Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack

In 1985, Koji Kondos Super Mario Bros. score utterly redefined the video game music genre.§With under 3 minutes of music, Kondo put to rest an era of bleeps and bloops - the sterile products of a lab environment - replacing it with one in which game sounds constituted a legitimate form of artistic expression.§On the 30 year anniversary of the Super Mario Bros game, author Andrew Schartmann brings this brilliant addition to the world of both music and video game studies. First taking us through the various external factors that coalesced into a ripe environment in which Kondo's musical experiments could thrive - for instance, advances in technology, or Nintendo's marketing tactics - Schartmann then delves into the music itself, searching for reasons why our hearts still dance to the primitive 8-bit tunes of a bygone era.