Paper on the history of VG remixes

[Samsa]

Hi there, as you might have seen in the title, I'm going to write a paper about VG remixes.

• What will the paper be about?

I plan to do a broad overview for the whole VG remix scene (quantitative research) and analyse a piece or two (qualitative reseach) if there's enough space left in the paper (it can't be much longer than 20 pages). The quantitative research is more important at the moment (I need to lay some groundwork), so I'll probably write the paper about this first and then a paper concerning the music itself. Since the second paper won't be directly for my university, I can take as much time and space as I want. So if you have any ideas concerning that, say it. It's going to be a long running project, so as sooner as I start gathering information, the better.

• What will be in the paper?

First of all, the music of the VG remix scene. It is paramount to all scientific research that the history of the topic is clear (at least roughly) before other work can be done. While the history of VG music itself is researched quite well, the same can't be said about VG remixes. Where are the roots of VG remixes? Who were the first remixers? When did it all start? Are there any (aesthetic) rules for making remixes? How did other genres influence the remix scene?

• How can you help?

If you know any answers to the questions above, tell me. If you're an experienced composer, tell me about your experiences. If you know something about the history of VG remixes, tell me. If you have a certain idea in your head that you want to share, tell me. I can't promise that I'll use every bit of information for the paper, but I need to accumulate as much knowledge as possible, so knock yourselves out.

Im looking forward to your ideas

Samsa

 

[Gario]

Ooh, you want to analyze some remixes for your paper? I can help a bit there when you pick any tracks; I've got quite a bit of experience on the analysis side of things.

As far as the history of VG remixes, I'm not sure when the concept began, but if you want a good starting point of when they really started taking off look no further than file sharing programs like Napster and MIDI sites like VGmusic.com for the American boom. I'm not sure when it started in other countries (like Japan), though, so you might need to do more homework for remix's even earlier roots. OCReMix is at least one of the oldest sites of it's kind, as well (pushing more for high quality Mp3 arrangements over MIDIs to contrast it from other sites of it's time) and gathering them in one place (in contrast to tools like Napster sharing all sorts of music), so looking into OCR's history and influence will be helpful for your paper, as well.

I'm less a musicologist and more a music theorist on these things, so I probably can't help on this topic further than that, but I do hope it's a start. Good luck!

[Samsa]

Hi everyone,

just wanted to say that I finished my paper. I wrote it as my masterthesis in the end, so it's quite long. In the end, I analyzed 20 ReMixes and also wrote a bit about the history of rearrangements. It isn't published anywhere yet, but if you're fluent in german and want to read it, just send me a PN.

Cheers,

Samsa

[Daylectorbr]

How can we take a peek on it? Cheers!

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Not fluent in German, but if ever there is an English translation I'd love to read it!