Alright gamers, Black Myth Wukong is straight up shaking up the gaming world, but the original soundtrack ought absolute fire.
We're talking music that slaps harder than Wukong's legendary staff, the Gui Jingguvang.
We take a look at how the field of video game music has exploded and why Wukong is at the forefront of this sonic revolution.
And sure, the Devil Wears product gave us an entertaining glimpse of demanding bosses, but let's be real, no employee should be running personal errands like that's part of the job.
Is it okay for bosses to ask employees for personal flavors, or is it crossing the line?
Coming to you live from Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm He Young. For today's program, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Ding Hung, first on today's show.
From the Super Mario Brother bleeps and bloops in the 1980s to the cinematic soundscapes of Black Myth Wukong, or Heishan Hua Wukong today, video game music has leveled up in a big way.
Wukong's epic music score blends traditional Chinese tunes, rock and roll, and a full -on Western Orchestra, winning fans all over the world.
With major music streaming platforms such as Tencent Music reporting 7 ,000 game tracks uploaded in 2023 alone, and offline video game concerts selling out in minutes, it's clear that video game music has emerged as a thriving genre.
Just as film scores are crucial to cinematic experiences, does the same hold true for video games?
What makes awesome video game music?
Ding Hung, bring us up to speed on the popularity of Black Myth Wukong.
It's been just over a month since we first discussed its highly anticipated release, and so far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive regarding gameplay, content, and now even the music.
Yeah, exactly. According to a data analytics company, Video Game Insights, the prevailing Chinese video game has sold an impressive 20 million copies on Steam alone, generating more than $960 million in terms of revenue.
That's pretty good in a month.
Along with the success of the video game, I guess the music and songs in that particular game have also gained great popularity among its players.
According to a recent media report by the Shanghai base, the newspaper Wanhui Daily, all the tickets for the offline theme concerts of the game in five cities here in China have been sold out within two minutes.
Its opening song will also be played at an upcoming game music carnival in Shanghai during the upcoming National Day holidays.
Oh really? That's pretty cool.
Wow. So, indeed, I guess.
Yeah, and even reports in the newspapers.
Not about the game's popularity.
That's been in the media all over the world for the last month, but now we're talking about the music, and it seems like the music's just as popular as the game itself is.
Oh yes, and there are at least three major tunes or songs or music scores that have been capturing people's attention.
And first is Yun Gong Xun Yin, or Celestial Symphony, and it's written by the master, Sir Xu Jingqing, and I'm extremely sad that he hasn't gotten the amount of attention that this 82 -year -old music composer deserves because he wrote the original theme music for the 1986 version of the TV drama series,
Journey to the West.
Oh, so this is a piece of music, Celestial Symphony, that all Chinese people would know and love?
And it's a pity that we don't have the rights to that music, otherwise I would love to play it right now because everybody in China would immediately just jump off your seats or maybe spit your coffee a little bit because that's just how excited you are.
And this theme has been receiving some sort of re -creation in this game music as well.
Would this be maybe the equivalent of, oh, I don't know, the Star Wars theme music?
I would say yes, but even bigger.
If that makes sense.
Yes. What I mean is just music that everybody knows, and then when you hear it you just get energized somehow.
Okay, I get it. I get it.
Yeah, I guess that's largely the case because we're talking about a re -creation of a classic music which will, the classic version will resonate everybody in China, I guess, or mostly more than 90 % of the people.
But re -creation is really aimed at attracting new audiences, new fans from across the world beyond China's borders.
It's really incredible how this piece of classic and super memorable music motif has found new life in this video game.
And a second major, super popular music score is this.
Well, let's get a taste of this, Black Myth, Wukong's incredible original music.
The song, Huangfeng Chi Xi or Yellow Sandstorm Brewing.
It really sets the stage, but this clip, Qiamanzou, or Wait Don't Go, brings a warning vibe, and you won't want to miss this.
Let's listen in. Yes, and we only have 12 seconds to the music rights of this.
That's a clip from the game though.
Yeah, and this is in the second chapter of the game.
And also, for Chinese people, you might immediately recognize that the song displays a form of xianbei storytelling and intangible cultural heritage in northwest China's xianxi province or xianbei in Chinese.
So, yeah, does this piece of music sort of reminds you of the landscape and the culture and a lot of yellow sand and big winds from that area.
Yeah, it's very, very impressive and fascinating to me all those kinds of images that can arouse me on my mind about a sandstorm.
I guess that's why it has garnered over 10 million views on social media at the time in August.
That's according to a piece of media reports back in August.
Now, it's much higher, and it has also garnered more additional fans on YouTube and Twitch.
So many people, according to what I read, they cannot even help dancing following the rhythm of the song.
There's a lot of foreign players, foreign streamers too, who have uploaded their clips.
You know what a reaction video is where they'll watch it or listen to it, and then it shows their live reaction.
There's a lot of those on the Internet as well.
And they're loving that piece of music.
Absolutely. And there's one other piece that is super popular.
And you can see that the soundtrack of Black Myth Wukong has been trending on various music streaming platforms.
This one is Wang Xiongjou or Rebirth to Pure Land in Cantation.
And this is interesting that rap has been brought into a rather traditional piece of Chinese music.
And it just fits the scene really well, according to gamers.
And yeah, for this game, Black Myth Wukong really speaks for itself or shutting down the haters with pure excellence, even with this music.
And just as video games have become more sophisticated and detailed.
So has the music composed for video games and even lush orchestral scores have been written to fit an individual's gameplay?
Guys, how has music played an important role in recent games?
Can you give us some examples?
Examples of music in recent games, I think the list would be very, very, very long to go through all of them.
But I think why music has become so popular in video games these days, and I think this is a relatively new thing in games all around the world, is that it adds to the game playing experience, I think.
If you look at different examples from different games, even the music that we just played, the clip that we just heard, you mentioned that Chinese players will be really excited to hear that in a game because it's well known here in the country.
But there's a Western element to this as well.
It's exotic, it's exciting, and it fits the game in the context of the game.
It fits the moment so well that it makes the players enjoy the scene and enjoy the game all the more.
Yeah, I guess industry insiders would generally agree with this idea that different cultural provides reach, creative materials and the sources of inspiration for game music, celebration and creation, and therefore leading to more profound creation of works.
For example, in the Shanbei storytelling that you played just now, I think according to the singer Xiong Zhuying, the Shanbei storytelling is from the Northwest part of China for sure.
And the rhythm and pronunciation of the local singing style are very much, say, consistent with the state of a headless monk, Sun Wukong in the game.
So this unique singing style, I guess, gives you a very resonant yet innovative feeling to not only to homegrown players, but more importantly, international players.
Yes, indeed. And it's all original music that was composed specifically for that game.
So basically, you can see this consistency of the music flows in different directions according to the plot and according to individual gameplay.
And to give you another example, Guang Yu Yie Zhilian or Light and Night is a mobile game developed by internet giant Tencent.
And it has over 400 original pieces of music in different styles.
And its music producer, Yang Cheung Yung said that games targeting female players, and this is one of those, should it's focused more on emotional expression and atmosphere rendering.
It's kind of like you're having a relationship and dating with these different men.
And yeah, the music has to really be played in a way that, you know, flows into her heart and makes her feel super excited, comforting, or whatnot.
So it's really interesting how video game music has been composed with all these elements in mind.
And the ones that do it really well, well, your users will know it.
Yeah, I mean, the Grammys, even the Grammys, for example, the Grammys is the American Music Awards ceremony, one of them anyway.
It's maybe the biggest one you could say in the United States.
And this is from Desert News.
They recognize the impact that video game music brings to people.
So the Grammys created a new category in 2023 to recognize them.
There was an interview with the Grammy Award Steve Schnur, worldwide executive at EA Electronic Arts.
The video game company.
And he said today video games have become culture.
So now at the Grammys, starting in 2023, they have they award a video game for the music for the soundtrack from it.
Yeah, well, in my opinion, it's very well deserved because video game music is a big part of the whole gaming experience.
And if it's done well, it really enhances the gaming experience when the gamer can feel fully immersed and sort of enhanced in feelings when the music sort of guides you to different places as well.
And then it's supposed to be there to help you celebrate the victories and also convey loss because that happens in the video game as well.
And also we're seeing that these video game music concerts in real life are becoming a big deal as well.
So this is definitely what the producers or creators of games would would love.
Yeah, they they love to see it because it makes their games more popular and it gives the media more to talk about to promote their games.
Look at us. We're talking about it right now.
We're talking about music and video games as opposed to gameplay or the graphics or something like that.
And it keeps the video game in the news for longer.
Oh, definitely. And also it's not only in the game in the living room when you're playing the game, but actually if it's a real life concert, then people this is another revenue stream for those involved.
And then the game's popularity spills over from the living room, the social media sphere onto concert halls or whatnot.
This is a fascinating development of things.
Yeah. And in addition to that, I feel like somehow a lot of innovation and creativity were required in the process of production of all these musics.
For example, in the case of this celestial symphony that you mentioned earlier for sure, it was the original music was popular through the 1980s TV series in China.
But I guess it may not have a sense of resonance with international audience due to the language barrier, cultural barrier, et cetera.
But according to an article by a content creator in the gaming field on Baidu platform, the remake version absorbs Hollywood movie music, therefore strengthens the epic sense of the song.
It's like listening to a grand and majestic symphony.
And this form of hero -themed song is actually very common in Hollywood movies, especially in most recent years.
So creativity and innovation in the remaking of these music.
Oh, definitely. So they only kept the key motif of the music and then everything else is rewritten solely for the purpose of that game.
And, yeah, it's a wonderful combination.
And the person behind this is a genius, in my opinion.
Yeah, probably in a musical sense, there is no conflict or contradiction between ancient and modern.
Absolutely. And these days, when you see the most popular music scores, they are classical music combined with a lot of newer elements.
For example, this is OK, one of the most iconic pieces of music scores in recent years, the opening music to succession, the HBO hit series and its composer Nicholas Britell.
He used hip hop beats as well as with the 18th century court music.
And then that was just a really fresh and heart racing kind of combination, which is just fantastic.
And besides original music, how other music, well, how does other readily made songs make their way into the video game industry?
Yeah, not just the video game industry, but into things like corporate advertisements or television commercials or TV shows or the film industry.
This is a really interesting topic of conversation.
The way that artists get their songs into things that I just mentioned is through an agreement called a synchronization license or a sync deal.
We'll just call it a sync deal.
That's how it's known in the industry.
And this allows their music to appear in things like I just mentioned, like games and films and TV shows, advertisements, all of those different types of media licensing expert Alex Tara.
And he told the BBC that it's a system that's been in place for decades now, but it can be a real challenge to navigate because there's very, very little transparency.
The license must be obtained from the copyright owner.
That would be the creator of the song.
Right. And this could be the publisher, the record label, whoever whoever happens to own it, who owns the license to the music.
But this came up in the news.
This issue came up in the news very, very recently.
And we're talking video games here.
Here's the story, Martin Ware.
Now, Martin Ware might not be a name that you know, but Martin Ware was an influential musician from a synth pop band called Heaven 17.
And he said that he had rejected an offer from video game maker Rockstar.
If you don't know that name, Rockstar, they're one of the giants in the video game industry and they have a huge video game series called Grand Theft Auto.
It's referred to as GTA Grand Theft Auto.
And the story, the connection with Martin Ware is that the company Rockstar reached out to him because they wanted to license Heaven 17's song for Grand Theft Auto 6.
That's the game that's going to come out next year or the year after that.
So Grand Theft or sorry.
So Rockstar contacted Martin Ware and said, we will offer you twenty two thousand five hundred dollars for the use of your song temptation to use in the video game.
Now, twenty two thousand five hundred dollars, American dollars.
That sounds like a lot of money, right?
That's one hundred and fifty thousand seven thousand you on.
But that needs to be divided between the three members of the group.
So that comes out to seven thousand five hundred you on each.
That's really not a lot.
Fifty two thousand you on seven thousand five hundred dollars each.
But that's not a lot.
And that's before all taxes and everything's taken away.
So Martin said, and I'll say this politely.
No, he said it differently.
He put it on social media.
He said it's a pathetic offer and we're not interested.
And someone from the from the industry came out and said, you know, considering that this series, GTA 5, the game that came out before, made eight point six billion dollars.
So it's an insult to offer twenty two thousand five hundred dollars for the use of one song in a video game.
And this has been a hot issue in the news recently.
Well, yeah, obviously, I guess for a video game that's making billions of dollars in terms of the revenue and profits, it's indeed insulting to be offered a very low fee when you know you are the creator of the music.
But there's another side to this.
Now, if this video game, the previous one made eight point six billion dollars, right?
So it's fair to project that GTA six coming out next year or the year after will also make billions of dollars.
So the argument against or what people are saying on the other side of his argument is think about how many people are going to hear your song.
And the reason they'll hear it is because in this video game, if you're not familiar with grand theft auto, you drive a lot in a car.
And in the car, there's radio stations and a lot of songs are on each and every radio station like a rock and roll station, a reggae station, a dance music station.
So their song would have been on that station and it would have been played a whole lot of times to potentially a new market.
That's the argument against heaven.
Seventeen's no, we will not take your money.
Potentially, they could make a lot of money.
But people in the music industry representing artists are saying we don't want potential.
We want money in our pocket.
So this is very, very difficult for artists to make a lot of money and they don't make a lot of money from streams either.
Yeah, this was the argument for or is it against TikTok using all kinds of music for music pieces for its short videos.
And then, you know, the organization can argue that it's promoting the music to new users who would never come across this piece of music otherwise.
But the artists are saying, but every time when you use my music, you should pay me.
And then that's why, you know, TikTok pays handsome fees to use the music on its platform.
Yeah, royalties were not were also not a part of the offer to the group.
Whereas, you know, if you license your song for a TV commercial, you might have that in your contract.
You'll get royalties for every time the TV commercial plays.
But how are you going to calculate the number of times a video game gets played or how many times it's heard in the video game?
You can't calculate that.
So royalties are sometimes not offered in this type of contract.
That's really unfortunate.
But guys, what do you think makes really awesome game music?
Because this is one set genre that Steve told us, you know, you can collect awards just by composing video game music these days.
Yeah, it adds to the player experience, I think.
And I can speak to this in GTA five.
I'll use that as an example, again, because I played that game.
It's one of the most popular games in the world.
That game licensed four hundred and forty one different songs in the game.
And when I was playing it, I was driving in the car in the game and I came across a song that I loved on the fake radio station and I stopped the game.
I looked the song up on the Internet.
I found it and I've been listening to it ever since.
And it's a song that I would never have found on my own.
It added to the moment of the game in the context of the game, in that scene, that song fit perfectly.
And I just think just like in in movies, when the right song at the right moment in a film can just hit so hard, it can have that effect in a video game, too.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
And one point I'd like to add here is that kind of a final thought is that I guess the gaming industry previously had no idea about the quality and the value of songs and the music in their products and game music was labeled as low quality at the time.
So was the development of the new industry and the aesthetic standards of the new generation of players are getting higher?
They need to pay more attention to this in this regard.
Yeah. And one thing that's really special to awesome game music and makes it different from film or movie music scores is that it needs to be really good at interaction.
And being very adaptive to the changing game scenario that's happening.
And unlike traditional film music scores, which is kind of linear.
But with this, well, the key motif might be the same, but there are great variations to how the music is being constructed and played.
Let's say if this gamer is just wandering about or engaged in battle and that's going to be different.
And thanks to awesome game music that everybody can enjoy if you're a gamer.
