Did you know that Koji Kondo’s soundtrack to the Super Mario Bros. game revolutionized the entire video game industry and forever changed the way our society interacted with video games? Yep! That one game’s music took us from the era
Did you know that Koji Kondo’s soundtrack to the Super Mario Bros. game revolutionized the entire video game industry and forever changed the way our society interacted with video games? Yep! That one game’s music took us from the era of ubiquitous “bleeps” and “bloops” of the ‘70s to the game music of today, where now entire orchestras are assembled to record just a single game’s soundtrack.
How did this happen? What made this music so profoundly influential?
In “33 1/3 — Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack,” Andrew Schartmann, Ph.D, (music degrees from Yale and McGill) provides us with a keen and highly educated insight into how Koji Kondo, the first composer ever in history to write a musical score for a video game, was able to take an incredibly limited instrument (a five-channel sound chip with a narrow range of possibility) and develop, with his fellow programmers at Nintendo, an entirely unique philosophy of composition to create one of the most memorable tunes of a generation, while at the same time paving the way for future video game composers to explore an entirely new musical art form.
Andrew also presents a very illuminating history of game music and an intriguing explanation of the tool of their musical medium. His respect for the incredible collaborative and creative process is present in his handling of the subject and he proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that music — in all its forms — truly is an art! The gaming industry has affected all of us in one way or another and that is why this book is an exciting look into our modern history. All you gamers, geeks, techies, musicians, programmers, historians, ‘80s fans, see you soon! “Ba-dum-pum-ba-dum-pum-PUM!”
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Ed and Cynthia Justus are owners of The Bookstore in Hanapepe.
