; a singer is sometimes replaced by the whole band, who use their voice as an extra instrument to the song. The “words” that are sung are so low that they are indistinguishable, sometimes to the point that they [the lyrics] are actually just babble.