Did anyone else catch the closing piece at the end of the CBS Evening News yesterday? It was a story on VGM concerts and how VGM in general is finding a wider audience. They showed a few snippets of footage of what appeared to be PLAY! concert performances and interviewed a composer named Alan Brick. Not surprisingly to me, the spin that the reporter (and his producer, I assume) chose to put on the story was, more often than not, dismissive and condescending. Even Bob Sheiffer's lead-in or whatever it's called made the story seem like a joke. Oh well, what should I expect from a program watched mostly by stiffs? There's a chance they'll recycle the story this weekend if anyone wants to check it out.

So was it similar to a "shock story" then, that they found it confusing and dumbfounding that people would actually go to a vgm concert?

Almost but not quite. It was more from an angle that these classically trained composers and musicians are getting involved in vgm because no one cares about "real" music anymore but hey look at all the money to be made in the video game industry... the little twirps eat this stuff up. It was good for a laugh but it bugs me that there are still such narrow-minded views on vgm.

*sigh* they always put stories like that as the last story on a news show.
Right along with the stories about the kitten with two heads, the robber who locked himself inside the residence he was robbing from, etc.

Balls to that, it's music, you idjits.  I bet they would've taken a different tone had the story been about performances of movie scores or something.  I guess the mainstream public has a long way to go to accept video games as an artform.

As long as Jack Thompson's around, screaming about sex and violence, I suppose this will remain the status quo.  It's nifty that VGM concerts are gaining a bit of popularity, though. :)

here's an article I found on their website -
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/ … rchStories

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Wow...That was easily the worst mainstream VGM article I've ever read and it didn't even have any Tallarico BS quotes in it. I'm thoroughly impressed.

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I saw the report on TV.

I was just curious... They reported playing FF music and the music in the background didn't sound like anything from FF. Did they play the right music?

~Andy

No one has gone to classical concerts for decades; VGM has nothing to do with that.  It's because orchestras refuse to play anything by contemporary composers.  Who wants to hear Amadeus for the 47-hundredth time?  They refuse any sort of middle ground...to feed their Baroque addictions, these concert halls absolutely have to play pop concerts, which now include VGM.

And unless concert halls break down thisstrict divide between what they deem "real concerts" and "pop concerts," we are never, ever going to hear VGM that isn't sponsored, or obscenely popular.

Just to correct myself, I see that the correct name of the composer who they interviewed is Andy Brick, not Alan. I still don't know who he is, though. I can't comment as to whether or not the song they mentioned was the theme from Final Fantasy as I've never heard an FF soundtrack. I wouldn't be surprised if they got it wrong. Did you hear the sarcasm in Schlesinger's voice when he said the title? It's attitudes like that which make me glad that vgm isn't mainstream.

A quick search seems to indicate that Brick is the conductor.

I kinda like it that way, cult status to me always has more appeal than 'Britney Spears Oversaturation' syndrome

Condescending towards VGM. Not surprised.

Speaking of, can anyone help me dig up that time magazine article from '04 from the Dear Friends concert in LA? I need to use a (condescending) quote from one of the musicians that performed in it to compare to what a very kind trombonist said when I interviewed him at PLAY! in Phila.

Ramza

I totally agree with that.  I mean, where I'm from, they hold concert after concert of the exact same Bach, Wagner, Beethoven, Vivaldi music over and over again and try to repackage them as if they're something new.   

With VGM, we get new music on a regular basis.  Let those squares relive yestercentury over and over again as they stay ever-resistant to change.  A lot of old farts really do hate on game music.  Besides, VGM composers kick the aforementioned composers' asses any day of the week.  And the best part about it is that they're still alive and continue to compose great new content.

I wonder what they would say about Sugiyama and Dragon Quest 8's live music, since that's the most traditional marriage of VGM + Classical there is...

That would require the press to know something about video games.

Now that's a pretty silly thing to say, and is just as narrow-minded as you're accusing others of being.

-Joshua

Dude, chill.

Granted what I said about VGM composers being better than the others I mentioned is subjective, the older classical music loving crowd that I know who frequent the aforementioned concerts actually *do* hate on gamemusic for a variety of reasons.  Try them.  Even out of my spheres, I'd say it's a pretty widespread attitude hence the very article this thread is based on.

And how am I being narrow-minded?  I don't know what you're talkin' about... and I'm not so sure you do either.

Time magazine had an article? Hmm, I vaguely remember posting about articles that appeared in various places about the concert, but not Time...I do remember there being an article in either the NY Times or LA Times about it, though.

Not sure if this is the one you were referring to, but here's the entire NY Times article that someone at Gamingforce re-posted online, which includes a quote from a flutist saying FF music was "on the level of Muzak." This is Google's cache because the thread has expired from the GF forums (or, you can sign up online at the NY Times to access the whole article):

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:Q4 … =firefox-a

Actually, technically, I'm part of the mainstream press. Then again, my knowledge of video games and my listening of VGM has gone way down over the past few years.

Not true. My local symphony (Seattle) is sold out on most concerts... and this isn't even counting the opera house. Contemporary classical music is rarely performed simply because it's taking a financial risk and I can't think of many businesses willing to do that. Whether you like it or not, Mozart sells.

"Contemporary classical music is rarely performed simply because it's taking a financial risk and I can't think of many businesses willing to do that."

While this makes sense on one level, I can't think of many businesses that never release new products, either...

While I admit I haven't done fact checking either, ticket sales of one hall aren't really a good measure of financial viability...

Schala, that was exactly the one. My bad, it was NY Times, not Time. Though I DO believe Time had an article or quick blurb about Nobuo Uematsu sometime in the last 2 years. Can't remember what it was.

Thanks so much for finding it!!!!

Ramza