Nostalgia and Videogame Music: A Primer of Case Studies, Theories, and Analyses for the Player-Academic(Studies in Game Sound and Music)

This book, the first multi-disciplinary study of nostalgia and videogame music, allows readers to understand the relationships and memories they often form around games, and music is central to this process. The quest into the past begins with this book, a map that leads to the intersection between nostalgia and videogame music. Informed by research on musicology and memory as well as practices of gaming culture the edited volume discusses different forms of nostalgia, how video games display their relation to those and in what ways theoretically self-conscious positions can be found in games. The perspectives of the new discipline ludmusicology provide the broader framework for this project.  This significant new book focuses on an important topic that has not been sufficiently addressed in the field and is clear in its contribution to ludomusicology. An important scholarly addition to the field of ludomusicology, with potential appeal to undergraduate and graduate scholars in many related fields due to its inherent interdisciplinarity, including musicology more broadly, game studies and games design, film studies, as well as cultural and media studies. It could also appeal to practitioners, particularly those nostalgic and self-reflexive artists who already engage in nostalgic practice (chiptune musicians, for instance). Also to those researching and studying in the fields of memory studies and cultural studies. Readership will include researchers, educators, practitioners, undergraduate and graduate students, fans and game players.

Table of Contents:
Dedication and Acknowledgments Introduction – Vincent E. Rone   PART 1: ARTICULATING NOSTALGIA AND VIDEOGAME MUSIC 1. A Player’s Guide to the Psychology of Nostalgia and Videogame Music – Michael Vitalino and Vincent E. Rone 2. And the Music Keeps on Playing: Nostalgia in Paraludical Videogame Music Consumption – Sebastian Diaz-Gasca   PART 2: OBJECTIFYING NOSTALGIA AND VIDEOGAME MUSIC 3. My Childhood Is in Your Hands: Videogame Concerts as Commodified and Tangible Nostalgic Experiences – Elizabeth Hunt 4. Remembering the Rules: Immersive Nostalgia in Final Fantasy Leitmotifs – Can Aksoy 5. The Sounds of 8-Bit Nostalgia: The Resurgence of Chiptune Music in Contemporary Film-Based Videogames –Jonathan Waxman   PART 3: SUBJECTIFYING NOSTALGIA AND VIDEOGAME MUSIC 6. A Link between Worlds: Nostalgia and Liminality in Musical Covers of The Legend of Zelda – Alec Nunes 7. You Unlock This Game with the Key of Imagination: The Twilight Zone: The Game (2014), Musical Parody, and the Sound of Nostalgia – Reba A. Wissner 8. “This Game Stinks”: Musical Parody and Nostalgia in EarthBound – Justin Sextro   PART 4: CONFRONTING NOSTALGIA AND VIDEOGAME MUSIC 9. Playing Music Videos: Three Case Studies of Interaction between Performing Videogames and Remembering Music Videos – Brent Ferguson and T. J. Laws-Nicola 10. Remembering Tomorrow: Music and Nostalgia in Fallout’s Retro-Future – Jessica Kizzire 11. Confronting Nostalgia for Racism in American Popular Music via BioShock Infinite – Sarah Pozderac-Chenevey Notes on Contributors Index

About the Author :
Vincent Rone teaches music history, theory, and choir at Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH, in addition to serving as Director of Music at Archangel Gabriel Parish in Pittsburgh, PA. His research interests include ludomusicology, film music, and the intersection of music and Catholic liturgical reform in twentieth century France. Dr. Can Aksoy is a professor of English at Los Angeles City College. He specializes in American Postmodern Literature, Materialist Aesthetics, Cultures of Finance, Risk Theory, Video Games, and Writing Instruction & Pedagogy. Sarah Pozderac-Chenevey is a ludomusicologist specializing in the analysis of pre-existing music in videogames. In addition to being an independent scholar and the owner of Academic Formatting, LLC, she serves as the archivist and alto section leader/soloist at Christ Presbyterian Church in Canton, OH.