Mixed Identities: Picturing Spanish Music in World-Travelling Games
摘要
World-travelling games are those featuring levels set in various cities around the globe, with a significant part of the gameplay involving visiting or touring across different countries and cities of the world. This label is not an official or formal categorisation, as it spans many different genres like fighting, racing, platform and educational games. However, even though it is not a formal labelling, the category contains games that share a relevant similar sonic resource: the location changes come along with adaptations of the game music that attempt to illustrate the new atmospheres with different rhythms, melodies and musical clichés, to evoke the identity of the location while retaining the game’s overall musical and sonic style. This chapter examines a selection of world-travelling video games with levels set in Spain. It analyses the musical aesthetics of the Spanish-located stages, exploring whether they are based on the customary audiovisual commonplace: the extrapolation of traditional and folk Andalusian music and flamenco as a generalisation of all Spain, based on elements such as the habanera or rumba rhythms, rhythmic anticipations, flourished triplets, the use of the Phrygian mode and instrumentation mimicking castanets, guitar and hand clapping.