PLAY ALONG: VIDEO GAME MUSIC AS METAPHOR ... - CiteSeerX

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phenomenological difference between what happens when we watch movies and when
we play video games. Much work in film studies already assume the kind of correlation
that Cohen and her colleagues found to be a cognitive function, and a system of
conventions have developed these pre-existing schemas for musical narration. 23
Applying similar findings to specific video games in the context of metaphoric and
metonymic functions of music will show the semantic operations of music and sound in
video games.
Examples
In this section, I will analyze specific video games that exemplify metaphoric and
metonymic functions of music, but it is important to note that these examples are not
meant to implicate all genres and classes of video games. The three games I will focus
on here, Super Mario Brothers (SMB), Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (LZ:OT), and
Silent Hill(SH) were chosen for their strong narrative component and because they
provide ready examples of the types of correlations I intend to draw with cinematic
conventions of music. However, as my intent is not to develop a totalizing view of video
game sound, certain game genres will not lend themselves as easily to this present
analysis. 24 Furthermore, while the first two examples are a bit dated, they are not meant
23 Historically (at least since the 19 th century) there has been a divide in classical music between “Absolute”
and “Program” Music. Program music like Smetana’s The Moldau depict non-musical pictorial settings or
events; The Moldau musically traces the journey of the Moldau river in the Czech republic, and Berlioz’s
Symphonie Fantastique is an autobiography of sorts. By contrast, absolute composed as music for music’s
sake or “music composed with no extra musical implications” (Alfred’s Pocket Dictionary of Music 9).
Nattiez argues that the semantic possibilities and temporal frame of music permit narrative approaches to
music (Nattiez 244), but such approaches must recognize that music alone relies primarily on syntagmatic
continuity.
24 I am thinking here of the “sim” category of video games (SimCity; The Sims), but the rhythm genre of
games (Dance Dance Revolution) poses similar challenges for opposite reasons.