Non-Gamer Hears Video Game Music for THE FIRST TIME

hey everybody I'm super excited because I have friend and colleague and agent extraordinaire Sarah Frasier with me today hi Sarah hi I'm so excited to be here you know like what nothing about video games the extent of my knowledge of video games really extends to about duck hunt we were not allowed to have video games in our house growing up so I remember going over to my best friend Crystal Lloyd's house growing up to play Super Mario Brothers and duck hunt and I remember being very good at Duck Hunt but also I am from the Midwest and you know Kansas specifically so not surprising a natural instinct for guns I for today we're going to be listening to a bunch of tracks if it's your first time welcome if you have seen these other episodes before you know how this goes this is really interesting to me because in the past we've had directors we've had general managers and today we have our first opera agent which is really interesting because I think that Sarah will bring a new insight the first track we're listening to is from a recent game that just came out uh called Final Fantasy 16 yes there have been 16 of them have you ever heard of Final Fantasy I have heard of it I have not ever seen it what you need to know about this is is that these two brothers have now become monsters icons of fire they are battling it out against each other uh and it's a whole complex plot operatic yes it is it's very Shakespearean very it gives me very gazam Vibes and you'll see what I mean here in a [Music] [Music] second [Music] your [Music] so that was your first intro to music from a video game and several years what do you make of that that was that was like Beyond epic the way it just continued to grow and develop I was like how long is this going to be sustainable like oh my God it just kept building and building and building it felt much more I guess to me cinematic than what I expect you know like a video game to be and so that was really interesting the way that the music does match what you're watching on screen yeah even though there's like the game element I find that it would be so hard to like continue with the game element because I'm so like involved in the like the music and like what's happening dramatically I'd be like oh crap I got to like do stuff with buttons things there actually it's funny you say that because there's another track that's it sounds exactly like Baldi there were some comments on the video I did about it that people were like I kept dying because the music was so good and truly it sounds like Balan and there was a moment uh I'll send it to you after because you need to hear it but like my M I was literally like what [Music] [Music] all [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] was that what you wanted yes yes yes that was so fun like what draws to that obviously we've got some like box stuff in there right like book theud and like when we were all in like music theory class in undergrad and there was that like every time you write parallel fifths boach kills a kitten um I'm like what say about this no that was fantastic I don't know I I mean I enjoy like a good like rousing bit of metal I so I was on the debate team in high school we would do speed drills to try and learn to talk and enunciate as quickly as possible and so I used to take um ACDC tapes along to ACDC while I'm like reading reading articles about like weapons of mass destruction a few years ago saw a video of this guy doing this like metal cover of the Brams reum specifically the denv and uh it's fantastic of course it goes on for like 18 minutes and I'm like that I don't know that I need 18 minutes to three minutes 100% And it's fantastic and also kind of hysterical um but also I wonder what Brahms would say if he heard that unfortunately we don't have access to these guys any anymore and you know and I often wonder especially as I like sort of champion this idea that like a lot of video game music is the evolution of classical music but also that like video game music is actually the home of classical music right now I think obviously you have a pulse on the industry right now and and you and I both know that there are plenty of fantastic composers in the Opera world and in the syonic world that are writing but from where I sit like there is such a bevy and like an unlimited amount of modern contemporary classical music that is embracing all s of styles I forgot my point because I got kind of excited about that but I don't know what I was trying to say totally totally there with you on that I think that like you know having heard especially that first clip and understanding just like the breadth of the music being composed for this sort of thing like there's definitely a parallel to like classical music world or overlap or whatever you want to call it like it's all sort of like an extension of the same thing but I love that this sort of niche of classical music world has found its home in popular music something that's really cool about video game music is that this is also another game that has just come out I was playing it uh live the other day and I was like wait a second I know this tune and I kind of Wonder do you know PHA of course you do yeah yeah yeah as an Italian man my absolute favorite rendition of figoli Finola was like that of bamino ji singing it and I used to listen to it with my dad this is inspired by like these games called Warrior world and the music is actually even though it came out a year ago let's say it's referencing music in the way that it was being written from the 9s so weird so weird and [Music] charming and then it picks up speed a little bit that's so stupid I love it Bova thing yeah Samba but so it's crazy to me right because PHA obviously we know it was like you know written about the opening of the phic I think to the I think believe to vus or I I don't remember what it was for but it's it's like crazy that that somehow ends up in like pizza Tower you hear how like it's different and like it has this eight like eight eight bit quality that is like the sound of my childhood yeah exactly exactly like that's like the beeps and boops that we think of when we think of video game music I love the throwback and it's so interesting that like the 90s are sort of having their like pop culture Zeitgeist again I wish we could forget most of the fashion from the 90s I'm like nobody needs lowrise jeans and little black lacy choker things like nobody needs to see that again but it's interesting that like in the music as well that that's sort of yeah there are like sub genres of video games that are like doing this most of the time they're indie games that are like have a lower budget but they're you know they're able to be made independently and that's how they are able to create this kind of stuff we not this night you will not go astray the Shad fall still the stars on the away and the night sky fill with rise up hold out and take my heart then all this night you will not go astray the Shadows not this night you will not no Shadows and you strong LIF your voice the light of just a Heartbeat [Music] Away just [Music] the beautiful if I had heard this in high school this is probably the sort of thing I would have tried to get sheet music to so I could like be that annoying person like playing it on the piano at home or like choir class started there's something so like warm and bright and like it really like resonates with the soul you know what I mean and trying to understand it it's a beautiful like romantic Melody you've got multiple sort of choruses so that way you hear that Melody time and time again and each time it is a little bit different and her voice has this very ethereal sound to it so like it really does a nice job of drawing you in that you said that this is like at the end of the game the end of like a campaign yeah like I think it's like after the final boss when the credits roll I believe ah okay so that makes sense that it's it feels like the credits rolling song at the end of a movie yeah where you're like reflecting on what you just experienced and wow yeah Absol yeah that was that was hard yeah blooms like a FL far away hold by the road waiting for the to find a way back home male soprano counter tenor yeah I know once went by where were life blows like a [Music] fling sounds more feminine to me [Music] it shifts in a second and when we go up it'll be really interesting to hear [Music] long there for yous like a Far Away by the RO waiting for the one to find [Music] way ke change like a FL far away or by the road waiting for the world to find the way back time flows across the world here is always a long way to go till I [Music] that was epic it was giving like 90s Power ballad sort of totally here for it it's interesting because you and I have both been around male Sopranos and counter tenders and and the I think the facility there is really really fantastic and and you're right that breathiness is really interesting too yeah that's not I mean like especially for counter teners and male Sopranos as they go like higher in the register you don't generally hear that sort of quality so that's really unique in this case um I remember when John holiday one of our clients was on The Voice and they did the big reveal when he appeared singing a jazz number they had him faced away and everything so then like you saw all of a sudden Telly Clarkson turned around and she was like because turns out it wasn't a woman singing it was John such a great moment um but yeah it's it's always kind of fun when you get to like surprise people like that and be like Tada it's a thing it's real and John is such a fantastic singer this higher male singing that is capable is is really just it's a phenomenon that I don't think a lot of people realize that is real and is really impressive when when done beautifully and correctly men singing in falsetto is not unique to classical music I think of you know like even some soul singers like was it like Smokey Robinson even Al Green sometimes would like you know sing up in falsetto like it's not a New Concept for popular music you know either asle Rose I don't know screaming yeah like it's not like a New Concept it's really interesting to see done in sort of this different way the voice in this case is so interesting because I'm fairly good at identifying like hearing a male or like a a woman's voice and so like this totally would have thrown me off had you not said anything that's cool so this is conquer Bad Fur Day and the song is actually uh the Great Mighty Pooh it is about a large piece of Pooh that uh sings opera this is like early thousands video game interpretation of what Opera is great for Better or For Worse uh oh this is very 21 [Music] me me me me me of course I am the Great Mighty Poo and I'm going to throw my [ __ ] at you a huge supply of TSH comes from my chocolate sta fish how about some skat you little [ __ ] do you really think you'll survive in here you don't seem to know which Creek you're in sweet corn is the only thing that makes it my how do you think I keep this L now I'm really getting ra M like a niggly tickly shitty little tag nut when I knock you out with all my B I'm going to take your head and RAM it up my butt your butt my butt your butt that's right my butt my butt my butt all right I wouldn't show that to just anybody I had to show it to you I feel very special you can handle that why would I show that what's there to say about the Great Mighty Pooh you know it is kind of an Arya in its own way it's giving maybe some Biz like some torador giving you some ghost Vibes it's definely got you know some call and response there and it's got a nice lovely ending there's a great high note at you know in the middle there I'm sure there's a cabaret somewhere you could perform that at like as an encore at the end you know yeah honestly like you know you should send this to one of your clients and be like look I think this will really blow them [Music] away [Music] for [Music] foreign [Music] fore I [Music] see [Music] my was Charming that feels like something that you could sing in like a legit like Opera Cabaret yeah that's like exactly what I was thinking like for like a Symphony concert like it would actually be perfect because like the range there's like actually like a decent range it reminds me of a lot of like I don't know like Revel art song maybe a little bit yeah and it's yeah I love that it's kind of got that sort of like T Tango feeling underneath so it like moves the whole time what is the game about again fighter pot planes sure it's very operatic though I have to say and the music actually uses a bunch of Latin chorus in there too I've like played it for Kathy Kelly like put that in a concert hall because it literally sounds like it could be some some of the stuff is like uh Latin chant that it literally could be like a modern evolution of the reum or Cara [Music] brano you hear the Moonlight Sonata y [Music] yeah [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] that was giving me somebody dramatically like running in the rain to like I don't know get to their I don't know whoever's been kidnapped or you know something like that I really dig the track because I think it's fun to take something that's very very very obviously a classical music piece and then say actually surprise here is a different version of that with like a EDM it's like a really interesting way to like get somebody's attention because that's a very recognizable theme that like a lot of people know whether or not you know classical music you probably heard it in a commercial or cartoon or something and so you're like oh I recognize this and just having that little bit of familiarity is like a really great way to then Ty and then go in a completely different Direction with it but you're already like invested because you're like I recognize some kernel of this I wonder if someone who goes to see Carmen or let's say they go to travata and they hear the bryc and they you know they've heard it somewhere in some commercial yeah and then they hear that I wonder if it works the same way where they're like oh wait I know this tune and then all of a sudden they're more invested because they have that sense memory of the piece you know what I mean it was like I remember I got to take my mom to see Carmen for the first time at the Met I think that was the first Opera she'd ever seen it was very special to her and it was really cool then to because she's like oh I recognize so much of that music but you know I had never seen the show and then like she was like oh I know this tune and I know this tune because we know Carmen is so full of tunes but to like be able to piece it together like in order and understand how it fits into the story was like a really cool thing for her and I was like I'm so glad that she like had that opportunity and to like see it from beginning to end and you know awake the whole time we understand that video game music is programmatic its intention is to be accompanied by some sort of drama or visual much in the same way of Opera but like have you been able to listen to these tracks and sort of like have an appreciation for them without the visuals or do you feel like if you saw them it would mean that much more for you there's some that I feel can really stand alone and then like with the last piece that we just heard that's something that like I feel would be served by a visual element like you get a sense of like an emotion from it but I feel like that would be heightened by visual whereas the the very first piece that we listen to the Final Fantasy that I think is completely Standalone and could be programmed Maybe by like a symphonic orchestra or something aside from the first one most of them would be benefited by some sort of visual element that's interesting maybe that's also my director brain because well yeah of course goes to like what would be happening in this moment that would make the music spin the way it is cuz cuz obviously the music is inferring an emotion and that's the thing that I think a lot of people haven't fully realized about video game music is that every composer composes with the intention of having an emotion around a piece so that then you as a audience member can then have a reaction right and I think we forget that [Music] sometimes sounds familiar right yeah [Music] nearly identical right now [Applause] [Music] I spent my life suffocating will you stay a part of me for for the rest of my life I want was a dreamer but then I grew up and saw the real world when I Ro in the miror I can almost see you gr under my skin killing was fantastic can you imagine like somebody programs like a shoeber recital and it's like we're gonna doin and then this is the finale yeah it really blew my mind when I first heard it because I was like hold on I know this what and then all of a sudden it's like oh it's a musical theater Rock ballad and it's like what the hell that went not where I thought it was going and I loved it I was aide I actually love the music of gin impact I actually think that this music is 1 million per the evolution of classical music but also what's really amazing about the uh hoom miix team and yup Pang Chen the composer is that they take modern ideas of music like EDM Rock and they will combine it with classical instruments so I'm talking like folk instruments like in this case this is an area of Japan so we're talking like shamien Cotto Tao drums it's it's very very [Music] [Music] cool [Music] so I trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu I feel like if I listened to that while I was doing like sparring I'd be so much better do you want to listen to phase two sure I think you're about to lose your marbles with phase two so oh my God [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was really interesting how it I mean it started much more structured like classically structured yeah even with these traditional Japanese instrument sort of overlaid but like the structure was very much like this is classical music and then as it went on then you some of those like more EDM sort of moments sort of start to come in and then it got like a lot more sort of chaotic and fractured at the end it was really interesting way that yeah it's a fantastic theme and I like you said it's like really elevates the blood pressure and makes you want to go and like really well beat the crap out of something or somebody uh I love when something takes something that we know and modifies it and or takes something like classical music and overlays it in a new way you know what I [Music] [Music] mean [Applause] it is almost the exact same sort of like harmonic sort of structure as um alos cavatina I never thought about that it's totally chovsky with like all this other stuff laid over it really I got to relisten to Legos I love a Legos Catina does it border like fake Opera to you or does it sound like legit I mean I I'm not the biggest fan of the singer per se but the way it's structured like I've tried to sing it it it seems legit but I'm curious you know from your perspective very operatic like actually operatic the singer who I'm not going to you know make any comments about but like the piece itself is very like very rangy and like would require like an an operatic voice legit tener yeah yeah yeah it's crazy I mean this is incredibly hard to do and props to to him to be able to pull that off because it's incredibly difficult and also the tempo is such that like regardless of uh the act like sound quality of the of the vocalism like the actual Act of singing this is like near impossibly difficult it's so hard don't me say I [Music] [Music] sh a blond [Music] that was beautiful I don't know what the language actually translates to to nothing like I felt like I felt like I should know what it all means because it's all so close to all the languages that we've studied opera singers we have to study you know French German Italian and then you know Russian other stuff but the romance languages if I have to like try and fake my way through talking to somebody and like the Italian word for something isn't coming to mind then like my brain wants to go to the French version I'm like nope that's not that's not right don't it definitely has like French Meo Vibes to me it's a little more popular than it is like classical art s art song I think the vocals are a little bit more like art song and then with the guitar underneath it makes it a little bit more um we have just a couple more songs left and so I guess this is a really good time to sort of explain to people who you are what you do what is an opera agent who are you as a person my name is Sarah Frasier I am an artist manager I'm the vice president of Fletcher artist management it's a lot of fun I get to travel to see clients perform that's one of the big perks for me initially thought I wanted to be a singer I got a Bachelor's invoice I had a surgery when I was in undergrad and they intubated me and used two large of a tube I had some like temporary vocal damage for a while and couldn't really sing and I was this voice major who couldn't sing and I had like no idea what to do the woman who was the head of the Opera Department uh Marie Allen King shout out she was like why don't you assistant direct the marriage of figuro with me and that was like the light bulb moment that I was supposed to be on the other side of the table you know I look back at videos of me as a child and I'm like bossing my sister around like staging a show and I'm like oh like it it connects it makes sense now I love it and I you know I'm very proud of the artists that we work with we pride ourselves on working with people who are not just amazing artists but they're also great people people you know life is too short when I'm not doing that I'm doing it all the DIY projects I just refinished our bathroom ceiling you know I do Brazilian jiujitsu I'm a purple belt now it's been like nine years so you know someday I'll be like a 60-year-old black belt and with Kane or something but I made it the interests are definitely varied but you know yeah and it's important to be [Music] [Applause] well-rounded [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the of go [Applause] [Music] course [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] surprise [Applause] [Applause] a [Applause] that was so incredibly satisfying like that was so epic oh my God and I love that it it very much started in this like almost sort of atonal world and then like turned into this like super epic cinematic sort of thing which and I also feel like this is actually like the Final Fantasy 16 like this is a standalone like if it were part of an oratorio or a requium or something it could be its own thing finding pieces that could exist within classical music like is like a life mission of mine now because there's just so many good pieces that if you just removed them and put them in like a Symphony Hall with like a Mendelson I don't know like a Mendelson Symphony and then intermission and then you just put in like a random ludvic the holy Blade no one would be worse for their Weare no one would know you know what I mean and now after an hour and 43 minutes you're you're grizzled you're battered you're bruised your ears are bleeding what do you think about video game music now that all this time has gone by like has it changed your perception a little bit like where are you on the on the Spectrum now it's changed my perception of what I thought video games were and are today the way the music supports the story and that the there is this story and it's not merely not necessarily just about like I don't know collecting coins and trying to stay alive I don't know killing hunting the Ducks you know there's a lot more to it than that and I can understand why people get so into these games because you you develop like you do with opera or theater you develop a relationship like you know feelings about these characters that you see on stage or on screen and it's uh like I understand that a little bit more now I think that's exactly what I wanted you to say I hope you didn't say that because I brought you on but hopefully you no but Y St for me [Music] [Music] oh yeah moreal Temptation takes over my mind come [Music] down I am the s that is theing my CL in isol I am reclaimer of my [Music] name for I have been blessed my family cres make it I am I'm awaken of phix s dark [Music] is [Music] that's quite the journey are you still here how are you doing I feel like my cortisol levels are like severely elevated now after like listening to that for like nine minutes I'm like oh I've been on the edge of my seat this entire time it doesn't really let up does it it's sort of the oh my God this is just it just keeps getting more and more intense if you were excerpting this for a performance for an opera you'd like cut out about like four minutes of it what I've tried to do today is to give you an indication of where things are since you know where things have been what I wanted to do is like sort of bookend this with another Final Fantasy 16 piece since he really enjoyed away this piece is called Ascension it's bahamut's Battle Theme it is um ungodly it is incredible it is the evolution of classical music as we know [Music] it [Music] [Music] be [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for [Music] that was great because I feel like it there were ways that kept like sort of breaking up the tension a little bit again there's sort of like a brahs requium like one of the Fugue moments like that's what that reminds me of it really is just classical music you know in the way that people do like concerts with Lord of the Rings you know Star Wars Harry Potter if this were like in a concert hall programmed like that as like some sort of liveaction of the game paired with the soundtrack like I feel like people would lose their minds over that knowing the context before would help even elevate it even more but it is astounding that it can stand on its own and and really make you feel like well it looks like if this was Vivaldi times a thousand this is what you would get now that we're done what is your favorite piece that you listened to so far that one also then the actually the ten Rosa sangu that was just really fun I was like oh yes this is very like metal I really appreciate you coming on and and thanks to ton for being so open-minded it was really fun I really had a good time this was like totally different than I was expecting and I like learned a lot about the different varieties of music and just like the quality level like the production value level of all of it was like really interesting to me so thank you for letting me yeah of course of course and thank you everybody for watching this feel free to check out other videos of this series as well and uh thanks Sarah again and uh we'll see you later feel free to like subscribe and we we'll see you in the next one bye everybody

Channel: MarcoMeatball

Views: 145,996

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Id: FbeYMQ0erb0

Length: 44min 14sec (2654 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 25 2023