[NewMusic] three-fisted RANT about 'video games live'

[lx rudis]

a friend of mine sent me this link today, claiming 'this is REAL music'. >
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVHGy9XEF9I
unknown to him, i'd already _accidentally_ bought a ticket to Video GAmes
Live. initially i scripted a rant back to him and the CC list. it was
sitting here in my inbox when m@'s earlier post about 'experimental music'
came in.

i decided to cut/paste my reply to the 'videogames live' folks and send it
to all of you instead.
because i love you. or you can re-educate me. or something.

------------start quote-----------------
> although i'm actually scheduled to attend this thing, i'm not real happy
about it. ..i agreed to buy a ticket to it before i realized the #^^ ticket
was FORTY EIGHT DOLLARS. :P   imvho this exercise is about at the conceptual
level of re-transcribing Delta Blues for symphony orchestra and employing
operatic tenors to sing the stuff. sans wit. often the music you hear on
these classic game machines was designed _specifically_ for that game
machine and its associated development tools - although the machines
technically function as 'musical instruments', they are mediocre ones at
best, and the decisions i made in composing for them often flew in the face
of traditional orchestration. sigh. well, music is music i suppose, and
organized pitch and time can be transliterated in a variety of ways.
having said that, i feel that this event is an expensive, ironic gesture. i
figure i'll live thru the evening, but i hope i can get some schmoozing done
out in the lobby. that's about the value i place on the evening.
flame away if you wish. i know i'm being a curmudgeon here, but i just can't
stand this crap. game music paid my rent for about a decade, and i'm still
enough of an aesthetician to have an opinion on the form.

-----------end quote------------

what do i think is valid?
hmm. well for starters: http://www.chiptune.com/
http://www.myspace.com/blipfestival

lx :P