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What is wrong with people?


The Monkey Bob
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I've been a "member" here for over a year now, but I've had no real reason to be active on the forums. However, I just have to find something out.

First off, I love this site and all the remixes here and I want to share it with others. I can get just about anyone to listen to some songs from here and their reposes can range from them thinking that the songs are just ok, all the way to thinking that the songs are absolutely great. Now for my problem. As soon as people find out that these are video game remixes, they don't like them. Whether or not they just liked them, or whether or not they even listened to them, they don't like them. The only people who will still like the songs, are gamers. This really p***es me off. I don't know what's wrong. Is it just me? Or are these people so close minded about video game related things that they just can not accept listening to a video game remix? I don't know. But what I'd really like to know is if anyone else has had this problem.

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

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Bob, the answer is very simple. Its Preference. Some people would rather listen to music non-related to games. The reason it appeals to most gamers, is the fact we have probably played the orginal game at one point in our life, therefore it has value to us. To the non-gamers, most proabably wont like it unless there techno fans. Its just preference. Some like Rock, some like Rap. Some like OCR. Some dont.

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They're probably just lying because they don't want to seem "uncool" for liking something as nerdy as video game remixes or whatever. The ones who liked the music until they found out what it was certainly are. £10 says that as soon as they got home they desperately started searching for the website or the song itself, created a new folder in their music library, marked it as "Hidden" and downloaded each and every track in the OCR library into it while weeping softly over their secret shame.

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Video game music has pretty much become mainstream in Sweden. Anyone here who is geniuenly interested in music is bound to be at least a bit familiar with it, and find it appealing. There was a show on national radio a few years ago dedicated to VGM and chiptunes, and there are nightclubs playing it occasionally. Though the radio show is over, I still hear Mario and Mega Man music being used as jingles every now and then.

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I think that videogame music deviates so much from your popular music form, that there is only a select group of people who can appriciate it in the first place.

When I listen to my father's classical music, I have a hard time following it, simply because I am not used to listening to melodies that don't repeat themselves after a couple of seconds. You have to learn how to listen to classical music before you can appreciate it, and I think it's the same for videogame music.

That said, it is just odd that people would take back their words of praise when finding out the music is from a videogame.

The last reactions I got when I shared OCremixes with friends were:

"that was...interesting..."

"it sounds fake"

I did get two American country side women who are in their 40's to listen to OC stuff and they loved it :) So I guess I had a 50% succes rate overall.

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Ionno about why people don't really like to hear video game music, even when they're re-arranged in very high quality like the ones here on OCRemix. Sometimes I like to think that video game music is in its own genre, but on this site they're sometimes arranged into sub-genres such as rock, jazz, and funk. I really believe that if taken the time to look, a person who usually wouldn't listen to game music would find something they like on this site.

But has anyone played OCRemixes for anybody without actually telling the person that it's game music they're listening to? I did this to my girlfriend one time when we were hanging out, just playing some mixes in Winamp, and she loved all of the ones with electric guitars o_0 haha. When I told her it was game music, she didn't really care.

Seems like I had the opposite experience as the TC, but maybe if you just really wait for a song that they're REALLY into, so they make the first move and ask "who is this" or "where's it from?" and then respond with "IT'S GAME MUSIC BIATCH!". Alright, maybe not that blunt but you get the idea.

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Most people are conformist sheep and are so consumerized by the media that its practically a cultural crime to listen to anything other than something that fits a widely known genre or something by widely known artists, though many would have to take a painting class or maybe some crochet to actually be called an artist. Also there is the fact that "normal" people have a tendency to not want to be otakus, even if they dont know the definition of that word.

I realize this and lie whenever asked what music I listen to. "Eh, rock...some techno." "What bands?" they ask. "Erm...her frmer blrmbr." I respond and then change the subject/ make my escape. If only they knew.

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okay so... I thought i was the only one out there with the same problem.

see, I would be playing some OC remixes in the lounge at my highschool out loud, and people were digging them,when I asked if they liked it they said "yeah". some of these people were very interested in what band these songs were from.

when I uncovered the truth, that these songs were remixed versions of videogames themes, the people lost all interest in it completely. I was confused but continued to play it.

"These" People, i think, are those who will dislike a song solely because of the band that plays it. and not judge the song on its own merits.

ugh. I hate it.

not to sound high and mighty but when i listen to music i don't care about the band. in fact, i barely know any band names at all. like i was listening to one song and was liking it very much. when i found out who sang it, it was miley cyrus. i keep my fandom of that song sorta secret but its still a good song.

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I've been a "member" here for over a year now, but I've had no real reason to be active on the forums. However, I just have to find something out.

First off, I love this site and all the remixes here and I want to share it with others. I can get just about anyone to listen to some songs from here and their reposes can range from them thinking that the songs are just ok, all the way to thinking that the songs are absolutely great. Now for my problem. As soon as people find out that these are video game remixes, they don't like them. Whether or not they just liked them, or whether or not they even listened to them, they don't like them. The only people who will still like the songs, are gamers. This really p***es me off. I don't know what's wrong. Is it just me? Or are these people so close minded about video game related things that they just can not accept listening to a video game remix? I don't know. But what I'd really like to know is if anyone else has had this problem.

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

It pisses me off too. I have the same problem. I mention video games and they cower away in disgust. The rare, cool people, usually reply with something like "I don't care. I like it!". Anyway, yeah, it pisses me off too.

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not to sound high and mighty but when i listen to music i don't care about the band. in fact, i barely know any band names at all.

I hear ya dude. More than half of the music I listen to, I have no idea who made it. Don't even ask me because I couldn't tell ya. unless the band is widely known, and really good.

But...back on topic.

Same thing happens with me Bob. One time I played some pretty cool game remixes from this site.around a bunch of people and of course they like it. They say this stuff is pretty cool, who made this? I say various game remixers and immediately virtually everyone loses all interest.

Personally I think there a bunch of losers.

I mean seriously your dancing around to the music. Your obviously loving it, someone tells you a little bit more about the composers or where its originally from, you turn around and say:

"This sucks. Who would listen to remixed game music and like it?"

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I remember once a few years ago, i brought in a cd of ocr stuff to my art class to listen to. Before i played it, they asked what it was, and after i answered, they wouldn't even let me put it in to listen to...

:?

Luckily, most of the people i hang out with love videogame music, and a few visit OCR all the time, so i never run into any problems with them.

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But the game behind the music is so important. Yes, there are some remixes I love, and I've never played the game, but most of the mixes I have happen to have more value based off of the game. The game - the story, the gameplay, etc, it inspires the music. The music carries the essence of the game. If someone likes a song regardless of it's background, then I like that, but when I hear Twin Blood by Sixto, I'm not just a man - I'm a man with the power of the Double Dragon and I want to karate kick someone's head off just like Billy or Jimmy would.

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Expectation and appearance has an incredible effect on people's perception of music. Sometimes this is justified - nothing wrong with using good visuals and showmanship, for instance, to help present the music at a live performance, assuming the music is worth presenting. But it can certainly be frustrating when people make irrational assumptions about something they know nothing about.

I do run into this sort of sentiment occasionally at my jazz gigs, where if I'm the bandleader there's almost always some tunes from game soundtracks on the setlist. Usually it's not too severe, just a condescending chuckle here or there; but every once in a while you get a person, otherwise sensible by all appearances, who starts to shut down on you completely when they hear the words 'video game' or 'computer game'. Their loss I suppose. A lot of today's jazz standards were old Tin Pan Alley show tunes that swing and bebop era musicians adopted and rearranged, so the way I see it, taking in music from modern sources continues a long-standing jazz tradition. Working with a melody that's familiar to and appreciated by both audience and musician provides a nice starting ground for the audience to appreciate the interpretations and improvisation of the musicians.

Regardless, though, try not to get too ticked off at other people for what you perceive as their musical shortsightedness. Remember, you're never going to help them expand their tastes and appreciate and enjoy more music if you just yell at them and tell them how stupid they are for what they (think they) like or don't like, or if you approach them with a sense of superiority.

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"This sucks. Who would listen to remixed game music and like it?"

Whoa, they actually say that? That's not cool.

its weird that games get this rap when movie soundtracks seemingly don't get the same response.

i guess the x-factor here is that while hollywood has a bar for quality, video games don't; and many people have probably played some games with terrible music, so maybe they are associating the whole genre with their narrow perspective.

most peepz haven't grown the respect for the uematsu' or mitsuda's and they don't realize how high the quality can be.

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I have a couple of types of friends, at least, among those to whom I have presented various OCR oeuvres.

Note that I try to coordinate what I demonstrate/what I listen to around them to what I perceive their tastes to be. OCR has actually expanded my tastes, which is neat.

I have one friend who finds anything other than the original video game music unworthy of his listening (meaning, he thinks VGM should be preserved in its original form). This is ... an interesting case. I can relate to him, in that before I found OCR and the real quality behind these works I felt the same way.

I have some friends who are a little skeptical about what I listen to. Some pieces sound interesting to them, others are discredited as crap (well, I do listen to a lot of the works from 2000-2002, which was a period of markedly lower standards). I find these people to be of the open-minded populace. I am a person who likes to do a lot of listening, and when they discuss their own favorites in music, I seem to note that while they do have band preferences and biases, they will tolerate what they find satisfactory, even if it is from a "blacklisted" group.

And I have other friends who don't have a problem with it at all, and even some that like what I have to offer... I haven't really found anyone who genuinely dislikes what I have, even if I tell them what it is. I guess it's because it's what I'm listening to, so they don't care.

..oh, and by the way, are you guys shoving this music down their throats? I have found that to be completely impossible, and it's bound to repel them.

(And if you have found ways to shove music down their throats without deterring them, please, do share how, because I would like to hear some of my favorite pieces of music from time to time when I hang out with my friends, lol)

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