sonofableep

ya know how when you’re watching an opera, and you can’t understand a word, and it’s all heavy and awesome and stuff?  but then you see one with subtitles, or worse still…in english, and it’s suddenly not so heavy or awesome and stuff?  yeah?  that phenomenon pretty much shapes my whole relationship to music with singing in games.

(for the purposes of this discussion, the definition of “music” does not extend to popular music licensed for inclusion in a game.  most of that tripe isn’t music anyway.  ooooh!  aren’t i edgy and superior!  and self-aware to boot!)

lots of game music, particularly in the fantasy genre, tends to heap on the faux-latin choir cheese.  it’s a quick and easy way to evoke a sense of Serious Drama And Epicness…but it’s also tired as hell, and always leaves me wondering what the deuece is actually being said.  once i typed something perfectly silly into an english-to-latin translator just looking to generate something “scary” for a necromancer to chant…and that shit worked like a charm!  so hey, i get it.  and i’m not above doing it myself.  i’m just sayin’.

now if you have music sung in english, you run the risk of putting the gamer’s focus on the music and not on the game (but perhaps that’s desired effect?).  and your lyrics better be damned good.  i’d hate to have any of *my* 8th-grade-level poetry be subject to judgement in that manner.  and if the player has to hear your ditty again and again?  i’m just sayin’.  (also, the audio guy in me reflexively cringes at the inherent localization issues…which have no bearing here, but i can’t help myself.)

there’s always the “gibberish” option – which can have the effect of the faux-latin stuff without the baggage of begging interpretation.  on the other hand, you run the risk of it being a bit silly.  i’m just,  you know, sayin’.

and then there’s the “wordless vocal”.  think “ethereal female clad in white flowing robes standing just to the right of Yanni during the big encore”.  it sidesteps all the pitfalls of the other options, though by the same token doesn’t communicate much of anything except a vague sense of mood.  but hey, if it’s good enough for Yanni, it’s good enough for me.

having said all that, it’s a safe bet i’ll be using all of the above at one point or another in the near future.  so, uh, yeah.  shut up brad.