Four Ways of Hearing Video Game Music (Oxford Music / Media)

Cover
Four Ways of Hearing Video Game Music
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
About the Companion Website
Introduction: Towards a Phenomenology of Video Game Music
	Poietic and Aesthesic Approaches
	Game Design Strategies and Gameplay Tactics
	Ways of Hearing
	Phenomenology as an Approach to Video Game Music
	Whose Phenomenology?
1. Background Music
	Case Study: StarCraft
	Background Music as Ground
	Background Music as Mood or Atmosphere
	Background Music as Affordance
	Background Music as Equipment
	Conclusions
2. Aesthetic Music
	Case Study: Minecraft
	Having an Aesthetic Experience
	Nostalgic Hearing
	Hearing Beauty in Virtual Nature
	Authored Musical Moments
	Aesthetic Listening as Interpretation
	Conclusions
3. Ludic Music
	Affect, or ‘Doing This Really Fast Is Fun’
	Case Study: Proteus
	Inward Dancing and Embodied Listening
	Music Games, Synaesthesia, and Glee
	Musical Movement and Emotional Context
	Conclusions
4. Semiotic Music
	Case Study: Left 4 Dead
	Musical Signs
	Musical Symbols
	Musical Signals and Anticipation
	Broken and Unestablished Signs
	Conclusions
Conclusion
	Hearing Video Game Music in Context
	Other Ways of Hearing
	A Final Word on Hermeneutics
Notes
Bibliography
Index