The Soundtrack of Home
“These go to eleven.”
–Nigel Tufnel
In real life, I’m something of a trance addict. I know, I know, it’s odd; whereas other kids grew up with Van Halen posters on their bedroom walls, you would have found Alistair Cooke and William F. Buckley posters in my room — if such things ever existed, which, shamefully, they don’t. At a time when there was rioting and blood in the streets to the soundtrack of Metallica’s …And Justice For All, you would have found me sitting on a hill somewhere, listening to Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and generally musing about Alexander’s conquest of Asia Minor. So it’s very strange that I should go from all that to electronic beats. I admit it.
And yet. Somewhere along the line, I developed a taste for trance. It’s just the music of life, as far as I’m concerned. A few years ago, a colleague of mine came back from his Europe vacation and talked about the wild, transcendental parties he’d had in Ibiza, watching Armin Van Buuren DJ live at Armada. I had to kill him. I apologized profusely, of course, but really: he was asking for it. That’s just too much epic win for one human being to experience.
At this juncture, you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with Home. And the answer is quite a lot, actually. Because, you see, Home has developed quite a soundtrack over the last few years.
Think about it. There are now more than a dozen different dance floors in Home. And there’s some truly fantastic music to be enjoyed, if you know where to look. Granted, we’ve lost some good tracks — “Danger Room EX” by Dan the Automator, for instance — but overall, Home offers a fascinating musical journey. And this is a good thing, because one of my personal criticisms of Home, particularly its older spaces, is that it all too often feels like a static experience.
What I mean by that is simple: the settings aren’t very dynamic. There’s not enough motion. Recently, I was dancing at Sportswalk — which, to be fair, offers a lot of interactive elements — and I noticed that the beautiful sunset tableau was completely and totally static. No drifting clouds. Nothing.
It just really took me out of the immersion of the experience. If there’s one lesson from this: a fun game is a fun game, but for Home itself to be a compelling experience, it needs to feel alive. It needs to feel like it’s a changing environment. Christ, burn a building down once in a while, just to do it. Then put something new in its place. Create events for people to talk about. Don’t even put out any PR about it. Let it spread virally through the community.
An example of a dynamic public space: the Sodium Hub.
Yes, I’m a Lockwood fanboy. Shaddap. The reality is that Lockwood more or less set the template for how to build a successful long-term public space in Home. No matter where you look in the Sodium Hub, something’s always moving. Even if you decide to run out into the desert, the movement of the windmills keeps it feeling dynamic. Their teleportals to other areas aren’t just static icons; they’re practically Babylon 5 jumpgates. There are giant ads for Vetoxade. Periodic voice-overs from VICKIE. And, at Scorpio’s…music.
(Side note: Lockwood, consider extending the Scorpio’s music up into the VIP Pilot’s Lounge. You’ll turn it into a semi-private dance floor and it’ll likely get a lot more traffic.)
Music is a wonderful tool to make spaces come alive. Home, in general, tends to lack aural immersion; there are times where running around in Home feels like being trapped in a silent movie. I personally suspect this probably has to do with memory limitations within Home’s core infrastructure, but that’s merely a guess.
Music can cover up a lot of those shortcomings. To quote Master Yoda, “Music leads to dancing. Dancing leads to texting. Texting leads to gaming. And gaming leads to revenue.”
So now then. I figured I’d offer up a few of my favorite tracks in Home. This is by no means anywhere even close to being a complete list; it’s merely a compilation of some of the tracks in Home which I personally like.
1. “Let’s Celebrate” — Nelson
You just knew this was going to be on the list. The Ratchet & Clank public space in Home has what is easily one of the best dance floor experiences in Home, with a disco ball and that enormously catchy tune which you can literally listen to for hours on end. I know this for a fact, because I’ve done it. And damn, does that Groovitron know how to do the Carlton! I can string together some nifty dance combos in Home, but that Groovitron just owns the floor. Come to think of it, the Groovitron should make random appearances elsewhere in Home. Groovitron Siren Hospital. Groovitron Cutteridge Estate. Groovitron Granzella. Yes.
2. The SingStar Rooms (new soundtrack)
I know of people who prefer the old SingStar soundtrack, and I’ll admit it was a deeper beat than anything in this medley. But the problem is that the old beat just got too repetitive, whereas this one periodically changes itself enough to keep the variety going. What I really miss, personally, is the old SingStar VIP room. As a semi-restricted public space, it was a blessedly troll-free environment with a fantastic cityscape view, marred only by a much weaker dance tune.
3. “Let’s Get Away” — Naoki, featuring Brenda Burch
Oh my, is this track awesome. The Konami Penthouse has some fantastic J-pop that goes with its Dance Dance Revolution game, but this track is just head and shoulders above the rest. If HomeStation Magazine was turned into an anime series, this music would be used for the opening title sequence. Come to think of it, I really want to see that title sequence; giant robots, space aliens, schoolgirls with ninja superpowers, Jersquall with spiky hair, Terra shooting someone with a sniper rifle whilst sitting in a speeding Corvette…yes, this must happen.
4. Sodium Hub soundtrack
Chances are, if you’ve spent any length of time in Home, you’ve heard this track — one of three which plays on constant rotation at Scorpio’s Bar. There’s no question that Scorpio’s is one of the great social hangouts of PlayStation Home, with a really fun bartending mini-game that should be copied and implemented at the Sportswalk. Need more poker chips? Go bartend, or be waited upon. Lockwood consistently chooses great music for Home — their Sodium2 soundtrack, in particular, has all sorts of futuristic beats — and Scorpio’s is no exception.
5. “Here To Have Fun”
This is such a ridiculously catchy track that it really does make the ModNation Racers space come alive. Out of curiosity, does anyone else feel that there’s some similarity between this track and “The Power Is On” by The Go! Team? Maybe it’s the children’s singalong. In any event, this is one of those deliciously upbeat tunes that keeps your nodding your head and running around Home, having a blast.
6. “Too Hot” — Swollen Members
Certainly a somewhat incongruous and vulgar choice in this list — it’s like dropping Immortal Technique’s “Peruvian Cocaine” into the middle of a Shostakovich discussion — it’s nonetheless a very prominent track in Home, as it played on a constant loop with the old Red Bull Flugtag video. And, to be fair, it did certainly fit the mindless and slightly seedy hedonism of that space in Home. Red Bull Beach, as an aside, was one of the few dance spots left in Home where you could select what musical track to play next. Now its biggest sound is an annoying air horn that must be destroyed. Destroyed by fire.
7. “Good Time”
Sure, this is a blatant rip-off of “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang. So what? I may not care for the Playground — it’s far too urban for my tastes — but the Playground Boombox does have a couple of really catchy tunes, and this is one of them. Besides, most of Home’s audience was born well after “Celebration” came out, so what do they know? In any event, some forthcoming commodities, courtesy of LOOT, are about to dramatically alter Home’s musical landscape forever, and I suspect the boombox may quickly find itself relegated to storage.
8. The Observatory
Well, it’s not Daft Punk, but it’s certainly catchy. And it really goes a long way towards making the Observatory feel ethereal and otherworldly. The Observatory is a pretty awesome space; freezeball is a surprisingly tricky game to master, and the views are just stunning. But how memorable would this space be without that music? Indeed, would it have half the impact it presently has?
9. The Hub
It’s no surprise that I really can’t stand “Chain Swing” at all. Remember when there was that six-month period of time where every damn radio station in the country was playing the “Friends” theme, and there was just no getting away from it? Yeah. So, needless to say, I was hoping the Hub would offer a better selection of tunes. And while there’s unfortunately no way to vote for any particular track, the music they’ve chosen and put together is really quite enjoyable. It’s interesting that they’ve chosen exactly the same music to play at the Hub and Pier Park, but considering how catchy it is, I’m not complaining.
Again, this is by no means anything even approaching a comprehensive list of all the music in Home; there are a lot of fantastic tunes out there beyond the handful I’ve picked to demonstrate my point: that Home, for its technological limitations and somewhat static feel at times, can be made remarkably memorable by the right piece of music.
January 9th, 2012 by NorseGamer | 11 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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How could u leave this one out… I know… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3wBlz8-Mn8
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! Kill it! Kill it with fire!
Im very sorry… had to be done…But this 2 from Sunny Levine I really do like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBf16E-W3bk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHslFyG6B7Q
or this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDp1zigQB-c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5VfjMhOTQw&feature=related
Dissenting opinion time,personally I loved playing Chain Swing repeatedly.It was like troll repellant,after 10 or 15 plays of it most trolls ran away or were ignored because everyone else was in a group chat,ignoring the song and the trolls.Chain Swing single-handedly kept the dance area of Central Plaza free from random trolls whenever my friends and I hung out there.Thanks Chain Swing.
Though I am not much of a public space dancer, I prefer to use my own music in private with friends, I do have my Grey Gamers meetings in public areas and they are almost exclusively chosen because of the music there, or the mini game and music combo. Our get togethers consist many times of dancing and talking among ourselves, getting to know each other, the true purpose of the club. I use the Observatory, the ModNation and sometimes the Playground to stage these things and the music they provide is always a blessing. I am glad we have some choices and I hope this trend to have ever changing musical scores available in Home continues. I think it would be great if they considered changing them every six months or so to keep it fresh for everyone.
Great article Norse I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Music makes atmosphere! Think of your favorite sit down or even stand up resturants you eat and drink at with your peeps. That background music helps distract you from the environment you just left. Careful choice of good music in Home certainly is important. Excellent article Norse.
Could someone please tell me what song is playing in Lockwood Showcase when the Medusa ad comes on the screen? I love that song and have no idea what it is?
I hope you found out. I’ve been looking for a title and artist name everywhere!
Short & simple.. “weluvMusic & weluvThisArticle”..!!
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could pay for an in-home soundtrack for your personal spaces? One that you could change at will and which would allow you to choose from a genre list. It would ultimately add to the atmospheric design and value of your space.
I love music, no “need” music in my personal spaces.
I find myself placing the dancers from Mass Media simply for their always-on musical offerings. Sure, I get comments from some people who wonder why a woman would favor a scantily clad gyrating female dancer in a personal space, but for me, its all about the music. The dancers are for the most part, subtle. Its acceptable to me for now, as background music in lieu of other options. More importantly, its always on. Believe me, if I could buy a boombox or radio that had subtle, background, self chosen vibes, I’d gladly give up the girls.
My own personal request would be for some rat pack era selections, or easy listening tunes. Even some smooth jazz. Hey, Apple’s got itunes, I want MyTunes. I’m waiting.
Great job Norse! Is there a way we can put the Playground music in a furnace? That would seriously ROCK!