On emotional music
Funny story I remembered today while browsing the intertubes, and I thought I'd share it, but before I do that...
THIS ENTRY CONTAINS FINAL FANTASY VII SPOILERS!
Almost every console RPG gamer knows this theme:
Evokes memories of Aerith's untimely demise, right? Everyone remembers that feeling of 'FUCK NO I GAVE THAT BITCH MY BEST EQUIPMENT' and 'I SPENT ALL THAT TIME LEVELING HER UP FOR NOTHING' and the fan favorite 'hey, I liked her! :(' That particular moment in video game history was made all the more poignant by Uematsu's timely musical contribution. The sweet, hopeful sound of her theme music over the battle and the burial was enough to make many of us cry. When I hear this theme, I still get a little angry...not at Sephiroth, but for an entirely different reason.
You see, when I was in seventh grade, FF7 was my life after school. Though Aerith's death had been spoiled for me beforehand (really, eleven years later it's nearly impossible for a first time player to go in without being spoiled), it was still a beautifully sad moment and the music made it even more so. A few days after I played past this part in the game, we had an assignment at school:
"Write a short paragraph describing a time when music in media drew an emotion from you."
You can probably guess what I wrote about. Yup, Aerith's death. I wrote a few sentences about how the beautiful, loving, Aerith had been suddenly slain too soon and how her hopeful theme had created a sort of dissonance with the tragedy. Fit right in with the assignment, right?
Well I got the paper back the next day with a big fat F scrawled across the top, with the explanation of "no video game carnival music" scribbled next to it. I was furious, and I still am thinking about it. How the hell are video games not media? The teacher probably thought I was writing about arcade beeps and boops from the 80s or something. I should have brought in a clip from the scene in question to prove that it was as real as any movie sequence, but I didn't have the technology to do so at the time. (no tape recorder, no internet)
So that's why I think of my unjust F on an assignment instead of the scene in question when I hear that theme.
THIS ENTRY CONTAINS FINAL FANTASY VII SPOILERS!
Almost every console RPG gamer knows this theme:
Click to viewEvokes memories of Aerith's untimely demise, right? Everyone remembers that feeling of 'FUCK NO I GAVE THAT BITCH MY BEST EQUIPMENT' and 'I SPENT ALL THAT TIME LEVELING HER UP FOR NOTHING' and the fan favorite 'hey, I liked her! :(' That particular moment in video game history was made all the more poignant by Uematsu's timely musical contribution. The sweet, hopeful sound of her theme music over the battle and the burial was enough to make many of us cry. When I hear this theme, I still get a little angry...not at Sephiroth, but for an entirely different reason.
You see, when I was in seventh grade, FF7 was my life after school. Though Aerith's death had been spoiled for me beforehand (really, eleven years later it's nearly impossible for a first time player to go in without being spoiled), it was still a beautifully sad moment and the music made it even more so. A few days after I played past this part in the game, we had an assignment at school:
"Write a short paragraph describing a time when music in media drew an emotion from you."
You can probably guess what I wrote about. Yup, Aerith's death. I wrote a few sentences about how the beautiful, loving, Aerith had been suddenly slain too soon and how her hopeful theme had created a sort of dissonance with the tragedy. Fit right in with the assignment, right?
Well I got the paper back the next day with a big fat F scrawled across the top, with the explanation of "no video game carnival music" scribbled next to it. I was furious, and I still am thinking about it. How the hell are video games not media? The teacher probably thought I was writing about arcade beeps and boops from the 80s or something. I should have brought in a clip from the scene in question to prove that it was as real as any movie sequence, but I didn't have the technology to do so at the time. (no tape recorder, no internet)
So that's why I think of my unjust F on an assignment instead of the scene in question when I hear that theme.