Western Battle Music Breakdown

Western as in "American" or "not Japanese," not as in the wild west and all that. Fact is, western video game music is starkly different from Japanese video game music. I grew up on the later, so this (actually very recent) transition in to a more western style of music was a bit difficult for me, and I took some extensive notes.

Extensive notes that you would perhaps be interested in seeing?

There's plenty of great examples of western style cinematic music, but the references I worked from were 1.) John Powell's soundtrack from "Green Zone" and 2.) Lost Planet.



First thing you notice is effects. Electronic sound effects are fantastic for filling in space where a melody would normally be. Because, unfortunately, melody isn't what intense western music is about. A Final Fantasy battle theme would have a crazy catchy melody and all that, but not here in 'Merica, I guess (haha). Well, there are some fragments of melody in this track, but that's all they are; fragments. And usually very dissonant fragments. The melody is angular, strange, and a bit jarring. All of this plays very well in to creating intensity and emotion, though.

Second thing you notice is the percussion. Just LISTEN to those layers! There's at least 4 or 5 different tracks just for percussion! There's a shaker, there's wooden hits and effects, there's taiko drum-like beats, there's OTHER taiko-like drum beats, there's a big electronic drum on the downbeat, there's deep bass drum hits, and probably some more things you can't even really hear. All this creates rhythmic variation, and a lot of syncopation, and putting these "conflicting" rhythms against each other is a great way to build intensity (and interest). So if you're going for this style of music, experiment with layering a metric ton of percussion in, and having tracks fade in and out. Can't have all 6 tracks going 100% of the time, after all, that's pretty boring. Just a little side note, the time signature isn't really that important. The layering and syncopation of the percussion creates the interest, regardless of whether you're in 4/4, 5/4, or even 7/4.

Third thing you notice is the Hollywood orchestral sound effects. I'm talking about the horn bends you hear all the time in Lost, and the clustered chords in the strings. One thing this particular track doesn't have much of, but the rest of the Lost Planet soundtrack (and most of John Powell's work) has is stabs. Orchestral hits. You know, those sharp and sudden BLURTS of sound from the horns and strings, usually on off-beats. This kind of music is big on those kinds of effects, because again, it's less about melody and more about emotion. Very primal emotion, at that.

Fourth thing you should notice is how there's really only one "chord" throughout the entire track. There's pretty much no chord progression at all, which is fine, because the intensity is built without it. The percussion, horn/string effects carry the piece along, so there's not as much of a need for an interesting chord progression, though that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to fit one in, if you can, and it works. But if you do, let me give you a tip. Focus less on chord changes, and more on key changes. And do NOT approach your key changes at all. A lot of really intense music tends to stick on the tonic of the key it's in, and if it does change to a new key, there is NO transition. It's just happens! BAM! Go ahead and try it! Try jamming over an A minor chord for a while, and then, very suddenly and without any transition or lead in, jump up to a C minor chord and start jamming on that. That's how it's done! No transition = sudden = more intense. And moving up by a minor (or major) 3rd works wonders.

Honestly, that's about it. It's a little disappointing sometimes, because it's really easy to make this kind of music once you break it down in to what it's made up of. Japanese battle music is an entirely different animal, it's about melody and crazy chord progressions, and unique instrumentation. Sadly, most western battle music is sort of bland, and all kind of sounds the same. (DISCLAIMER: I said MOST, not ALL.) There's a great interview (which you can read here) of some well-known Japanese game composers talking about Western music that pretty much echoes everything I've already said in this post. People seem to love this kind of music, though, so being able to produce tracks likes these can be a very valuable skill to have.

Well, I hope you learned something. Stay tuned for the usual new music update this Friday. I'm not sure which track I'm going to share, but I know you'll love it. :)

Have a great week!