Coolness, music, tetsuya mizuguchi, masaya matsuura

Mizuguchi, Matsuura and Music

Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi and PaRappa the Rapper mastermind Masaya Matsuura are smart guys. They say smart things. This time, they're chatting up music — so essential to their games. Dig this exchange:

Mizuguchi: ...What is music? Music has many elements, so how can we cut and separate and remake the parts in the process of game design? So then, game designers have to know what is fun, what is the essence of music?
Matsuura: Essence of music, I don't know. I really don't understand the essence of music. I've been composing music for thirty years, and I still don't understand what music is. But I'm still looking for the certain shape of my music. Anybody who can define the existence of music, I really respect.

Mizuguchi: Yeah, I agree with you. Music is like a universe — many, many elements. Lyrics, chords, rhythm, beats, playing, listening. Emotionally, you feel something. When I was 11 years old, I listened to my first Beatles music. I couldn't understand English, but I felt emotion or something, sort of... I want to love somebody! It's the power of music, of chords... very physical things, very emotional things. Not logic — I don't know, maybe logic. If I understand the lyrics, and it's a new chemistry. Music, we have a long history with music, but new music is coming still. I don't know why. It's a universe. Amazing.

Great stuff. The rest of the dialogue over at Game|Life is worth checking out as well. Do it, you won't be sorry.
Interview with Miz and Matsuura [Game|Life]

11:00 PM on Tue Feb 12 2008
By Brian Ashcraft
1,375 views
18 comments

Comments

CeeJay005 at 11:07 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*

Collab. NOW.
TheCleaningGuy at 11:10 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 221

I love these people. Great conversation, I've been asking myself what music really is for years.
Kirbytheslayer:... at 11:11 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 619

Proof that genius is crazy.
SwordandSorcery at 11:18 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*

sounds like a discussion previously only held in smoke filled garages, and you know the smoke im talking about.
SpishackCola at 11:26 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*

They're totally high. Now make my Meteos DS sequel please Miz, I don't want to have to go buy that Disney lameness.
Kiwi Kamikaze at 11:29 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*

I love these guys. I'm glad someone understands music isn't just about lyrics or just one thing. It's all about harmony.
Black-Dog-Howls at 11:30 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*

They must get high off of Jazz.
ABigSmall at 11:30 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*

Music means what you feel it means.
Dudemeister at 11:35 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*

@Kirbytheslayer: No Disassemble:

Agreed. They sound like loonies but these two are the smartest on the block.
myxylplyx at 11:47 PM on 02/12/08
Reply by Email
*

Music is a better platform than language to express feeling and emotion.
Kcet at 12:01 AM on 02/13/08
Reply by Email
*

"I couldn't understand English, but I felt emotion or something, sort of... I want to love somebody! It's the power of music, of chords... very physical things, very emotional things."

soo true, 'cept in my case i would replace english with japanese but the overall point still stands, music transcends language barriers, it is in esscence, THE universal language
Black-Dog-Howls at 12:13 AM on 02/13/08
Reply by Email
*

@Kcet: Not really, since it can't be spoken universally. The universal language is us ourselves. Everything living has something in common that makes up that language. The materials that comprise our being and the vast universe around us.

That is the universal language.
BPMμ at 12:31 AM on 02/13/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 261

Hmm... So Matsuura is a penguin...

A long-lost relative of yours, Witzbold? ;P
josh924 at 01:03 AM on 02/13/08
Reply by Email
*

Before the interview starts, Chris Kohler says that Matsuura and Mizuguchi created the rhythm game genre, but doesn't that honor go to beatmania, DDR, or maybe PIU?

Anyways, great read! I love when artists talk about their philosophies on games, music, and/or movies, so I definitely loved that interview.
ABigSmall at 01:47 AM on 02/13/08
Reply by Email
*

@josh924: PaRappa the Rapper, designed by Maatsuura, was released in Japan in 1996. Beatmania came out in arcades in '97. DDR came out in '98. Never heard of PIU.
ABigSmall at 01:49 AM on 02/13/08
Reply by Email
*

eck! Just looked up PIU on Wikipedia. Yes, I've heard of the Koreanized DDR "Pump," but not "Pump It Up" hahah
josh924 at 03:10 AM on 02/13/08
Reply by Email
*

@ABigSmall: Holy crap, you're right! I never realized that Parappa outdates beatmania by a year. However, its safe to say that beatmania was the first peripheral based rhythm game, but ultimately, beatmania, DDR, GH and RB owe their existences to Parappa.
BtownDesignGuy at 06:39 AM on 02/13/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 20

This quote reminds me of this video I once saw of John Cage, saying, "What is music?" Something to the effect of, "Is music anything more than sounds arranged in a specific order? Do sounds need to be arranged at all? Is this music? Do we have music? Why, if this is music, you can make music just as much as I!"

I can't find it on Youtube or Google, though. Which disappoints me, because it deserves to be here.