The scope of this post is making my head spin, but if I try to divide it up into several posts I might never stop posting. Still, the way music impacts me and what kind of music does... it feels very personal, so I'm compelled to share. Hopefully I can touch on a whole bunch of this briefly in one long ramble, and give you a random sampling of Meteo's audio landscape rather than an encyclopedia.
First of all, 95% of the music I listen to comes from games, movies, and anime. There is a very important reason for that which gets to the heart of what moves and inspires me: storylines and creativity. I can get really immersed in storylines at times, but often it seems quite random with what draws me in. When I *am* drawn in, I may end up physically pumping my fists or even crying. Music from those storylines brings me right back in every time. Songs with only a 3-minute music-video backstory can't even compare in this way.
Creativity comes into play because I often am reaching out to make something myself: sometimes games, tabletop campaigns, or some kind of video mashup. When I listen to a piece of music, no matter where it comes from, my mind always always always starts to imagine how that music could be used in the scope of storytelling. Traditional music can speak to me still by inspiring me to think of what could "fit the music", but even if the lyrics aren't that cheesy, they restrict the music to telling only 1 story. It's amazing when a song's lyrics match an idea I could use it in, but it's rare and so I end up listening more to lyricless music like soundtracks.
Hans Zimmer - Dream is Collapsing from Inception
With Hans Zimmer's "Dream is Collapsing" up above, I often imagine some kind of stand-off in outer space. The calm before the storm represents tensions rising, or maybe the crew of a ship are slowly coming to realize that a part of their ship has been compromised and they are losing control. In either case, there is definitely a black hole nearby, and as the music reaches it's crescendo, the characters involved engage in a barely-controlled plummet towards it as they either fight, escape, or attempt a rescue. Eventually things get out of hand and all operations come to a halt as the characters reach a tight orbit around the black hole and the music reaches its FINAL climax. Decades wizz by in seconds as the crew becomes subject to time dilation in their near-lightspeed orbit. They emerge ejected from their orbital system after who knows how long or in what direction, and the story... begins. Or wait, maybe you split the music track at each point before it picks up and loop it, and either advance or dial back the music depending on the player's decisions in a game! Hmm... or maybe this would best be used in a combo video where I demonstrate increasingly complex tactics until the end where I do something never done before! Let me replay that again and think on it...
If you didn't notice in my previous blog about Trackmania, the music playing on "Meteo Track 3" is in fact from Kill la Kill, which I also wrote about. The music is actually two different tracks that I spliced together, and attempted to do so in a way that very roughly might fit the action of the race. It ends up drifting off-beat a bit towards the end, but that's because I plan to get faster and finish earlier! It all comes together in a combination of revisiting an impactful story and re-purposing it to show something new.
Reflecting on it, playing DDR and Stepmania (video above) had a very large impact in what kind of music I find stimulating. The songs/levels that were the most difficult AND fun were the ones with a high level of complexity. Non-repeating patterns, odd notes like 12ths, 24ths, and 32nds amongst a background of unpredictable streams of 16ths made for perfect material when it came to creating new "stepcharts". The more layers of beats, the more you could do with a song, and the more entertaining it was to think about. Eventually, this became so engrained in my mind that it became simply the kind of music I enjoyed listening to without even thinking much about it.
Both of those videos were songs by The Flashbulb. It's coincidental because I didn't even know that's where the second one came from. The second video was originally just that animation you see with a smaller clip of of the song on loop and was created part of the "Machine Code" meme. See, my interests there are colliding from multiple angles, a meme from chan sites back in the day that I frequented them, and totally separately from the Stepmania community.
Another collection of music that I like from multiple angles and has a lot of community behind it is from the Touhou games. Zetherin might know them as "Doll Shooters". I listen to a crazy amount of this stuff because of how it's been featured time and again in so many music games, so many memes, the music itself is highly layered, there's an infinite number of remixes, and it all originates from an incredibly difficult series of games that coined the term "Bullet Hell". *Puts on hipster glasses* I mean who HASN'T heard of the tracks "Necrofantasia" or "UN Owen Was Her" or "Nuclear Fusion"? Even the community for Skullgirls has done some crossover content!!!
Yeah so just imagine that but with over 500 more originating tracks instead of just 1.
I once created some of my own music, using Apple's little music toybox "Garage Band" shown as the first picture of this article. It's still on newgrounds actually. Aside from mentioning that and the fact that I do like to chill out to more downtempo electronic beats, I'm finally at the last part of this article which I wanted to get to... Posting a random assortment of favorite tracks and tracks which I am recently listening to!:
Foo Fighters - The Pretender
I find this track highly inspirational, I want to break through any barrier in my way when I listen to it! Also I considered making a music video for it documenting a trip to a large gaming tournament.
Linkin Park - Krwlng
This is the Reanimation version, which I like more than the original and is probably my favorite from the band. A new tone was concentrated on much more than the lyrics this time around.
Ronald Jenkees - Stay Crunchy
Basically, the best track ever. Jenkees is brilliant, I looked up what he is up to these days and he's basically just chilling with his wife and life. He can play this kind of music on a whim using his electronic keyboard setup.
Maplecrest from Skullgirls
Ok, back to my typical stuff, haha. I love this track and plan on trying to work it in as a town theme in an RPG Maker project.
All-Out Attacks from Code Geass
A great anime with a lot of similarities to Death Note, this intense track is a heck of a battle theme.
The Passage of Emptiness from End of Evangelion
Yeah I still listen to Evangelion soundtracks, and you should too.
Zircon - Ladder to the Sky
Back to some great electronica!
I Want to Know from Kill la Kill
A somber but critical English song from Kill la Kill. Well, maybe not that critical because the series doesn't stay serious for long, but hell this cheesy song still strikes a nerve for bringing back the struggle!
Blinded by the Light from Final Fantasy XIII
So what if I didn't play the game much, and so what if this tune has been overplayed in the trailers? I like it!
Machine Head from Redline
MACHINE HEAD!!!!
