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Video game music goes to next level at Grammys

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Video game music goes to next level at Grammys

Whether it is the catchy chime of a chiptune, the melodies of the metaverse or the latest trending “Super Mario Bros” remix — video game music is seemingly boundless.

Now the growing popularity of the video game industry and years of advocacy from game composers will be reflected in the 2023 Grammy Awards as the Recording Academy announced its inaugural “Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media” category.
Five nominees will compete at Sunday’s Grammys, out of the 70 original scores submitted for the category’s maiden year. The nominees are composers Austin Wintory for “Aliens: Fireteam Elite,” Stephanie Economou for “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok,” Bear McCreary for “Call of Duty: Vanguard,” Richard Jacques for “Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy” and Christopher Tin for “Old World.”

The success of video game music coincides with the overall growth of the global games market, which in 2022 generated total revenues of $184.4 billion and is expected to reach $211.2 billion revenue by 2025, according to data analytics firm Newzoo.

The video game industry also flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic as people increasingly turned to digital entertainment during lockdowns. “It was only a matter of time before the Grammys recognized that there were a lot of soundtracks being produced for video games and they’re all very good,” Tin told Reuters.

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Tin’s “Baba Yetu” theme for the game “Civilization IV” won the “Best Instrumental Arrangement” Grammy in 2011, making him the first video game nominee and winner, while Wintory’s soundtrack for the game “Journey” was nominated in the “Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media” in 2012.

“Video games have been making waves with new revenue streams for some time,” Uziel Colon, who helped develop the new category, told the Grammys. “In the future, video games and music will merge — it’s already happening.”

However, video game music has not always hit all the right notes to be specifically recognized at the Grammys.

“Video game music has been eligible for the Grammys since 1999, and only one score had ever been nominated before, which was ten years ago. There are people who I think were dissatisfied with that,” Wintory told Reuters.

Wintory said video games were not being nominated at all when the category they fell under was “Best Score Soundtrack for Film, Television, and Other Media” because being labeled “Other Media” was “marginalizing” them as a sort of miscellaneous category.

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But game music is breaking ground through technological innovation and new avenues for consumers to experience it.

This includes live immersive video game concerts, video game scores across platforms like YouTube,Twitch, TikTok and Fortnite, remixes and collaborations, augmented and virtual reality and even eye-tracking technology.

Economou told Reuters that having Grammys recognition provides validation that video game music is shaping “the musical landscape of society.”

McCreary, who has composed music for popular shows like “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Walking Dead,” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” believes composing for games, movies and TV shows is not so different.

“For me, story and theme are universal,” he told Reuters.

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Yet, he said video games have unique challenges for composers because they are interactive experiences versus only being witnessed by the audience.

The music must “work in a unique technical capacity, beyond simply supporting narrative,” he added.

Collaborating with game developers and audio teams informs his ability to write music that can be smoothly integrated into a video game.

“It’s a close collaboration unlike anything else in the entertainment industry,” McCreary said.

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Roger Whittaker: Durham Town folk singer dies at 87

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Roger Whittaker: Durham Town folk singer dies at 87

Folk singer Roger Whittaker, famous for his 1969 hit song Durham Town and expert whistling, has died at the age of 87.

His other hits included The Last Farewell and New World in the Morning, and he sold nearly 50 million records around the world, his website said.

After starting in folk clubs, he went on to success with the Skye Boat Song, a duet with Des O’Connor in 1986.

He was also able to sing in several languages.

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They included German and French, allowing him to appeal to a wide audience, especially in Germany, where he was particularly popular.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1936, his parents were from Staffordshire, England.

Whittaker studied medicine after doing national service in Kenya.

While studying for his degree, he sang in local clubs and wrote his own songs.

But he left his medical course after 18 months and went in to teaching, moving to the University of Bangor in Wales in 1959 to get a teaching qualification.

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While there, he composed some songs to sing during university Rag Week, and sent a demo track to a music publisher.

“Before he knew it, Roger was back in the studio recording his first single, The Charge of the Light Brigade,” his biography said.

His next release, Steel Men, picked up airplay while he was still a student, and his career began to progress, with TV work following.

He retired with his wife Natalie in France in 2012.

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Katy Perry sells rights to five albums including ‘Teenage Dream’ to Litmus Music

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Katy Perry sells rights to five albums including 'Teenage Dream' to Litmus Music

 Singer Katy Perry has signed a deal to sell rights to five of her studio albums released between 2008 and 2020 including “Teenage Dream” to Carlyle-backed Litmus Music, the music rights company said on Monday.

“One of the Boys,” “PRISM,” “Witness” and “Smile” are the other four studio albums that are part of the deal.

Billboard reported the deal was valued at $225 million, citing sources. Private equity firm Carlyle declined to comment on the deal value.
The five studio albums were released under Perry’s contract with Capitol Records, whose former president Dan McCarroll is the co-founder of Litmus Music.

Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs and other investment firms have in recent years scooped up music catalogs of artists including Justin Bieber and Bob Dylan as the rise of streaming turns their songs into a reliable source of revenue.

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With Perry, Litmus Music gets access to an artist who shot to fame in July 2008 with the track “I Kissed A Girl” and has earned 13 Grammy nominations and five MTV Video Music Awards.

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YouTube cuts off Russell Brand’s ad revenues: Sky News

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YouTube cuts off Russell Brand's ad revenues: Sky News

 YouTube has suspended adverts on Russell Brand’s online videos, Sky News said on Tuesday, after accusations of sexual assaults involving the British actor and comedian.

Brand, once one of the country’s most high-profile comedians and broadcasters, has over 6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel.

London police said on Monday they had received an allegation of a sexual assault dating back 20 years following media reports about comedian and actor Russell Brand.

Brand, 48, said on Saturday he had never had non-consensual sex when the Sunday Times newspaper and Channel 4 TV’s documentary show “Dispatches” reported that four women had accused him of sexual assaults, including a rape, between 2006 and 2013.

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Police said since those allegations were published and broadcast they had received a report of an assault alleged to have taken place in Soho, central London, in 2003.

“Officers are in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support,” the Metropolitan Police statement said.

“We first spoke with The Sunday Times on Saturday, 16 September and have since made further approaches to The Sunday Times and Channel 4 to ensure that anyone who believes they have been the victim of a sexual offence is aware of how to report this to the police.”

There was no immediate comment from Brand’s representatives following the police statement.

Brand, the former husband of US singer Katy Perry, issued a video message on social media to deny the “very serious criminal allegations” hours before they published on Saturday.

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“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” Brand said.

“Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual,” added the comedian, known for his flamboyant style and appearance who has starred in a number of films such as “Get Him to the Greek”.

The Times and Dispatches said one woman had made an allegation of rape, while another said Brand assaulted her when she was 16 and still at school. Two of the accusers had reported the incidents occurred in Los Angeles.

The reports of the allegations about Brand, once one of the country’s most high-profile comedians and broadcasters, has dominated British media since they appeared.

He was in the middle of a stand-up tour and was due to perform at the Theatre Royal Windsor on Tuesday, but this has now been cancelled.

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“We are postponing these few remaining addiction charity fundraiser shows, we don’t like doing it – but we know you’ll understand,” said a statement from his tour promoters, shared by the theatre.

The BBC, on whose radio programmes he worked between 2006 and 2008, said it was urgently looking into issues raised by the allegations and Banijay UK, the production company behind a television show once hosted by Brand, said it had too launched an urgent internal investigation.

“These are very serious and concerning allegations, and you will know the Met Police has asked anyone who believes they have been victim of a sexual assault to come forward and speak to officers,” a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters.
 

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