Christopher Tin is a quick study.
Thanks to a chance connection at his college reunion, the Santa Monica-based composer recently got the opportunity to create his first video game score, and he made the most of his chance: “Baba Yetu," the theme of Civilization IV, is the first piece of video game music ever to be nominated for a Grammy (Tin's debut album, Calling All Dawns, which also features “Baba Yetu," was also nominated in a separate category).
Though his competition is literally legendary—Herbie Hancock was nominated in the same category—Tin likes his chances. “I think I've got as good a chance as everyone else in that category," he says. “To make it into the nominations round is actually a lot harder than it is to win. To get into the nominations round, you have to beat out hundreds of other submissions.
“Once you're in, it's a 20% chance. Not bad."
Tin, whose music has also appeared in films, television shows, and various other commercial projects, is no stranger to composing music that serves a purpose. But video game music, a market that's growing bigger and more sophisticated all the time, is different.
“I think the biggest difference is technical demands," Tin begins. “Video game music has its own sort of technical memes, whether that means it has to loop, or something as restrictive as it having to be 20 seconds, because that's all they have space for in their iPhone game or whatever, or whether it has to be dynamic, and adapt to what's going on in the game."
In other words, writing music for video games requires a much more open-ended approach.
“You don't necessarily have control over the timeline of events in video games," Tin elaborates. “In film you do: everything is linear, event A and event B will always happen in the same place, and so you can structure your music around that narrative arc. With games, you don't have that luxury.
“It takes out a whole dimension of composition, that is structure. You're really restricted in how you can approach structure when you write music for games."
How one solves these problems is ultimately up to the individual composer. Because the structural conventions of video games themselves are continually evolving, there is no secret formula. But whatever approach one takes, the end result better have serious replay value.
“In films," Tin explains, “a piece of music will fly by and probably never be heard again. And most people only watch a film once.
“With games, if you write a piece of music, it's going to be heard, if not hundreds of times, then more. You have to approach it such that what you do isn't going to get on people's nerves after the 400th time that they've listened to it."
But even if video game music tends to be quite different from film or television or production music, it's still part of the music industry. That means you constantly have to impress people, and you have to do it quickly.
“There's a lot of music out there, and most people will make a determination about your music in the first 10-15 seconds that they hear," Tin says. “And once they've made that association in their minds, you can't undo it.
If you don't have something that just leaps out of the speakers, you're just going to get passed over, essentially.
“So if you're an aspiring film composer or video game composer, and your demo reel isn't absolutely captivating to everyone, then they're going to hit skip, and move on to the next reel that they have, and they have many."
Whether he wins next Sunday or not, Tin knows he's going to have to keep impressing. “There's always going to be somebody with a bigger list of credits trying to get the same jobs as you are," Tin says, “and even when you get some credits, that competition is still there.
“The only thing you can really control is the quality of your own work."
Thanks to a chance connection at his college reunion, the Santa Monica-based composer recently got the opportunity to create his first video game score, and he made the most of his chance: “Baba Yetu," the theme of Civilization IV, is the first piece of video game music ever to be nominated for a Grammy (Tin's debut album, Calling All Dawns, which also features “Baba Yetu," was also nominated in a separate category).
Though his competition is literally legendary—Herbie Hancock was nominated in the same category—Tin likes his chances. “I think I've got as good a chance as everyone else in that category," he says. “To make it into the nominations round is actually a lot harder than it is to win. To get into the nominations round, you have to beat out hundreds of other submissions.
“Once you're in, it's a 20% chance. Not bad."
Tin, whose music has also appeared in films, television shows, and various other commercial projects, is no stranger to composing music that serves a purpose. But video game music, a market that's growing bigger and more sophisticated all the time, is different.
“I think the biggest difference is technical demands," Tin begins. “Video game music has its own sort of technical memes, whether that means it has to loop, or something as restrictive as it having to be 20 seconds, because that's all they have space for in their iPhone game or whatever, or whether it has to be dynamic, and adapt to what's going on in the game."
In other words, writing music for video games requires a much more open-ended approach.
“You don't necessarily have control over the timeline of events in video games," Tin elaborates. “In film you do: everything is linear, event A and event B will always happen in the same place, and so you can structure your music around that narrative arc. With games, you don't have that luxury.
“It takes out a whole dimension of composition, that is structure. You're really restricted in how you can approach structure when you write music for games."
How one solves these problems is ultimately up to the individual composer. Because the structural conventions of video games themselves are continually evolving, there is no secret formula. But whatever approach one takes, the end result better have serious replay value.
“In films," Tin explains, “a piece of music will fly by and probably never be heard again. And most people only watch a film once.
“With games, if you write a piece of music, it's going to be heard, if not hundreds of times, then more. You have to approach it such that what you do isn't going to get on people's nerves after the 400th time that they've listened to it."
But even if video game music tends to be quite different from film or television or production music, it's still part of the music industry. That means you constantly have to impress people, and you have to do it quickly.
“There's a lot of music out there, and most people will make a determination about your music in the first 10-15 seconds that they hear," Tin says. “And once they've made that association in their minds, you can't undo it.
If you don't have something that just leaps out of the speakers, you're just going to get passed over, essentially.
“So if you're an aspiring film composer or video game composer, and your demo reel isn't absolutely captivating to everyone, then they're going to hit skip, and move on to the next reel that they have, and they have many."
Whether he wins next Sunday or not, Tin knows he's going to have to keep impressing. “There's always going to be somebody with a bigger list of credits trying to get the same jobs as you are," Tin says, “and even when you get some credits, that competition is still there.
“The only thing you can really control is the quality of your own work."
