Video game soundtracks >>> film soundtracks

Does anyone agree?
I usually seem to find much more memorable melodies in video games than I do in movies.
Video game soundtracks usually possess this spirit that makes melodies awesome, while film music always manages to ALMOST hit the right tunes... but not quite!
I've heard countless melodies from movies, and I always hope they'll hit that special tune at that special moment, but they always seem to stray away and play some fool-note instead, making the melody rather boring.
The only exceptions I can think of are the main themes for Forrest Gump, Jurassic Park and Titanic - otherwise, beautiful film soundtracks are veeery rare.
Not so with great video games - they tend to hit very moving notes instead, and play around with cool chords that actually add something, like in Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger.

Two words:

Chrono Cross.

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Originally Posted by Peter_20

I've heard countless melodies from movies, and I always hope they'll hit that special tune at that special moment, but they always seem to stray away and play some fool-note instead, making the melody rather boring.

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Have you seen any film of the dollars trilogy or "Once upon a time in the West"?Those films are for me the perfect collaboration of image and sound!
I can't say that video game soundtracks are better from movie soundtracks (or the opposite) because that would be a big generalization.

I do love video game soundtracks more than movies though.
I think a video game music composer usually has more freedom to experiment than a movie one (especially someone who's working in a big budget hollywood movie).This happens because games have a much bigger time length than movies and that gives the composer more time to experiment with different moods that usually go together with the feelings of the main character (user) feels anytime in the game.And this,i think,is much more difficult to achieve.I believe that every video game music composer could work in the movie industry but not vice versa.
Take for example Akira Yamaoka.In the Silent Hill games every sound (or silence)has a reason why it plays in a particular moment.The sounds and music are not there just to fill the play time.
Unfortunately,in the movie remake the music was used badly and it was purely there only for (over the top) dramatization.When i first saw the movie i thought "Hey,lets please all the SH fans and put in this movie as much of the original soundtracks as we can!!!"

But as i said at first,there are great examples of movie soundtracks as well.

*moves to Video Game music, where it feels more appropriate*

There are gems and duds on both ends of the spectrum. I wouldn't make any blanket statements of superiority for either.

Well movie soundtracks just have to make the dialogue less boring and the action sequences more exciting.

Video game music is something that sticks out like a sore thumb (my mother hates it and she doesn't even play any games so it must be pretty damn noticeable), so it's absolutely essential that it be any good.

As it happens, I agree with the sentiment being expressed by this topic's title, though of course there are plenty of games with severely sucky soundtracks. Saying that there are plenty of movies too: GoldenEye (the film, not the game; that was legendary) had some particularly disastrous numbers that just sounded way too cheesy. One critic actually mused that the music was better suited to an elevator than a movie, but that's what you get when you let Bono compose your theme song, then the pompous asshole says "Okay, now you're not allowed any remixes of it in your film".

oh yeah O:

All I have to say is that Nobuo Uematsu is a much more talented composer than John Williams. That should say something about the veracity if the claim.

I generally like video game soundtracks, but there have been some incredibly awesome movie soundtracks (a lot more awesome than some of the video game soundtracks I have).

Conan the Barbarian has an awesome soundtrack (Theology/Civilisation is my favourite). The Fountain has one of the best sound tracks I have ever heard.

But then you have stuff from the likes of Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda, who have done so much work over the years that they have been able to produce some very remarkable songs.

I'm having a hard time communicating these thoughts in words, but I'll try my damnedest.

Most movie soundtracks have anywhere from 15-25 songs. That's an estimate I'm pulling out of my ass, don't take it too seriously. Video game sound tracks, on the other hand, can have upwards of 100 songs. As such, it's easier to have a movie soundtrack that is, overall, a good album than it is to have a video game soundtrack that has songs of a consistent quality.

I find that games are more apt to have single tracks that really, really stand out, but if one listens to the album as a whole, it tends to get watered down by mediocre songs. While movie soundtracks rarely have as many stand-out songs, with a fewer amount of songs, it's more likely that they'll all be a consistent quality.

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Originally Posted by Omecle

Conan the Barbarian has an awesome soundtrack (Theology/Civilisation is my favourite).

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Glad that you mentioned this one,it's one of my all time favourite movie soundtracks and i think it complemented the movie perfectly!Basil Poledouris did an awesome job on this one.
"The Leaving/The Search" is my favourite track.

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Originally Posted by Nifleheim7

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Originally Posted by Omecle

Conan the Barbarian has an awesome soundtrack (Theology/Civilisation is my favourite).

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Glad that you mentioned this one,it's one of my all time favourite movie soundtracks and i think it complemented the movie perfectly!Basil Poledouris did an awesome job on this one.
"The Leaving/The Search" is my favourite track.

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Awesome. Glad someone else appreciates this film's soundtrack (as well as the film). :)

I find games, especially those with no voice acting tend to have better music than that of movies. Movie music tends to be made to blend in, but game music seems to be written to stand out. But i think more effort has to be put into games music because you could be listening to the same track for up to 15 or 30 minutes at a time so it has to be written to not be annoying. And if its too bland it doesnt set the right atmosphere

Well, it really depends on the quality of music in film and video game, and it also depends on what you appreciate in the OSTs in the first place, but I've noticed that films tend to have better soundtracks than video games for the most part.

It's simply because great film scores are leitmotivic (that is, they have certain themes for certain characters, locations, objects etc.) and most importantly these themes are developed as the narrative goes on, and thus music helps the film tell the story and give more depth to the overall narrative.

One of the best recent examples of this kind of leitmotivic approach is easily The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. If you listen to the Complete Recordings of each LotR film, you'll notice how subtly Howard Shore creates themes, uses counterpoint, develops the themes and motifs and builds a great underscore while toying with various ideas all the time. There's no dull moment in the CRs as they tell a story in a way only music can.

The problem with most video game music is that most of the time they don't have a leitmotivic approach and instead just use separate tracks which don't always help tell the story as consistently as a film score can (e.g. Ace Combat series soundtracks, although I'd say they do have some leitmotivic material but they're still mostly dominated by the 'individual track' approach anyway). Yes, the individual tracks can be great, but they rarely get developed and when they do, it seems almost artificial, although there are some exceptions to the rule.

It just depends on whether you prefer music to have a leitmotivic approach or not, but if you like consistent development, you won't find it in most video games. And it's understandable, because most games don't really need a leitmotivic approach in the first place. Music needs to change as you move from battle to a calm scene, for example, and this depends on how quickly the players does things, so you can't quite replicate the feel of a structured film score which is composed for a film that stays the same and doesn't change according to the one who watches the film.

However, this kind of trend is slowly changing. The video game soundtracks are becoming more like film scores (a good example is the recent video game score for Lair, composed by a prolific film composer John Debney), and in some recent films the scores aren't using the leitmotivic approach that much and instead rely on individual score tracks or songs to do the trick. As mentioned earlier, there are gems and duds in both, and once one realizes that films and video games are different from one another, one can understand the different approaches they often tend to have as far as music goes, although hybrid scores come about every now and then.

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Originally Posted by The Ceej

All I have to say is that Nobuo Uematsu is a much more talented composer than John Williams. That should say something about the veracity if the claim.

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As good as Uematsu is, I prefer Williams for the reason that he's created scores that not only are consistent but also help tell the story. The way he structures his scores, constantly develops his themes and the underscore in general, and how he knows how to write for different instruments, shows his range of skill as a composer. Uematsu can do that too to an extent, but in my opinion he's a different kind of composer than Williams as far as the leitmotivic approach goes, so it's a bit hard to compare them in that regard.

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Originally Posted by Omecle

Conan the Barbarian has an awesome soundtrack (Theology/Civilisation is my favourite).

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Yes, Poledouris's score for that film was surprisingly good and certainly defined epic adventure scores for years to come. The robust tracks from orchestra and choir were great, and the main themes were wonderful as well. It's truly a classic soundtrack. :)

I agree because:

Nobuo Uematsu >>> film sountracks

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Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF

Two words:

Chrono Cross.

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Oh God yes.

I think you have to keep in mind that often music in computer games is background music that plays to the setting more than anything else, as you have to explore a certain area. This is particularly the case in Final Fantasy or Zelda games, for instance. Whereas the music used in FMVs or certain key scenes with dialogue, I suppose is often more comparable to film soundtracks as they rely on the events, the dialogue and the setting.

I think I prefer computer game music because for a start there's room for more variation due to the length of computer games versus the length of films. The Chrono Cross soundtrack, for instance, has a greater variation in tempo, instruments used and general feel to the music than, say, the Indiana Jones & Last Crusade. Not only as films often involve a motif or something that links various tracks and scenes together.

Overall, I prefer video game music but from composers like John Williams, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri and Yann Tiersen there's fantastic music, just like there is from composers like Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda.