Turned it off after a couple minutes because ugh, feels like a tumblr-style commentary making things up to be interesting. The name of the video did not help. The soundtrack is mostly made by...
Turned it off after a couple minutes because ugh, feels like a tumblr-style commentary making things up to be interesting. The name of the video did not help.
The soundtrack is mostly made by Jerry Martin and Marc Russo, who are great musicians and didn't make "...different" music as a social commentary, they simply made a normal well made soundtrack inspired by the topics of the game. Parts of the style being different from how music is used in some games today is simply a product of the time when the game was created, not some conscious subversion. Some of their music for The Sims expansion packs is also excellent, and possibly their most famous work is the soundtrack for Sim City 3000.
Just spend 40 minutes listening to the music instead of watching this video.
Here are my favorites by them, from Sim City: Jerry Martin - Sim Broadway - an orchestral piece that I sometimes listen to in the morning in stead of having a coffee Marc Russo - Central Park Sunday - 5/4 jazz that sounds a bit like stealing from Take Five by Brubeck but transforming it into upbeat energy similar to the above. Jerry Martin - UpDown Town - a sort of "90s modern jazz" with a slight lounge/cocktail bar feel.
By the way Jerry Martin (and collaborators) are still making music but he's mostly self-publishing it here on this website which looks somewhat like a scam: https://boombamboom.com/
By the way Jerry Martin (and collaborators) are still making music but he's mostly self-publishing it here on this website which looks somewhat like a scam:
Factually the Sims game itself is (or was meant to be) an intentional satire, subversion, and interrogation of consumerism and materialism. Its creator, Will Wright, lost his home and all his...
Parts of the style being different from how music is used in some games today is simply a product of the time when the game was created, not some conscious subversion.
Factually the Sims game itself is (or was meant to be) an intentional satire, subversion, and interrogation of consumerism and materialism. Its creator, Will Wright, lost his home and all his material possessions in a ferocious fire that devastated the Berkeley hills, destroyed thousands of homes, and killed 25 people in 1991, 9 years before The Sims' release. The experience of rebuilding his home and life from the ground up got him thinking about his attachment to possessions and inspired him to create The Sims.
Given that sound is an important aspect of game design, something that would not be lost on a master game designer like Will Wright, it would be inconceivable if Wright's conscious satirical intentions around the non-sound aspects of the game did not also touch its sound design.
Will Wright’s home was one of the first to burn in the Oakland-Berkeley Firestorm...
The process of assessing his losses and material needs after his home burned down set Wright to thinking about the value of possessions and the promise they hold of fulfillment. Having always been passionate about architecture, he began to develop an idea for a game where players would simulate daily activities in a suburban household, including building a home from scratch: The Sims was born.
Wright discovered that the loss of his possessions did not overly affect him. “The interesting part was to find out that I wasn’t really that attached to much,” he says. “I started assessing my material needs: a toothbrush, underwear, a car, a house… I was surprised how I didn’t miss stuff. The fact we got out and none of our family was hurt seemed so much more important.”
The Sims had its genesis right there, as Wright went through his inventory of needs — as he “tried to reacquire a life”.
“I started to wonder about all the things we have and how we purchased them for a reason. Why do we need x or y or z? Why do we think something will make me happier? It almost came down to Maslow’s pyramid of needs,” he says.
The Firestorm made Wright step back from his life and ask himself “what is life made up of”, he says. “Rarely do you do that in your real life. When something like this happens, you get a big picture. Where do I want to live? What sort of things do I need to buy? You see your life almost as a project in process. When you’re embedded in your day-to-day life you don’t get that perspective.”
Wright looked at time studies — such as John Robinson and Geoffrey Godby’s Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans use Their Time. He also immersed himself in analyses of shopping behavior. The insights he gleaned, combined with his fascination with architecture and living spaces, led to the blueprint for The Sims — a game whose focus is building spaces and simulating the daily habits of people who live in them.
So ants were on his mind when Wright went back up to the site of his razed home in the hills. “The only life form that had survived was ants,” he says. “They had been deep in the ground so they had survived the heat. I was tuned in to ants, I guess. I watched as they came up and carried off the dead ants on the surface — they were feeding off their dead comrades.”
“I never really thought of The Sims as inherently optimistic,” Wright, 65, said. “I always thought of The Sims as slightly sarcastically nostalgic for a past that never really existed.”
The Sims was a satirical take on American consumerism. Wright echoed the grandiose claims of postwar advertising in the game’s furniture catalog, which offered Sims toasters and chairs that promised to change their lives. There was often a correlation between the price paid for an item and how much it would improve a Sim’s mood.
“You buy all these things,” he explained. “Fridges and TVs. And all these things promise to make you happy. But at some point they all start breaking down. They become hidden time bombs.”
Sim autonomy was originally too good, so it got dumbed down. Though the sims appeared stupid, it was intentional: Wright wanted to make players feel superficially powerful but then subvert that feeling.
Each disaster was carefully engineered. “In early versions of the game, the autonomy was too good,” Wright said. “Almost anything the player did was worse than the Sims running on autopilot.” So he infused his simulation with a little chaos to make players feel like anything could happen. Even guinea pigs, introduced as low-maintenance pets, might accidentally bite a character and leave them with a deadly disease.
Wright wanted players to feel like they were gods controlling stupid ants when, in reality, they were actually ants pretending to be gods. Even the cheat codes that could change the moods of Sims or instantly increase funds were intentionally included by developers to make players feel like they were breaking the game.
Ants are a poignant metaphor for Wright, who pulled The Sims through a grueling seven-year development process after the Oakland-Berkeley firestorm in 1991 destroyed most of his belongings.
“When I returned to the ashes of my house, I noticed that the only things still alive were ants,” said Wright, whose insect simulator SimAnt was published that year. “They had burrowed deep into the ground to survive the fire and were living off the dead carcasses of what they could forage.”
All of this is really interesting context. But without wanting to seem combative, as a musician who plays music that is partially similar (and yeah, most of such music is from the 50s or 60s) I...
All of this is really interesting context. But without wanting to seem combative, as a musician who plays music that is partially similar (and yeah, most of such music is from the 50s or 60s) I just don't hear it in there, apart from obviously referencing a different era. My interpretation is that Will Wright chose this music because of the era it comes from and because of its energy, which helped create the image he was going for, but there is nothing strange or subversive about the music itself - if anything it may provide a contrast to a sim running around a house on fire by not being strange or complicated.
I've got a few composer friends and family who coincidentally grew up on The Sims; their professional opinion is that the music is kinda dreck. Especially the build mode piano music, as part of a...
I've got a few composer friends and family who coincidentally grew up on The Sims; their professional opinion is that the music is kinda dreck. Especially the build mode piano music, as part of a modern classical / neoclassical/ whatever genre you want to call it movement of stuff that often pushes nothing and sounds really similar, sometimes because it's pop masquerading as classical. From that standpoint I skimmed the video and heard it talk musically about tempo and key changes, and that the author liked it, which, uh. That's music, baby.
Anyway - I think the video (from what I saw) established well that, regardless of how different it is, it's fitting getting that nuclear Americana vibe down. The Sims 1 starts off a lot more straightforward and modern than the later games opening up the postmodern nuances of social life, so the fact that the music hits the 50's-70's vibe works really damn well for the original release. Plus, it's The Sims - it got in front of millions of ears who had the bleep-bloop idea of video game music and were greeted with CD audio and bossa nova. Whether it's derivative or nothing special in a vacuum, nostalgia's a hell of a drug; it was completely alien to my ear at like 7 y/o listening to my sister play it all the time, I still occasionally listen to it myself since it sends me back, and since it works in the context of the game I think it does its job.
FWIW I'm discovering Ryuichi Sakamoto's stuff recently and my mind immediately went to The Sims's build mode as my "idea" of that genre.
I think this is to some degree necessary if you want music that's accessible to the mainstream. I'm not educated in this genre, but I wouldn't expect anything else. I play in a jazz band that...
I've got a few composer friends and family who coincidentally grew up on The Sims; their professional opinion is that the music is kinda dreck. Especially the build mode piano music, as part of a modern classical / neoclassical/ whatever genre you want to call it movement of stuff that often pushes nothing and sounds really similar, sometimes because it's pop masquerading as classical.
I think this is to some degree necessary if you want music that's accessible to the mainstream. I'm not educated in this genre, but I wouldn't expect anything else.
I play in a jazz band that focuses on various subgenres mostly from 40s till 70s that are playful and digestible for non-jazz people but still interesting - some classic standards, some swing, 50s lounge and bossa, some Sinatra, some Brubeck... From this point of view some of the soundtrack's jazz songs are really good, they have great atmosphere, they have useful forms that allow for interesting improvisation when played live, and they have a core that's likeable for the "educated masses", not just jazz musicians. And indeed we actually play the two linked songs, Central Park Sunday and UpDown Town, and people seem to like them.
I've always found The Sims 1's soundtrack to be uniquely distinctive for a video game soundtrack. It doesn't sound like a video game soundtrack. It actually sounds like a television show...
I've always found The Sims 1's soundtrack to be uniquely distinctive for a video game soundtrack.
It doesn't sound like a video game soundtrack. It actually sounds like a television show soundtrack. You're not playing a video game: you're directing a TV show with Sims as your actors.
And that TV show celebrates and satirizes the late 20th century American Dream and hyperconsumerism. It blends together the mundane and the zany: you're pushing your little Sims to work and earn money so you can discard old, working things for newer, shinier things and build a bigger, fancier house yet there's no win condition: life simply goes on.
The Sims was released in year 2000, at the tail end of the golden age of a TV show that also celebrated and satirized the American Dream and Americana: The Simpsons. I wonder if a decade of The Simpsons leading up to The Sims ever influenced its design. Compare The Sims track "Groceries" (which plays in the game's 'shopping' mode) to the scene where Mr. Burns goes on an extravagant, self-indulging shopping spree.
Turned it off after a couple minutes because ugh, feels like a tumblr-style commentary making things up to be interesting. The name of the video did not help.
The soundtrack is mostly made by Jerry Martin and Marc Russo, who are great musicians and didn't make "...different" music as a social commentary, they simply made a normal well made soundtrack inspired by the topics of the game. Parts of the style being different from how music is used in some games today is simply a product of the time when the game was created, not some conscious subversion. Some of their music for The Sims expansion packs is also excellent, and possibly their most famous work is the soundtrack for Sim City 3000.
Just spend 40 minutes listening to the music instead of watching this video.
Here are my favorites by them, from Sim City:
Jerry Martin - Sim Broadway - an orchestral piece that I sometimes listen to in the morning in stead of having a coffee
Marc Russo - Central Park Sunday - 5/4 jazz that sounds a bit like stealing from Take Five by Brubeck but transforming it into upbeat energy similar to the above.
Jerry Martin - UpDown Town - a sort of "90s modern jazz" with a slight lounge/cocktail bar feel.
Edit: And out of The Sims soundtrack, my favorite is music from the Hot Date expansion
By the way Jerry Martin (and collaborators) are still making music but he's mostly self-publishing it here on this website which looks somewhat like a scam:
https://boombamboom.com/
Factually the Sims game itself is (or was meant to be) an intentional satire, subversion, and interrogation of consumerism and materialism. Its creator, Will Wright, lost his home and all his material possessions in a ferocious fire that devastated the Berkeley hills, destroyed thousands of homes, and killed 25 people in 1991, 9 years before The Sims' release. The experience of rebuilding his home and life from the ground up got him thinking about his attachment to possessions and inspired him to create The Sims.
Given that sound is an important aspect of game design, something that would not be lost on a master game designer like Will Wright, it would be inconceivable if Wright's conscious satirical intentions around the non-sound aspects of the game did not also touch its sound design.
In Will Wright's interview with Berkeleyside:
In his interview with the New York Times:
Sim autonomy was originally too good, so it got dumbed down. Though the sims appeared stupid, it was intentional: Wright wanted to make players feel superficially powerful but then subvert that feeling.
All of this is really interesting context. But without wanting to seem combative, as a musician who plays music that is partially similar (and yeah, most of such music is from the 50s or 60s) I just don't hear it in there, apart from obviously referencing a different era. My interpretation is that Will Wright chose this music because of the era it comes from and because of its energy, which helped create the image he was going for, but there is nothing strange or subversive about the music itself - if anything it may provide a contrast to a sim running around a house on fire by not being strange or complicated.
I've got a few composer friends and family who coincidentally grew up on The Sims; their professional opinion is that the music is kinda dreck. Especially the build mode piano music, as part of a modern classical / neoclassical/ whatever genre you want to call it movement of stuff that often pushes nothing and sounds really similar, sometimes because it's pop masquerading as classical. From that standpoint I skimmed the video and heard it talk musically about tempo and key changes, and that the author liked it, which, uh. That's music, baby.
Anyway - I think the video (from what I saw) established well that, regardless of how different it is, it's fitting getting that nuclear Americana vibe down. The Sims 1 starts off a lot more straightforward and modern than the later games opening up the postmodern nuances of social life, so the fact that the music hits the 50's-70's vibe works really damn well for the original release. Plus, it's The Sims - it got in front of millions of ears who had the bleep-bloop idea of video game music and were greeted with CD audio and bossa nova. Whether it's derivative or nothing special in a vacuum, nostalgia's a hell of a drug; it was completely alien to my ear at like 7 y/o listening to my sister play it all the time, I still occasionally listen to it myself since it sends me back, and since it works in the context of the game I think it does its job.
FWIW I'm discovering Ryuichi Sakamoto's stuff recently and my mind immediately went to The Sims's build mode as my "idea" of that genre.
I think this is to some degree necessary if you want music that's accessible to the mainstream. I'm not educated in this genre, but I wouldn't expect anything else.
I play in a jazz band that focuses on various subgenres mostly from 40s till 70s that are playful and digestible for non-jazz people but still interesting - some classic standards, some swing, 50s lounge and bossa, some Sinatra, some Brubeck... From this point of view some of the soundtrack's jazz songs are really good, they have great atmosphere, they have useful forms that allow for interesting improvisation when played live, and they have a core that's likeable for the "educated masses", not just jazz musicians. And indeed we actually play the two linked songs, Central Park Sunday and UpDown Town, and people seem to like them.
I've always found The Sims 1's soundtrack to be uniquely distinctive for a video game soundtrack.
It doesn't sound like a video game soundtrack. It actually sounds like a television show soundtrack. You're not playing a video game: you're directing a TV show with Sims as your actors.
And that TV show celebrates and satirizes the late 20th century American Dream and hyperconsumerism. It blends together the mundane and the zany: you're pushing your little Sims to work and earn money so you can discard old, working things for newer, shinier things and build a bigger, fancier house yet there's no win condition: life simply goes on.
The Sims was released in year 2000, at the tail end of the golden age of a TV show that also celebrated and satirized the American Dream and Americana: The Simpsons. I wonder if a decade of The Simpsons leading up to The Sims ever influenced its design. Compare The Sims track "Groceries" (which plays in the game's 'shopping' mode) to the scene where Mr. Burns goes on an extravagant, self-indulging shopping spree.