Song of Ice and Fire

The real tl;dr - Is the music that we think "goes with" Deserts or Glaciers a socialized choice or a natural/biological choice?

Actual tl;dr - This post describes the blueprints to a psychology experiment regarding the socialization of certain styles of music with certain settings in video games.




If you're any bit familiar with videogames (henceforth referred to as the proper "video games"), you'll know what I'm talking about. In almost every video game, there are various "backdrops" like Deep in the Forest, an Underwater Palace, Muggy Desert, Trapped in the Arctic, Bustling City and/or even Outer Space. It doesn't matter if it's a fighter, shooter, adventure, puzzle, RPG, tactics or platformer, video games like to have various settings.

The other thing video games like to have is Music! Put the two together and you're going to get something you'll need to be very familiar with video games to understand: The music that goes with the "ice stage" always sounds kinda similar. At the very least, it sure doesn't sound like the "outer space theme" or the "enchanted forest battle theme".

Okay I was wrong, you don't have to be familiar with video games to understand that. It's far more common and obvious in movies. There's the creepy "don't turn around!" noise and the "okay something hilarious is about to happen" tune, not to mention the "you should be crying now" chorus is stuff we all know and see parodies of.


*Truncated. Sorry, my organizational skills are lacking. Please try to follow where this is going.


Sadly there is a deadline for this project. The video game industry is already more popular than the movie industry (unless you're this guy) and thanks to the Nintendo Wii, almost everyone has played a video game before (just like almost everyone now has seen a movie). What i'm going to need is some people that aren't familiar with too many games yet and get them to play the following game: (I made this up while meditating)

You play either a Camel or Penguin, protecting your mud-brick home/igloo from sand/snow during a sandstorm/snowstorm. Sand/snow comes in from all sides and you move your animal left/right/up/down to automatically push it away, outside your home. You play this until you either uhhh "die" or survive the two minute storm. That part doesn't matter. What matters is that you're either getting the matching background scene music, or you're getting the wrong one. After playing, will the participants be able to "correctly" identify the music choice as right or wrong?

Well, I guess there might not even be a deadline. This could probably be an alternate way to tell how socialized people are to video game music, if done every year.

On the topic of movies, I recall hearing of (no pun intended) research that showed a biological connection between music and emotions. Music that's fast makes us happy and music that's slow makes us sad. It was inferred that a slow violin makes us sadder not because we heard it whenever it was the sad part in the movie but because we naturally perceive that music as sad. I wonder if what we perceive as "Icy" or "Heated" music can also be biological?

Okay I think this post is long enough, hopefully you've read this far because you are a kind soul and not because you're confused as hell and looking for answers.


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