Includes bibliographical references and index.

Before Red book: early video game music and technology / James Newman -- Chiptune, ownership and the digital underground / Kenneth B. McAlpine -- Waveform wizard: an interview with composer Junko Ozawa / Junko Ozawa, translated by Lyman Gamberton -- Building relationships: the process of creating game music / Guy Michelmore -- The inherent conflicts of musical interactivity in video games / Richard Stevens -- The triple lock of synchronization / K.J. Donnelly -- "Less music, now!": new contextual approaches to video game scoring / Rob Bridgett -- Composing for independent games: the music of Kentucky Route Zero / Ben Babbitt -- Music games / Michael L. Austin -- Autoethnography, phenomenology and hermeneutics / Michiel Kamp -- Interacting with soundscapes: music, sound effects and dialogue in video games / Elizabeth Medina-Gray -- Analytical traditions and game music: Super Mario Galaxy as a case study / Steven Reale -- Semiotics in game music / Iain Hart -- Game-music-performance: introducing a ludomusicological theory and framework / Melanie Fritsch -- A step back from reality: sound and presence in computer games and other worlds / Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard -- Audio and the experience of gaming: a cognitive-emotional approach to video game sound / Dana Plank -- Psychophysiological approaches to sound and music in games / Duncan Williams -- Game music and identity / Chris Tonelli -- Game music and history / James Cook -- Open worlds: globalization, localization and video game music / William Gibbons -- Female credit: excavating recognition for the Capcom sound team / Andrew Lemon and Hillegonda C. Rietveld -- Pop music, economics and marketing / Andra Ivănescu -- Game music beyond the games / Ryan Thompson -- Producing game music concerts / Thomas Böcker, with Melanie Fritsch and Tim Summers.

Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years. Now, reaching billions of listeners, game music encompasses a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date survey of video game music by a diverse group of scholars and industry professionals. The chapters and summaries consolidate existing knowledge and present tools for readers to engage with the music in new ways. Many popular games are analysed, including Super Mario Galaxy, Bastion, The Last of Us, Kentucky Route Zero and the Katamari, Gran Turismo and Tales series. Topics include chiptunes, compositional processes, localization, history and game music concerts. The book also engages with other disciplines such as psychology, music analysis, business strategy and critical theory, and will prove an equally valuable resource for readers active in the industry, composers or designers, and music students and scholars.