Sunday, May 11, 2014
Episode 111: Girl Power
This week, the guys shine a light on the music of female video game
composers! The 8 and 16-bit generation was arguably dominated by female
composers, so this episode is an excuse to play some of the most classic
game music ever. Enjoy this super solid playlist of tracks composed by
these super talented ladies. 05/11/14
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ReplyDeleteI was really pleased to see that you guys made a tribute show to female game composers. I've made a bit of study of female game composers myself.
ReplyDeletehttp://sites.google.com/site/thevinylgeek/video-game-classics/heroines-of-the-game-business
You bought up some composers that I admire like Michiru Yamane(who I see you now know is a woman ;)) and Kinuyo Yamashita.
I like that you bought up that Japan has, or once had, a relatively high number of female composers. It's something that stands out for me too. I think Japanese-female game composers, composed some of the most "boyish" sounding music ever composed by women composers. It's like they understood what got boy gamers excited (on a side note, I think in popular music, the 1976 hit song "Magic Man" by Heart is one of the most masculine sounding songs composed by women i.e Anne & Nancy Wilson).
You mentioned Miki Higashino. A couple of other soundtracks she did were Gradius and Yie-Arr Kung Fu (both 1985, arcade originals). You mentioned Junko Tamiya who also did at least part of the music to Strider(arcade, 1989). You mentioned Tamayo Kawamoto who I like particularly for The Speed Rumbler/Rush 'n Crash, arcade 1986.
My favourite female game composer is perhaps a bit overlooked. Izuho "Ippo" Numata(Takeuchi) composed music for SMS then Phantasy Star III and IV on Genesis in the early '90s. Here's a link to "Skyhaven" from PS III.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIuXOJpaB-0
Another woman who composed some great music was Junko Ozawa, particular Rolling Thunder, 1986 arcade. I love Stage 1's music. You talk about music that runs for a long time before looping. That has to be one of the longest running tracks of the time. Almost 2 minutes, including the intro part, which is followed by a fade in of the stage music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5aARBuh2o