Super Mario Bros
By: Andrew Schartmann
Series: 33 1/3 -- 106; 33 1/3 -- 106.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 146
ISBN-13: 9781628928532
Subjects: Video game music; Analysis, appreciation; History and criticism; Super Mario Bros. (Game); Songs and music
Other titles: Super Mario Brothers; Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. soundtrack
Description: Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. (1985) score redefined video game music. With under three minutes of music, Kondo put to rest an era of bleeps and bloops-the sterile products of a lab environment-replacing it with one in which game sounds constituted a legitimate form of artistic expression. Andrew Schartmann takes us through the various external factors (e.g., the video game crash of 1983, Nintendo's marketing tactics) that coalesced into a ripe environment in which Kondo's musical experiments could thrive. He then delves into the music itself, searching for reasons why our hearts still dance to the "primitive" 8-bit tunes of a bygone era.--Publisher's description.
Notes: Series numbering from spine.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-140) and web resources (pages 140-142).
Table of contents: title: Contexts. An unlikely hero is born ; Mario grows up ; Kondo's compositional philosophy ; Kondo's instruments; title: Music. Overworlds and underworlds ; The "underwater" waltz ; Bowser's "castle" theme and other endings ; Sound effects.