5:44 - "I like to think of it like telling a story. Bear with me here, cause this is gonna get a little abstract." Me: This is literally the only part of this video I understand
What part of "Notice how X show up again later as Y" did you not understand? The whole video is showing you the same melody getting played with notes held longer/shorter than the original. Anyone with ears who can understand English would easily understand that.
SMW, most of the game's soundtrack is just different arrangements of a single piece - the exceptions are boss fights, the credits, the overworld, and starman
This was incredible to hear and see explained! Mario land 2 was the game of my childhood. I remember playing back when I was 8 years old. No other game ever compared to its memorability and journey. I've beaten it many times over, and whenever my family goes on road trips I'm still sure to pack my gameboy and play through that game these 11 years later. It's music is probably one of my favorite game soundtracks just due to nostalgia. Every time I beat the game I would listen to that ending song with such joy and contempt. This video was incredibly informative even though I barely know anything about music theory. The way you simplified musical concepts made is so understandable. Thank you for this video! It's the first one I've seen from you but I'm subscribing for more :)
"Every time I beat the game I would listen to that ending song with such joy and contempt." That's such a nice memory. Can you elaborate on the contempt you felt?
Igor And you were right as the Fairy Fountain theme was based on a slowed down version of Water Land's theme. Mario and Zelda do this a lot. Another example is Zelda's Recorder tune being the same tune for the Warp Whistle in SMB3 and then being used (again slowed down) for Ocarina of Time's title theme. Koji Kondo composed most of Zelda and Mario soundtracks so it makes sense they would referenxe each other. Ive always seen Zelda and Mario series as sort of cousins to each other.
I never noticed how that countermelody in treetop is the SMB3 world 3 map until now. Also those abstract explanations are genuinely the best. It does show how the songs are structured so simply and easy. I'd have liked to hear how the machine and graveyard themes change the time signature. -Thinking about it, I really like when a subtle remix swaps the melody and countermelody around. It happened with the exact same song in aLttP and then OoT (from which onwards became a staple), but it's really cool when more complex ones are involved too so for a moment something you don't recognize at all sounds so familiar.-
Didn't even cross my mind tbh. But it's like listening to a stutterer, you stop noticing, but if a friend without any speech impediment stutters you notice right away. Also IDK I guess that keeping the same tonality for more than one bar is a requirement for really feeling the climax interrupt...otherwise Mahler would've been top choice
Has anyone else noticed that the Tree Top theme also borrows the Mario 3 World 3 theme for the F clef melody on the B section? I'm not sure if it's obvious or not, but I've played this game for hours straight and it's the first time I've noticed.
I really like your videos even if music theory often goes over my head. One difficulty I have with them is that the samples you use to demonstrate a point are often too short for me to take it in and hear what you're talking about. Maybe including more audio leading into the relevant part or repeating it a few times while slowing it down would help?
At 8:25, those long chord tones are about the same as the Great Fairy Fountain Theme for a little while. :) Also, I LOVED this game as a kid, and its soundtrack is *super* underrated! Thanks so much for doing this!
Disappointed you didn't mention my favourite zone. Halloween zone. Although, I like Macro zone too... and Mario zone... Damnit, the whole game was awesome!
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (For the Frog the Bell Tolls) was another Game Boy Game that had its music composed by Totaka... The earworms from that game are inoperable.
Pokemon G/S was such a jazzy and even melancholic soundtrack compared to the cheery fun ice-cream shop type tunes of R/B, and that always fascinated me. National Park, Azalea, Ecruteak, Goldenrod, SS Anne, Surf Theme, the ending song...how does it get that jazzy, melancholic, emotional flavor, compared to RB??
I LOVE music theory. I'm SO glad this channel exists. As of now I'm saving up to go to a university to study music and become a video game composer, and this channel is so helpful with learning ideas of how composers write their tunes. In the future, I think I'll become a patron and I might make a channel of my own like this one because I really believe we need more of this! Recently, I've been looking into the Rhythm Heaven series (specifically RHF) because I want to analyze how they made the music so catchy and in sync with the gameplay.
I'm no musical genius but I knew instantly what you meant when you said the music asks a question and then gives a response. The seashore theme gives off the vibe of asking "What is the status report?" responding with "We are going to die" lol
Dude, thank you SO much for explaining and breaking down the musical terms of antecedent and consequent or whatever as you did here at 5:45. I've been so lost listening to this channel but loved it anyway. If you could do these breakdowns for musical terms going forward, it would be awesome For instance, the explanation of antecedent and consequent here would be great to add to a 'Critical Music Terminology explained and illustrated' video.
OMG the heartwrenching nostalgia... I used to have this game, and I played it and enjoyed it very much, though I never finished it. Then one day, I traded it for Kirby's Dreamland with a schoolmate. I never got to trade it back, and I've regretted it to this day. I spent the last decade or so with it out of mind, but today, you have made me remember. ;_;
@Spaceman Spiff Game Boy games on 3DS are in fact not just black and white. If you hold L and R at the same time and press Y, you get a green palette almost identical to the original Game Boy. @SollyMakesVids If it makes you feel better, I believe a Super Mario Land 2 cartridge should be pretty cheap online now.
I love how Mario Kart Wii does thematic consistency throughout the soundtrack, you can hear the Maple Treeway theme in the Bowser's Castle theme but twisted into something sinister, it's really cool
The main melody is so fukken catchy, I still catch myself humming or whistling it (and its different versions) during a shower every now and again. (The fact that I played the game religiously as a kid probably doesn't help either. :P)
At 5:46, something magical happened. Unable to find an official term for the concept, you started to go abstract. The shackles of not studying music vaporized from my arms, and I started to _get what you were saying._ It was beautiful.
The chromatic walk up from the athletic theme has an actual name! It's called the Minsky pickup, and it originated in vaudeville. You can also hear it sung by the singing telegram girl in the movie Clue.
i got super excited when i saw this video in my subs, this game has the soundtrack of my childhood, this was the mario game i spent countless hours on my brother gameboy, and its still one of my favourites. Thanks for these videos
I just wanted to say how much I love your videos! I am headed to college studying music education and have studied music theory since freshmen year of high school, and although it has never been my favorite thing, it is really fun watching you analyze this music. Please never stop because I very much enjoy this.
This is the most well-made video I have ever seen. Outstanding design, and outstanding conveyance of your ideas. Even though I don't understand music theory, you find ways to communicate to an audience that doesn't hold your base knowledge. That shows true talent. Can't wait to see this channel grow when people see the magnificent level of quality in your works. Good job.
Just subscribed, as a music major I really appreciate how you are able to appeal to both music students and non-music students through your really thorough explanation of the musical concepts. Also Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars is a really underrated game and also has some really interesting musical ideas in it. Would be worth a listen
This was your best video yet! I found it easier to follow as someone with lower-medium musical knowledge, but just as interesting and insightful as any of your others. Keep up the terrific work man!
I never studied music theory, but watching your videos is helping learn just what hooked me on these amazing works when I was a kid. This episode in particular made the subject matter very digestible, and was a great choice. I remember thinking this game had great music when I was young, now I know why!
I played this game so much when I was younger, I think it was one of my first real video games. All of the music instantly puts a smile on my face from all the memories I have with it. When you described the athletic theme the way you did with the musical questions, it was like everything all clicked together!
One of the best melodies from Totaka. That man has his own style! I remember when I heard the "boss defeated" track in Luigi's Mansion and instantly thought about Super Mario Land 2 "Credits" track (near 0:50), where you can hear almost the same motif.
As a kid I only very rarely noticed repeated musical themes in this game. I think besides the Mario Down, Invincible end and Bonus Game end I think I only noticed a similar theme in like 2 or so levels, so this kinda blew my mind a little. The thing I did notice though was how in the Treetop version of the theme, the backing melody is is very similar to the one in the World 3 level select in Mario 3 or the Fairy Fountain in Zelda.
I really like that your videos are entertaining and informative; you're not trying to make a class, you're just pointing out things you find interesting. That way I'm getting just enough knowledge to be intrigued to research it on my own.
This video made me really nostalgic. Wow. Great analysis. You probably get requests like this all the time, but you absolutely have to take a look at the compositions in Terranigma - one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever made. Sadly only Europe and Japan got to enjoy it. North America missed out for some reason.
Damn, that main Mario theme samba while you were talking about thematic transformation... too good. Can't believe it took me almost 4 years to hear it; I come back to watch some of the old vids fairly regularly.
I love these videos man. Everytime someone asks me what my favorite song is never know what to say because game music is my favorite genre and I feel embarrassed about it. Watching your videos helps me to realize that video game music has so much care put into it and that music in general is such an amazing complex language. I started this channel a few days ago hoping to put some of my music on the internet and watching your videos has actually been quite educational. Thank you.
Thanks for bringing back this long lost fond memory ✨ played this game as a child for what now feels like hundreds of hours and now I am reminded and enabled to appreciate it's musical wonder
The way you explained the athletic theme with the "question and answer" method actually helped me understand how the song is so damn good! Keep the content coming! Give us something on Metroid?
Dude those abstract "journeys" were so damn cool. I'm not really knowledgeable about music theory so most of what you say often goes in one ear and out the other for me, but seeing you put ideas to each little bar was seriously inspiring, and I could actually follow along with it. XD
I have been observing people and their zodia signs, and the melodies and drumbeats that people naturally produce are from specific their specific characters/signs
One of my personal favorite notable evolutions of music in a video game is the World Map theme(s) of Yoshi's Island, where each world you complete gives new life to the theme by adding more instruments and other stuff.
As someone who never saw what others did in the DKC soundtrack, I would love a breakdown on what makes it work. I actually don't care for the music *that* much, but wouldn't mind having it explained
You are definitely an "up and comer" in the TH-cam scene, I subbed in the first 3 seconds because it was a love at first sight affair. It would be cool to see you take apart the industrial ambiance of Akira Yamaoka's works in the Silent Hill series, the song "Flower Crown of Poppy" from Silent Hill 3 might be a good start if you're unfamiliar with his engaging works. Alternatively, the Mischief Makers soundtrack has always held an odd charm for me and it would be interesting to see if you can find out what makes that particular soundtrack tick, it gets used in a lot of gaming TH-camr videos as background music, specifically the "Volcanic" theme. Anyways, keep up the good work :3
It was simply an abstract approach to text editing. Sometimes you need to go out of focus... to get IN focus. I get what you're saying. But rather than saying it with words, you're saying it by altering the physical nature of the words as objects; presenting a question through aesthetics rather than direct semantics. It's super deep. How blurry does text have to be before it stops being text? Does text even have real meaning if it's ultimately just a bunch of arbitrary symbols? How can text be real if our eyes aren't real? These are the real questions. If questions can even be real, man. Woah... Anyway, really digging the new artistic and philosophical direction you're taking the channel in with these super-deep blurry-text aesthetics. It's kinda intense.
Instantly subscribed to the channel! It's beautifully explained how the melodies work. Kinda reminds me of my own music, and how I also take my listeners on a musical walk in the park using theories explained here! Thank you 8-bit Music Theory!
Have you heard of Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean on the Gamecube? I think you would love picking some of that game's music apart. The BK series has some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard in a video game.
On this note, I'd also love to see something done with the FF13 Trilogy, as they have some amazing music, Miracles, Blinded By Light, and Defiers of Fate all jump to mind
Oh yes. Sakuraba is an absolute crazy man if you ask me. It would be interesting to see what 8BMT makes of him. Of course, it's pretty far from 8-bit :)
OHMY everytime i watch one of his videos and he goes on saying that high pledging peeps can suggest sth I always ask myself "what would I want him to look at" and while watching this video i thought "man i bet no one ever suggests baten kaitos, such an artistic gem" 🙈 therefore your comment made me really happy haha. Motoi Sakuraba is one of the first japanese composers who's name i learned and will always remember well thanks to some really catchy and beautiful tracks from Tales of Symphonia as well as the overall Baten Kaitos musical atmosphere.. hah I'm getting flashback associationS! GOLDEN SUN GUYS! Best gba game ever, also thanks to Sakuraba and his epic main theme composition. Leitmotif master
Also one cool thing in the tree level is that when the harmony lead kicks in it's a short Slightly modded dead ringer for the Mario 3 map theme(fairy fountain if that's more recognizable)
Thanks for the video! Currently stuck on writing some music for a game, and this video is helping me out with some ideas on how to take the main motif and expand it! Much appreciated!
Thank you so very much! I really learned alot. The questions and answers part were really mind opening. Ive heard people talk about tit b4 but never understood it. You have great teaching skills!
the ending staff roll song in this game is so amazing. i remember beating this game in the car as a kid, and just leaving the game on so i could listen to the song over and over until my batteries died. :D
This was one of the best mario games in my opinion (because i grew up playing this game) and its awesome to see the music analyzed as that is definitely a huge addition to the quirky style of this specific mario installment (and the game that birthed wario i guess)
I'm new to the channel, and I really like this type of analysis. It's great. This, along with Donkey Kong Land 1, was my very first video game and I love it, and I hate to see that it isn't as well known as other Mario titles.
Thanks for this! It's nice to see an analysis of the music that was burned into my brain at 8 years old. I still remember each note perfectly and if listening to the music alone can imagine the levels. It's also fun to play on guitar!
Some other good trivia for ya: the first six notes of the main athletic theme, the "dada, da dump dump dump", is what's known as a Minsky Pickup (or Cockney Intro), a standard intro for vaudeville songs and a common fanfare before classic song and dance numbers. Very rare in game soundtracks. See also: the singing telegram girl from Clue, the Muppet Show theme, and Robin Hood's song from the first Shrek movie.
i know I'm super late but I'm happy to see this game get some love, I used to play this all the time using a super game boy adaptor for my SNES as a hand me down from my dad, I never even got to warios castle but I still loved that game
I'm surprised you didn't discuss the boss stage music and the boss entrance music. In the case of the entrance music, a simple switch in tonality makes that original phrase become menacing.
And, by the way, I felt in love with your channel. It's great to see people caring about music in videogames, and explaining it with so much care. Keep doing this great work to mankind! Also, 8BitMusicTheory you're a composer too, right? Have you composed for any game? I want to know more about your work
I always thought this soundtrack was rather lazy to reuse the one song over and over. Kudos to you for proving me wrong with this very instructive vid on chromatic approach, I understand the methodology behind this soundtrack a LOT more now and see how clever it is by its limitation.
This is one of my favorite games. I'd be curious what you think about the Pumpkin Zone tracks (particularly the third level). I think they present an interesting deconstruction of snippets of the main theme, even though some of the variation deviates from the athletic track. Awesome video, I think it's very insightful how you identify the use of chromatic approach tones as connections from piece to piece!
I think you would be very interested in Link Between World's dungeon music. I believe every main dungeon is a remix of the same song, but it's very hard to spot.
If you like thematic cohesion you should check Risk of Rain's soundtrack. The short main theme is used all the time in a variety of moods, genres and time signatures.
There's our hero Mario, you rescued Daisy but I'm sorry bro. Two days ago I broke into your home, and so now it's Chateau Wario! *>Chuckles Maniacally*
AAAAHHHH I NEED TO STUDY THIS!! It would be really useful! Also, Super Mario Land 2 is awesome! It's the closest thing we got to a proper Super Mario World sequel, even if it doesn't control as well...
![Orchestration Techniques in Banjo Kazooie [PATRON REQUEST]](/img/n.gif)
you can really make any crap sound like cultural gold
IIIIIawesIIIII SML2 did have a catchy soundtrack. Wouldn't call it crap at all.
Yeah seriously that's extremely disrespectfully referring to such a masterpiece as "crap."
Mario on the gameboy was cultural gold in the 90s
BLASPHEMY!
Excuse me??
5:44 - "I like to think of it like telling a story. Bear with me here, cause this is gonna get a little abstract."
Me: This is literally the only part of this video I understand
Churchbus Same
PSYCHE! just kidding, go back to the beginning
What part of "Notice how X show up again later as Y" did you not understand? The whole video is showing you the same melody getting played with notes held longer/shorter than the original. Anyone with ears who can understand English would easily understand that.
@@lambdaman3228 neat o dickweed
Mario Land 2 was an excellent choice to illustrate this concept.
only thing that could top it is sonic colors, but that's heavily orchestrated
He could have just as well gone with Super Mario World. Heck, Super Mario Bros 3 has this too if you look into it a little.
@@johnrickard8512 Or Mario 64, but SML2 is a more interesting choice
SMW, most of the game's soundtrack is just different arrangements of a single piece - the exceptions are boss fights, the credits, the overworld, and starman
This was incredible to hear and see explained! Mario land 2 was the game of my childhood. I remember playing back when I was 8 years old. No other game ever compared to its memorability and journey. I've beaten it many times over, and whenever my family goes on road trips I'm still sure to pack my gameboy and play through that game these 11 years later. It's music is probably one of my favorite game soundtracks just due to nostalgia. Every time I beat the game I would listen to that ending song with such joy and contempt. This video was incredibly informative even though I barely know anything about music theory. The way you simplified musical concepts made is so understandable. Thank you for this video! It's the first one I've seen from you but I'm subscribing for more :)
"Every time I beat the game I would listen to that ending song with such joy and contempt."
That's such a nice memory. Can you elaborate on the contempt you felt?
You've probably already noticed this, but the Great Fairy theme from Zelda is hidden in the Treetop theme. You can hear it at 8:26
It also reminds me a little bit of Tea For Two, a jazz song.
Haha to me it sounded like the water land (world 3) from Mario 3: th-cam.com/video/C382wc4StOw/w-d-xo.html
I thought it was a simplification of a common bossa nova or whatever bass line style.
Igor And you were right as the Fairy Fountain theme was based on a slowed down version of Water Land's theme. Mario and Zelda do this a lot. Another example is Zelda's Recorder tune being the same tune for the Warp Whistle in SMB3 and then being used (again slowed down) for Ocarina of Time's title theme. Koji Kondo composed most of Zelda and Mario soundtracks so it makes sense they would referenxe each other. Ive always seen Zelda and Mario series as sort of cousins to each other.
i was going to mention that but you beat me by a year
I never noticed how that countermelody in treetop is the SMB3 world 3 map until now.
Also those abstract explanations are genuinely the best. It does show how the songs are structured so simply and easy.
I'd have liked to hear how the machine and graveyard themes change the time signature.
-Thinking about it, I really like when a subtle remix swaps the melody and countermelody around. It happened with the exact same song in aLttP and then OoT (from which onwards became a staple), but it's really cool when more complex ones are involved too so for a moment something you don't recognize at all sounds so familiar.-
"I'm getting ready to go the climax: PSYCHE! just kidding go back to the beginning."
Man, *Rachmaninoff* and *Wagner* couldn't have said it better
Mainly because Wagner is a piece of crap. hehe
Vhaughnur
And *Bruckner* wouldn't have even bothered to say he was getting ready
Didn't even cross my mind tbh. But it's like listening to a stutterer, you stop noticing, but if a friend without any speech impediment stutters you notice right away.
Also IDK I guess that keeping the same tonality for more than one bar is a requirement for really feeling the climax interrupt...otherwise Mahler would've been top choice
Rossini wouldn't even be bothered to get out of bed to say anything
I love how infamously hard Mario songs are for banjo players.
Has anyone else noticed that the Tree Top theme also borrows the Mario 3 World 3 theme for the F clef melody on the B section? I'm not sure if it's obvious or not, but I've played this game for hours straight and it's the first time I've noticed.
I was about to say the same thing. Also, the specific song it alludes to is the Super Mario Bros. 3 overworld theme.
Never played the game before, but it definitely caught my attention here :)
Hunh! Yeah it does. So clearly borrowed, I was just trying to remember what the world 3 theme was when it just started playing in my head.
I really like your videos even if music theory often goes over my head. One difficulty I have with them is that the samples you use to demonstrate a point are often too short for me to take it in and hear what you're talking about. Maybe including more audio leading into the relevant part or repeating it a few times while slowing it down would help?
mario world and arms use this idea too,just great music!
seriously this stuff is really simple man. You probably just need more ear training
Haha, I usually got his point already, and then he plays the fragment and I'm like "Oh. I wasn't supposed to understand and move on yet?"
At 8:25, those long chord tones are about the same as the Great Fairy Fountain Theme for a little while. :)
Also, I LOVED this game as a kid, and its soundtrack is *super* underrated! Thanks so much for doing this!
Can you please show why Guile's theme goes with everything?
I haven't heard this music in 25 years or something. Dang
Disappointed you didn't mention my favourite zone. Halloween zone. Although, I like Macro zone too... and Mario zone...
Damnit, the whole game was awesome!
Oh, no! Not the soundtrack to this game! I'm gonna need an exorcism again after this episode. Too catchy, the meldody is too catchy.
I'm gonna have to get these tunes surgically removed from my head
8-bit Music Theory could you do Pokemon Gold and Silver? themes like Bicycicle or Park theme. or whatever you find most interesting and worth noting
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (For the Frog the Bell Tolls) was another Game Boy Game that had its music composed by Totaka... The earworms from that game are inoperable.
What's "meldody"?
Pokemon G/S was such a jazzy and even melancholic soundtrack compared to the cheery fun ice-cream shop type tunes of R/B, and that always fascinated me. National Park, Azalea, Ecruteak, Goldenrod, SS Anne, Surf Theme, the ending song...how does it get that jazzy, melancholic, emotional flavor, compared to RB??
I LOVE music theory. I'm SO glad this channel exists. As of now I'm saving up to go to a university to study music and become a video game composer, and this channel is so helpful with learning ideas of how composers write their tunes. In the future, I think I'll become a patron and I might make a channel of my own like this one because I really believe we need more of this! Recently, I've been looking into the Rhythm Heaven series (specifically RHF) because I want to analyze how they made the music so catchy and in sync with the gameplay.
I'm no musical genius but I knew instantly what you meant when you said the music asks a question and then gives a response. The seashore theme gives off the vibe of asking "What is the status report?" responding with "We are going to die" lol
Dude, thank you SO much for explaining and breaking down the musical terms of antecedent and consequent or whatever as you did here at 5:45. I've been so lost listening to this channel but loved it anyway. If you could do these breakdowns for musical terms going forward, it would be awesome
For instance, the explanation of antecedent and consequent here would be great to add to a 'Critical Music Terminology explained and illustrated' video.
8:26 i love the great fairy fountain motif quote in the rhythm
That part about the call and response really sunk in the concept better than I expected. I loved it.
OMG the heartwrenching nostalgia... I used to have this game, and I played it and enjoyed it very much, though I never finished it. Then one day, I traded it for Kirby's Dreamland with a schoolmate. I never got to trade it back, and I've regretted it to this day. I spent the last decade or so with it out of mind, but today, you have made me remember. ;_;
The game is on the 3DS eshop for only a few bucks! But it's only in black and white...
Sure, but it's just not the same, you know? I mean what I had was my original Game Boy cartridge, with my save and everything... gone now...
Sure, I feel you. But it's still nice that it's there!
@Spaceman Spiff Game Boy games on 3DS are in fact not just black and white. If you hold L and R at the same time and press Y, you get a green palette almost identical to the original Game Boy.
@SollyMakesVids If it makes you feel better, I believe a Super Mario Land 2 cartridge should be pretty cheap online now.
I had no idea about the classic green palette! Do they say that on the eshop when you buy Game Boy games? Huh.
The example explaining song structure is amazing. Thanks for that.
I love how Mario Kart Wii does thematic consistency throughout the soundtrack, you can hear the Maple Treeway theme in the Bowser's Castle theme but twisted into something sinister, it's really cool
The main melody is so fukken catchy, I still catch myself humming or whistling it (and its different versions) during a shower every now and again. (The fact that I played the game religiously as a kid probably doesn't help either. :P)
At 5:46, something magical happened.
Unable to find an official term for the concept, you started to go abstract.
The shackles of not studying music vaporized from my arms, and I started to _get what you were saying._
It was beautiful.
I get that question-answer feeling a lot from older Nintendo games. Never knew that was actually a thing in music making…
If you wanna get fancy, you could call it "antecedent-consequent".
Hans Zimmer has talked about using a question and answer structure in his pieces. Like, he explicitly uses "question and answer"
Playing Mario Land 2 now and this comes in my suggestion box
Sometimes I'm scared of technology.
The chromatic walk up from the athletic theme has an actual name! It's called the Minsky pickup, and it originated in vaudeville. You can also hear it sung by the singing telegram girl in the movie Clue.
i got super excited when i saw this video in my subs, this game has the soundtrack of my childhood, this was the mario game i spent countless hours on my brother gameboy, and its still one of my favourites. Thanks for these videos
This video is beautiful. Thx for making it and illustrating the concepts you talk about so well.
I just wanted to say how much I love your videos! I am headed to college studying music education and have studied music theory since freshmen year of high school, and although it has never been my favorite thing, it is really fun watching you analyze this music. Please never stop because I very much enjoy this.
This is the most well-made video I have ever seen. Outstanding design, and outstanding conveyance of your ideas. Even though I don't understand music theory, you find ways to communicate to an audience that doesn't hold your base knowledge. That shows true talent. Can't wait to see this channel grow when people see the magnificent level of quality in your works. Good job.
You're getting better at showing and making things slightly more easily understandable for the less musically savvy - nice!
Just subscribed, as a music major I really appreciate how you are able to appeal to both music students and non-music students through your really thorough explanation of the musical concepts. Also Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars is a really underrated game and also has some really interesting musical ideas in it. Would be worth a listen
This was your best video yet! I found it easier to follow as someone with lower-medium musical knowledge, but just as interesting and insightful as any of your others. Keep up the terrific work man!
This is the first video of yours I've understood. Your other videos have brought my musical pride back down to earth.
I never studied music theory, but watching your videos is helping learn just what hooked me on these amazing works when I was a kid.
This episode in particular made the subject matter very digestible, and was a great choice. I remember thinking this game had great music when I was young, now I know why!
My love for the Mario soundtrack has ascended my love for the games themselves, I can only play Mario for so long but can listen to the music all day.
I played this game so much when I was younger, I think it was one of my first real video games. All of the music instantly puts a smile on my face from all the memories I have with it. When you described the athletic theme the way you did with the musical questions, it was like everything all clicked together!
This game is one of my earliest video game memories, and the music has been stuck in my head ever since. Great request, and great video!
One of the best melodies from Totaka. That man has his own style! I remember when I heard the "boss defeated" track in Luigi's Mansion and instantly thought about Super Mario Land 2 "Credits" track (near 0:50), where you can hear almost the same motif.
That was great! Some of my favorite VG music of all time here. Your analysis was entertaining and spot-on.
As a kid I only very rarely noticed repeated musical themes in this game. I think besides the Mario Down, Invincible end and Bonus Game end I think I only noticed a similar theme in like 2 or so levels, so this kinda blew my mind a little. The thing I did notice though was how in the Treetop version of the theme, the backing melody is is very similar to the one in the World 3 level select in Mario 3 or the Fairy Fountain in Zelda.
bruh, the Magic Copier commercial from the 90s. I cannot unhear "I draw a great dog, and now I have two" from the entire Mario Land 2 soundtrack.
I really like that your videos are entertaining and informative; you're not trying to make a class, you're just pointing out things you find interesting. That way I'm getting just enough knowledge to be intrigued to research it on my own.
This video made me really nostalgic. Wow. Great analysis.
You probably get requests like this all the time, but you absolutely have to take a look at the compositions in Terranigma - one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever made. Sadly only Europe and Japan got to enjoy it. North America missed out for some reason.
Damn, that main Mario theme samba while you were talking about thematic transformation... too good. Can't believe it took me almost 4 years to hear it; I come back to watch some of the old vids fairly regularly.
This brings back so many memories! Thanks for taking the time to create this! :)
I love these videos man. Everytime someone asks me what my favorite song is never know what to say because game music is my favorite genre and I feel embarrassed about it. Watching your videos helps me to realize that video game music has so much care put into it and that music in general is such an amazing complex language. I started this channel a few days ago hoping to put some of my music on the internet and watching your videos has actually been quite educational. Thank you.
The “Call and response” thing surprised me, this is awesome!
Thanks for bringing back this long lost fond memory ✨ played this game as a child for what now feels like hundreds of hours and now I am reminded and enabled to appreciate it's musical wonder
The way you explained the athletic theme with the "question and answer" method actually helped me understand how the song is so damn good! Keep the content coming! Give us something on Metroid?
I know you just did Breath of the Wild, but could you please analyse one of the in-world "bosses" like the Molduga, Hinox or Talus theme?
Dude those abstract "journeys" were so damn cool. I'm not really knowledgeable about music theory so most of what you say often goes in one ear and out the other for me, but seeing you put ideas to each little bar was seriously inspiring, and I could actually follow along with it. XD
I love how you describe "tension and release in telling a story".
I have been observing people and their zodia signs, and the melodies and drumbeats that people naturally produce are from specific their specific characters/signs
Just found this channel and you're taking my appreciation for timeless video game music to another level.
One of my personal favorite notable evolutions of music in a video game is the World Map theme(s) of Yoshi's Island, where each world you complete gives new life to the theme by adding more instruments and other stuff.
That was the most interesting thing I have watched on TH-cam for music!! Great job!! Analyzing one of my favorite games!
Dkc vids?
As someone who never saw what others did in the DKC soundtrack, I would love a breakdown on what makes it work. I actually don't care for the music *that* much, but wouldn't mind having it explained
He did it!
I like that the inside-haunted areas seems to be based off the underground music from Mario Land 1.
Just now noticed the Tree house variant uses World 3 theme from SMB3 in it.
You are definitely an "up and comer" in the TH-cam scene, I subbed in the first 3 seconds because it was a love at first sight affair. It would be cool to see you take apart the industrial ambiance of Akira Yamaoka's works in the Silent Hill series, the song "Flower Crown of Poppy" from Silent Hill 3 might be a good start if you're unfamiliar with his engaging works. Alternatively, the Mischief Makers soundtrack has always held an odd charm for me and it would be interesting to see if you can find out what makes that particular soundtrack tick, it gets used in a lot of gaming TH-camr videos as background music, specifically the "Volcanic" theme. Anyways, keep up the good work :3
I've always wanted to be able to show people how to look at these sort of tracks on a deeper level, this is so great
Awesome analysis of one of the most underrated Mario soundtracks. Thanks!
3:18 Editing goof. I presume the text note was not intended to get blurred.
Dammit
Good eye.
Your facepalm mario profile picture is perfect though
It was simply an abstract approach to text editing. Sometimes you need to go out of focus... to get IN focus. I get what you're saying. But rather than saying it with words, you're saying it by altering the physical nature of the words as objects; presenting a question through aesthetics rather than direct semantics. It's super deep. How blurry does text have to be before it stops being text? Does text even have real meaning if it's ultimately just a bunch of arbitrary symbols? How can text be real if our eyes aren't real? These are the real questions. If questions can even be real, man. Woah...
Anyway, really digging the new artistic and philosophical direction you're taking the channel in with these super-deep blurry-text aesthetics. It's kinda intense.
I thought you were replying to me and I was thinking "what kind of deep crap did I post this time"
Instantly subscribed to the channel!
It's beautifully explained how the melodies work.
Kinda reminds me of my own music, and how I also take my listeners on a musical walk in the park using theories explained here!
Thank you 8-bit Music Theory!
Have you heard of Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean on the Gamecube? I think you would love picking some of that game's music apart. The BK series has some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard in a video game.
On this note, I'd also love to see something done with the FF13 Trilogy, as they have some amazing music, Miracles, Blinded By Light, and Defiers of Fate all jump to mind
Hannah Alison MAY MY BLADE BE SHARP!
Oh yes. Sakuraba is an absolute crazy man if you ask me. It would be interesting to see what 8BMT makes of him. Of course, it's pretty far from 8-bit :)
OHMY everytime i watch one of his videos and he goes on saying that high pledging peeps can suggest sth I always ask myself "what would I want him to look at" and while watching this video i thought "man i bet no one ever suggests baten kaitos, such an artistic gem" 🙈 therefore your comment made me really happy haha. Motoi Sakuraba is one of the first japanese composers who's name i learned and will always remember well thanks to some really catchy and beautiful tracks from Tales of Symphonia as well as the overall Baten Kaitos musical atmosphere.. hah I'm getting flashback associationS! GOLDEN SUN GUYS! Best gba game ever, also thanks to Sakuraba and his epic main theme composition. Leitmotif master
Just stumbled upon this channel and I think I love you. Great work!
Also one cool thing in the tree level is that when the harmony lead kicks in it's a short
Slightly modded dead ringer for the Mario 3 map theme(fairy fountain if that's more recognizable)
Thanks for the video! Currently stuck on writing some music for a game, and this video is helping me out with some ideas on how to take the main motif and expand it! Much appreciated!
Thank you so very much! I really learned alot. The questions and answers part were really mind opening. Ive heard people talk about tit b4 but never understood it. You have great teaching skills!
the ending staff roll song in this game is so amazing. i remember beating this game in the car as a kid, and just leaving the game on so i could listen to the song over and over until my batteries died. :D
I just realized that part of the Tree top theme has the same progression of the World 3 map screen song in SMB3.
I played the heck out of this game as a kid and I took the music for granted. I love you videos, this is fantastic!
This is amazing! How have I not found you until now? Definitely subscribing.
Hmm, I think the reason Siivagunner liked 3 of these videos might be to educate people snooping around in the liked videos to help them make rips
Thanks, this helps put into words what I hear happening constantly across Jake Kaufman's entire body of work.
Also, I just love that the tree top theme uses the sky theme from mario 3 as a countermelody.
This was one of the best mario games in my opinion (because i grew up playing this game) and its awesome to see the music analyzed as that is definitely a huge addition to the quirky style of this specific mario installment (and the game that birthed wario i guess)
Your videos are amazing, they have made me look at music at a totally different perspective.
I'm new to the channel, and I really like this type of analysis. It's great. This, along with Donkey Kong Land 1, was my very first video game and I love it, and I hate to see that it isn't as well known as other Mario titles.
Thanks for this! It's nice to see an analysis of the music that was burned into my brain at 8 years old. I still remember each note perfectly and if listening to the music alone can imagine the levels. It's also fun to play on guitar!
I grew up with this game! It's very fun to see the tunes I'm so familiar with broken down to the theory. Kudos
I really like this. It's informative and doesn't feel the need for any form of shoehorned in humor. I look forward to seeing more of your work.
Some other good trivia for ya: the first six notes of the main athletic theme, the "dada, da dump dump dump", is what's known as a Minsky Pickup (or Cockney Intro), a standard intro for vaudeville songs and a common fanfare before classic song and dance numbers. Very rare in game soundtracks. See also: the singing telegram girl from Clue, the Muppet Show theme, and Robin Hood's song from the first Shrek movie.
i know I'm super late but I'm happy to see this game get some love, I used to play this all the time using a super game boy adaptor for my SNES as a hand me down from my dad, I never even got to warios castle but I still loved that game
Hey, could you analyze Mario Galaxy sometime?! Love your vids :)
I'm surprised you didn't discuss the boss stage music and the boss entrance music. In the case of the entrance music, a simple switch in tonality makes that original phrase become menacing.
And, by the way, I felt in love with your channel. It's great to see people caring about music in videogames, and explaining it with so much care. Keep doing this great work to mankind!
Also, 8BitMusicTheory you're a composer too, right? Have you composed for any game? I want to know more about your work
I think you should do a video on undertale. It would be interesting
I just stumbled upon this channel. I hope your videos will help me to understand what the hell I've been doing with my music for the past 10 years :I
I always thought this soundtrack was rather lazy to reuse the one song over and over. Kudos to you for proving me wrong with this very instructive vid on chromatic approach, I understand the methodology behind this soundtrack a LOT more now and see how clever it is by its limitation.
This is one of my favorite games. I'd be curious what you think about the Pumpkin Zone tracks (particularly the third level). I think they present an interesting deconstruction of snippets of the main theme, even though some of the variation deviates from the athletic track. Awesome video, I think it's very insightful how you identify the use of chromatic approach tones as connections from piece to piece!
I think you would be very interested in Link Between World's dungeon music. I believe every main dungeon is a remix of the same song, but it's very hard to spot.
If you like thematic cohesion you should check Risk of Rain's soundtrack. The short main theme is used all the time in a variety of moods, genres and time signatures.
Leonardo Soriani Alves Seconded. The Risk of Rain OST came to my mind pretty much immediately when he started taking about heavy motifs.
Btw, Hopoo is working on a sequel. And it seems that the composer of the RoR soundtrack is also working on the sequel. Yay.
Check out the Kirby Planet Robobot soundtrack too. It reuses the same melody in different ways all over the place.
There's our hero Mario, you rescued Daisy but I'm sorry bro.
Two days ago I broke into your home, and so now it's Chateau Wario!
*>Chuckles Maniacally*
AAAAHHHH I NEED TO STUDY THIS!! It would be really useful!
Also, Super Mario Land 2 is awesome! It's the closest thing we got to a proper Super Mario World sequel, even if it doesn't control as well...
Great video and awesome game! You have such a soothing and friendly voice. :)
DKC2 is still has the greatest video game soundtrack of all time. Any chance on doing a video breaking down THAT game?