Addressing Select Cultural Theory Terminology and Their Possible Applications to Video Game Music
Academic and non-academic research constantly changes with new and credible information available to the public. Certain terms tend to fall out of favor over time: either because they no longer function as reliable guides for public discourse as they had in the past, or because the available literature bears little to no scientific merit. I have encountered such problems when uncovering information about cultural appropriation, cultural authenticity, and cultural essentialism. These terms sound beneficial on the surface, but further perusals reveal grossly unscientific distractions.
Cultural appropriation has become frequently overused. It also has received no consensus in academic circles and is often weaponized by society. Likewise, people have different opinions and interpretations about what factors determine something as “genuine.” Cultural authenticity is no exception. It is for that same reason why it can prove a problematic term to use in and outside of academia. By contrast, cultural essentialism attempts to differentiate cultures and their customs from each other by determining their “uniqueness.” Scholars like Eric Hatala Matthes perceive cultural essentialism more as a problem than a solution. Cultural essentialism attempts to locate differences through cultural stereotyping and marginalization by assuming that some cultures function in certain ways than others (Matthes 2018).
It quickly becomes evident that contemporary scholarship should avoid outdated or unscientific terminologies. What alternatives can current academic literature apply when discussing Cultural Studies? How would the information relate to video game music within that context? Answers to these questions vary, but my VGM list concentrates on the challenges to cultural representation in video games due to the following:
- transculturation: Developed in the 1940s by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969) transculturation refers to a process that involves modifying and combining cultures to create a new culture, but doing so at the risks of cultural loss and gain (Ortiz 1940). This theory is now referred to in contemporary academia as “Trans-culturality,”
- exoticism: I use this term to refer to and discuss music meant to evoke another country or global region. My application of the term for this research concentrates primarily on how VGM composers have relied on exoticism and the consequences of (mis)representing different cultures through music.
Observations:
Countries or Regions Represented in Video Game Music: What I Have Encountered So Far
I have located many musical references to Iberia, Latin America, and the Caribbean in video games. Based on the playlist that I have compiled so far, some regional influences tend to receive more attention than others. I have organized the countries and territories within Iberian, Latin American, and the Caribbean by their respective regions to avoid confusion. I follow that categorization with a list of some musical genres featured in video game music that derive inspiration from these areas of the world. This includes musical influences from Afro-Latin and indigenous cultures:
Europe
Spain
Portugal
Latin America
Brazil (South America)
Peru (South America)
Mexico (Central America)
Argentina (South America)
Caribbean
Cuba (Hispanophone Caribbean)
Puerto Rico (Hispanophone Caribbean)
Jamaica (Anglophone Caribbean)
Musical Genres in VGM That Derive from Derrive from Iberia, Latin America, and the Caribbean
Flamenco (Spain)
Fado (Portugal)
Salsa (Cuba, Puerto Rico)
Mambo (Cuba)
Tango (Argentina, Spain via a connection to Romani music culture)
Mariachi (Mexico)
Samba (Brazil)
Bossa Nova (Brazil)
Choro (Brazil)
Incan Pan Pipes and/or percussive music from indigenous cultures (Peru, Mexico)
Reggae (Anglophone Caribbean, specifically Jamaica)
Ska (Anglophone Caribbean)
Limbo Music (Anglophone Caribbean)
Latin Jazz (Mixture of African, Spanish, and Portuguese music cultures)
As I previously mentioned, some countries or regions receive more attention in video games and video game music than other areas. I noticed, for instance, that many video games apply musical genres and aesthetics from Brazil in South America: primarily, the samba and bossa nova. These genres extend to multiple types of video games. I found multiple occurrences of Brazilian musical influences in:
- Fighting games, like the Street Fighter series (1987-Present), which feature playable characters from Brazil
- Racing games, like OutRun (1986)
- Flight simulators, like Pilotwings (1990, 1991), such as in the "Flight Club" theme
- Strategy games, like Uncharted Waters: New Horizons (1994), which can be heard in the track entitled "Empty Eyes," which plays when stationed at ports outside of Europe (Several versions of this tracks vary based on the PC or console ports. The Sega Genesis version slightly decreases the tempo of the DOS version while staying in the same key, while the same theme on SNES version gets entirely transposed and reorchestrated. The track also appears as a song with lyrics-- renamed "Emerald Sea"-- in the Uncharted Waters II: Special Edition soundtrack.
- Business simulators, like Leading Company (1993), a game exclusive to Japan for the Nintendo Super Famicom (SFC) and PC
It also deserves mention that Latin American and Caribbean representation in video games can prove complicated. Some instances that demonstrate Puerto Rican culture refer to the stateside Puerto Rican communities in the mainland United States rather than to the people on the island in the Caribbean. More specifically, some video games (like Spider-Man: Miles Morales for the PlayStation 5 from 2020) explicitly depict the Puerto Rican Boricua culture in places like New York City through attention to detail and maintaining respect to the customs, foodways, and music.
In discussing exoticism in VGM, I argue that the term should not limit itself to only the Western Hemisphere via Europe and the United States. History has proven that Western cultures have tried to portray “non-Western” music and cultures for centuries: often via stereotyping that has not aged well in the socially conscious and polarizing twenty-first century. Video game music and scoring, however, add a new dimension to understanding exoticism and (to a certain degree) cultural ownership. Many tracks that feature Iberian, Latin American and Caribbean musical styles and instrumentations derive from Japan via musical “Westernization.” Results vary depending on the overall context of a given game, character development, and the mood that the VGM composer wishes to convey. In that respect it offers a glimpse into how etic cultures—those outside the scope of the Western Hemisphere—interpret and reflect parts of the Western Hemisphere through music and interactive experiences. I will offer more to discuss about my ongoing research in a later post.
Academic and non-academic research constantly changes with new and credible information available to the public. Certain terms tend to fall out of favor over time: either because they no longer function as reliable guides for public discourse as they had in the past, or because the available literature bears little to no scientific merit. I have encountered such problems when uncovering information about cultural appropriation, cultural authenticity, and cultural essentialism. These terms sound beneficial on the surface, but further perusals reveal grossly unscientific distractions.
Cultural appropriation has become frequently overused. It also has received no consensus in academic circles and is often weaponized by society. Likewise, people have different opinions and interpretations about what factors determine something as “genuine.” Cultural authenticity is no exception. It is for that same reason why it can prove a problematic term to use in and outside of academia. By contrast, cultural essentialism attempts to differentiate cultures and their customs from each other by determining their “uniqueness.” Scholars like Eric Hatala Matthes perceive cultural essentialism more as a problem than a solution. Cultural essentialism attempts to locate differences through cultural stereotyping and marginalization by assuming that some cultures function in certain ways than others (Matthes 2018).
It quickly becomes evident that contemporary scholarship should avoid outdated or unscientific terminologies. What alternatives can current academic literature apply when discussing Cultural Studies? How would the information relate to video game music within that context? Answers to these questions vary, but my VGM list concentrates on the challenges to cultural representation in video games due to the following:
- transculturation: Developed in the 1940s by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969) transculturation refers to a process that involves modifying and combining cultures to create a new culture, but doing so at the risks of cultural loss and gain (Ortiz 1940). This theory is now referred to in contemporary academia as “Trans-culturality,”
- exoticism: I use this term to refer to and discuss music meant to evoke another country or global region. My application of the term for this research concentrates primarily on how VGM composers have relied on exoticism and the consequences of (mis)representing different cultures through music.
Observations:
Countries or Regions Represented in Video Game Music: What I Have Encountered So Far
I have located many musical references to Iberia, Latin America, and the Caribbean in video games. Based on the playlist that I have compiled so far, some regional influences tend to receive more attention than others. I have organized the countries and territories within Iberian, Latin American, and the Caribbean by their respective regions to avoid confusion. I follow that categorization with a list of some musical genres featured in video game music that derive inspiration from these areas of the world. This includes musical influences from Afro-Latin and indigenous cultures:
Europe
Spain
Portugal
Latin America
Brazil (South America)
Peru (South America)
Mexico (Central America)
Argentina (South America)
Caribbean
Cuba (Hispanophone Caribbean)
Puerto Rico (Hispanophone Caribbean)
Jamaica (Anglophone Caribbean)
Musical Genres in VGM That Derive from Derrive from Iberia, Latin America, and the Caribbean
Flamenco (Spain)
Fado (Portugal)
Salsa (Cuba, Puerto Rico)
Mambo (Cuba)
Tango (Argentina, Spain via a connection to Romani music culture)
Mariachi (Mexico)
Samba (Brazil)
Bossa Nova (Brazil)
Choro (Brazil)
Incan Pan Pipes and/or percussive music from indigenous cultures (Peru, Mexico)
Reggae (Anglophone Caribbean, specifically Jamaica)
Ska (Anglophone Caribbean)
Limbo Music (Anglophone Caribbean)
Latin Jazz (Mixture of African, Spanish, and Portuguese music cultures)
As I previously mentioned, some countries or regions receive more attention in video games and video game music than other areas. I noticed, for instance, that many video games apply musical genres and aesthetics from Brazil in South America: primarily, the samba and bossa nova. These genres extend to multiple types of video games. I found multiple occurrences of Brazilian musical influences in:
- Fighting games, like the Street Fighter series (1987-Present), which feature playable characters from Brazil
- Racing games, like OutRun (1986)
- Flight simulators, like Pilotwings (1990, 1991), such as in the "Flight Club" theme
- Strategy games, like Uncharted Waters: New Horizons (1994), which can be heard in the track entitled "Empty Eyes," which plays when stationed at ports outside of Europe (Several versions of this tracks vary based on the PC or console ports. The Sega Genesis version slightly decreases the tempo of the DOS version while staying in the same key, while the same theme on SNES version gets entirely transposed and reorchestrated. The track also appears as a song with lyrics-- renamed "Emerald Sea"-- in the Uncharted Waters II: Special Edition soundtrack.
- Business simulators, like Leading Company (1993), a game exclusive to Japan for the Nintendo Super Famicom (SFC) and PC
It also deserves mention that Latin American and Caribbean representation in video games can prove complicated. Some instances that demonstrate Puerto Rican culture refer to the stateside Puerto Rican communities in the mainland United States rather than to the people on the island in the Caribbean. More specifically, some video games (like Spider-Man: Miles Morales for the PlayStation 5 from 2020) explicitly depict the Puerto Rican Boricua culture in places like New York City through attention to detail and maintaining respect to the customs, foodways, and music.
In discussing exoticism in VGM, I argue that the term should not limit itself to only the Western Hemisphere via Europe and the United States. History has proven that Western cultures have tried to portray “non-Western” music and cultures for centuries: often via stereotyping that has not aged well in the socially conscious and polarizing twenty-first century. Video game music and scoring, however, add a new dimension to understanding exoticism and (to a certain degree) cultural ownership. Many tracks that feature Iberian, Latin American and Caribbean musical styles and instrumentations derive from Japan via musical “Westernization.” Results vary depending on the overall context of a given game, character development, and the mood that the VGM composer wishes to convey. In that respect it offers a glimpse into how etic cultures—those outside the scope of the Western Hemisphere—interpret and reflect parts of the Western Hemisphere through music and interactive experiences. I will offer more to discuss about my ongoing research in a later post.
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